Being a mother on Bali, and having a girl under a year been born on Bali - my second round of motherhood, with the first round being a boy now 13, it is vastly noticeable to me how Bali has exploded with children oriented choices within the past fifteen years. It has in three words become a ‘kid friendly place’ – and thank goodness for that! All About Kids will explore all avenues offered to the younger members of our lives, from babies to teenagers and in between. In the coming months this column will showcase the best that Bali has from activities to retail selections, from the arts to sensible medical tips. All About Kids, is in a nutshell, all about them!
Everyone loves a good party, and organizing one on Bali can at first seem a bit daunting, with the not usually obvious places from where to buy simple party favours or even cakes. Therefore it was a delight to find the below which can source and cater to all age groups and themes.
BALI KIDS PARTY
Bali Kids Party (BKP) is here to help parents organise memorable parties for their children. Each birthday is an important milestone in a child’s life but many parents don’t have time to organise a truly great event with which to celebrate them. It is BKP mission to work with parents to create magical and elegant parties; to minimize stress for the adults and to maximize fun for the kids!
There’s no middle ground - kids parties are either good or they are rubbish - grab any passing child and they’ll tell you they’ve been to both. Good parties keep the children engaged, the games are exciting and prizes do not disappoint. Good parties are set in an appropriate, well-decorated location and lead the participants through an inspired program of activities in which all the kids at the party will want to take part. Bad parties are noisy without purpose, have disjointed games and activities and the prizes aren’t very inspirational. These days, kids are much more sophisticated and are simply not impressed by a ‘do what you want kids’ attitude and handfuls of cheap toys.
Excellent kids’ parties are rarely spontaneous happenings, they need to be properly planned in advance; and to stop them becoming a riotous experience of free expression, someone needs to be in charge. Kids actually prefer to have some kind of structure; a party where they just run wild tends to be a non-event. A properly planned kid’s party is an experience kids will talk about for months afterwards.
Anik Yunita, owner of Bali Kids Party, has years of party-organising experience, creating memorable parties for her own and other people’s children. She is passionate and works hard to ensure that all her guests are included in the fun. From invitations and to decorations and goodie bags, everything is well planned and she creates a complete party experience. At an aeroplane-themed party last year, the invitations were plane tickets, the birthday boy, his best friend and his sisters were pilots and air-hostesses, the piñata was a plane and the goodie bags contained an aeroplane cookie, a wooden model plane, aircraft themed notepads and pencils with an activity book of fun plane colouring pictures and dot-to-dot’s. Games are planned to match the age group of the partygoers with prizes to match.
Bali Kids Party is based in Kerobokan, not far from Sunrise School and close to the tourist areas of Seminyak and Canggu; but Anik is happy to travel anywhere from Bingin to Ubud and beyond. Characterised by Anik’s marvellous creative expression, a Bali Kids Party event brings Western professional expertise to our island. Anik’s parties are joyous and reflect the enormous amount of planning which has gone into them. Late nights baking cookies for goodie bags, creating and filling piñata’s, creating the props for games and designing costumes. She specialises in creating cakes to fit in with the chosen theme, making child-friendly classic Victoria Sponge or chocolate cakes and decorating them with colourful icing sugar designs. A particular favourite for girls is the Barbie Doll cake with a real doll with a pink cake skirt! Boys seem to like cakes in the shape of aeroplanes or made from chocolate and garnished with fresh strawberries!
Anik really cares that the young clients in her charge have a great time and she has brought joy to kids aged from two to young teenagers. Parties usually begin mid-afternoon and run for three or four hours. After the guests have arrived, the games and activities begin. These are a mix of traditional, Pass-the-Parcel, Musical Chairs and Piñata; and the novel – Water Balloon Relay, Themed Quiz, Cookie Decorating and crafting Sock Puppets. Anik is a skilled exponent of the art of Face Painting and only uses Snazaroo non-toxic face paints. She also has contacts whom can provide Magic Shows, Traditional Balinese Kecak or Frog Dances and Bouncy Castles. There can be any number of guests, more than fifteen or so and Anik will draft in other mums to assist and make sure that the children are properly supervised. This allows parents to leave their kids with confidence or sit with the other adults and have a cold wine or beer!
Parties are planned in conjunction with the parents and range from the simple and inexpensive to lavish productions. The venue could be your rented villa or hotel garden, your own home or, if required, Anik is happy to host parties in the garden of her own home. It is best that she is given a couple of weeks or more notice but in emergencies, a party can be organised in a few days. She understands that a birthday is a milestone in a child’s life and the quality of the party affects the standing of the child within his or her peer group. Kids measure their lives in milestones and a Bali Kids Party birthday will be one of the most significant.
Check her website for further details:
www.BaliKidsParty.com
or call/text her on 08123 687 940.
With this your comments would be welcomed if you endeavour to follow the lead, or, if you have discovered something that you found particularly amazing. It’s important to spread the news on anything positive, as time and experiences are precious. Please forward to me on rubyinbali@gmail.com.
