sorry, i wasn't aiming my comments at you in particular. it's just something that's been bugging me because i now have to contend with:
"but X had a party at Pizza Express"
"Y had a party at Ocean Park"
"Z went to Disney"
" A had TWO bouncy castles!"
from my two kids... i have a hard time because my two have their birthdays only 6 days apart so they've always had shared parties. before you know it, there's 60 people and prices just skyrocket!
so, in "retaliation" we're keeping it very simple this year. we've decided to go all out on the birthday cakes and have 2 made and then bbq hot dogs, chicken wings etc ourselves with some mac & cheese and a few other things.
by the way, we did get all of the things for the xmas bags in sham shui po. they are wholesalers, so you can get 12 teddy bears for $180 etc. they have some fantastic deals and i will NEVER buy anything for bags anywhere else again!
something else you could do:
there is a craft shop on sai yee street in mongkok (aptly named CRAFT SUPPLY SHOP). they have craft kits for $10 ea that include almost everything (except glue) for various crafts, like hand puppets etc. At the back of the shop they have masks (that can be painted or decorated), wooden pencil boxes, piggy banks etc that can all be painted/decorated (these range from $5-15 each). Upstairs, they have foldable cardboard cars (again can be painted), and white baseball caps that can be fabric painted....
those might be things that the kids can take home, don't cost an arm and a leg, and are kind of cool, too!
