Hugh turned 4 on July 5th and for weeks beforehand my husband kept saying to me that we must organise a party. I was initially intrigued by the 'We' concept; was my other half actually going to get involved in the planning, preparation and buying for this momentous event? Not a chance as it turned out! So, as the weather forecast predicted, it was going to be a whole day of rain on the chosen date for the celebrations, I started panicking about what I could do to keep 18 four year olds entertained!
I had never thrown a kids birthday party before, but how hard could it be and how high were their expectations? I never remember being four, do you? I think I may remember my first day at school and then a couple of other days in my early childhood but seriously I can’t remember much before 8 so I figured if any of the little tots thought the entertainment was rubbish they would soon forget!
Anyway, I figured you can’t go wrong with the old reliable, the bouncy castle and gosh you can get ripped off when it comes to hiring these things. I initially got quoted €250 for a rather large looking green dinosaur but was told I could get a deal on it and could get it for €200. Now I have never hired one of these in my life so I believed €200 was the going rate. That's until I was in the make-up room in TV3 getting ready to film and beside me was Geraldine O’Callaghan from The Apprentice who was about to go on the Midday panel. I mentioned to her about bouncy castles and she said her brother Gerard did them for €80 and you could keep them for as long as you wanted. €80 - bloody hell, I couldn't believe it, straight away that perked up my party budget. I immediately got on the phone to himself and on the chosen Saturday a large bouncy giraffe arrived at my house (in the lashings of rain) and it was just as good as any dinosaur! If anyone is interested in his contact details just email me in TV3.
So with some extra euros in my wallet and with the weather forecast looking increasingly worse I decided a back up plan was needed in case the garden would be too wet. So I got onto a local toy shop to ask them who would they use in the face painting world. Face painting is big business. Google it on the net and there are hundreds around
Hugh ended up being Batman on the day and welcomed his crèche friends with black paint covering much of his face and funnily enough the first thing they all did was head into the toy room. I had to practically hijack the kids to get onto the bouncy castle, all they wanted to do was play with the toys we already had. So on reflection a party need not be a big pain in the ass. Stick the kids in your playroom and let them roam around with bits of Lego for the afternoon.
We rounded off the day with chicken nuggets and chips from Marks and Spencer and a big Lion cake. The cake was eaten. As for the food - well a few chips were had. Isn't that always the way?
All in all, I just needed one glass of wine once they were all gone. That's it on the birthday party front in my house though, my husband can arrange the next one! Two words though: Fat Chance!
About Sybil:
Sybil joined TV3 nine years ago after returning from San Diego where she worked on the Education Channel as a reporter and as an editor in a CBS affiliate.
She was TV3's entertainment correspondent for several years and has interviewed famous faces such as Tom Cruise, Beyoncé, Pierce Brosnan and Bill Clinton.
Sybil is from Ballsbridge, in Dublin and studied Arts at UCD and afterwards Communications in UCG. She has also completed a marketing diploma.
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