Bday Preps #2: Aedan Jared's 1st Birthday!

Hah! I'm back again, after a long hiatus. I'm trying to balance work, mommyhood and being a wife 24x7, so some personal-blogging-time has to be sacrificed. I'm sure my fellow N@wies can really relate. :-)

Allow me to look back and gather my thoughts so as to update this blog. Ok, I'm supposed to give updates on our baby toddler's first birthday.

From the first blog entry about preparations (click here), I was able to pull it through in a month's time. (ofcourse with the help of hubby A, my brother, mother and Anna - our househelp. Thank you guys!)

Party Theme - Jollitown. As if there are many choices. Just two for boys, Jollibee itself and Jollitown. The other one was Barbie Party for girls. We chose Jollitown.

Invitation - They are included in the party package that we avail from Jollibee. 30 pcs in total. However, we were not able to distribute all. Still have 5-7 invitations with us. I wish I did not write on them so I can make use of it by next year. hahaha.  The Guest List ate most of my time. It's always a challenge on who to invite and updating who will be attending. *Sigh*  We are targetting 100 guests (adults + kids combined). But we are blessed with friends and big families from both sides so the list went on 160. Wow!!! The rest were invited online via FB and email.

Guest List and Invitations

Jollitown Them for Invitation

Party Favors/Loot Bags - All from Divisoria. Ofcourse!!! So that we can stretch the budget and give Jared's guests (kids) some cool prizes and nice take home goodies.

B for Boys; G for Girls

So what's inside the loot bags?

Total of 8 items per Loot Bag:
Sulit na sulit!
Peso Power = Php 35/loot bag
:-)

Pencil + Eraser Top

Candies in Cola Can and Mini Gas Tank

Coloring Books to match 8-pcs of Crayons

Mini Toys for Boys: Robots and Cars

Jack Stone for girls

Bubble toy and plastic balloons

Game Prizes

Party Crew:
My brother Jett, Me & Anna

Photo Booth - By Party Boothster: We got them on promo!!! Booked last year (2011). As expected "BLOCK BUSTER"!!!! Guests keep on coming back. For a 3-hour packaged, we dearly enjoyed it a LOT! The photo printing quality is very nice and printing itself was speedy! I can highly recommend them.

Loved the Photo Layout. Swak na swak sa party theme!
Peso Power: Php 4000 (Photobooth=3500 + Customized backdrop = 500)

Party Clothes - For our baby, its Debenhams for Toddlers for his shirt and Market Market mall find for his maong pants. His shoes are from SM Baby Company but are no longer new because his Nike shoes from Tito Ninong LA that is supposed to be his shoes for the party are still too big for him he may look like a little clown. :P

Cake - On the actual day of Jared's birthday, I'm supposed to bake him cupcakes. Unfortunately, I didn't have the luxury of time. I will make more kwento on what transpired on his actual birthday (June 28) and a separate post on the birthday celebration at Jollibee (June 30).

Chocolate Cake from Red Ribbon.
I customized the design to have a unique look.
DIY cake candies are from Goldilocks. 

Party Cake from Jollibee c/o Red Ribbon
Flavor: Chocolate

Photo/Video -  It's Daddy A. We are working on a tight budget so professional photographer and videographer were out of the game. Good thing, Daddy A is good at this craft. Sulit din! :-)
Video were taken using my humble iPhone. Enough to capture the highlights of the party. Tito Ninong Raymond (my youngest brother) and Daddy A were responsible in taking videos.

I am proud to say that we were able to fit in within our allotted budget of 25,000 (max)!
Promise, I will give more details. More kwentos on next entry. I hope I can find the time! :P

Good night for now.

Ooopsss! I was tagged!

Ok. I confessed, I've been too lazy too tired to write even a short update on this blog for more than a month now. All I can do nowadays is to post some tweets, check out FB, link my tweets to FB, took some photos and post it on instagram. Blog hopping and blog reading will be of lesser priority if I still have an extra time or two to spend...like now...before hitting the bed.

And so because of me blog hopping, I found out that I was tagged by N@wie friend, Micah.
As a sign of gratitude, (number 1 pa naman ako! :P) Let me do my part.

Here are the rules of this game:

1. You must post the rules.
2. Answer the questions the tagger set for you in their post and then create eleven new questions to ask the people you’ve tagged.
3. Tag eleven people and link to them on your post.
4. Let them know you’ve tagged them!

To answer Micah's questions:

1. What scares you the most and why?
Death of someone that I dearly love. I can't simply think of it. Ok stop na.

2. What do you do in your free time?
Surf the net. Play with my baby.

3. Do you like chocolate?
Super dooper to the highest max!!! :D

4. You can have one of the following two things: trust/love?
Trust. It's harder to trust than to love likewise more harder to win trust than love.

5. If you could do anything OR wish for anything that would come true, what would you wish?
Salvation for my whole household.

6. What was the last thing you ate?
Longanisa + Sinangag

7. Which is your favorite body part of the human body and why?
Hmmm....no favorite. But I like to look at human eyes, teeth (especially beautiful set of teeth), hands.
Why? Eyes - window to the soul; teeth - makes a good smile; hands - tool for creation.

8. What makes you bored?
Idleness.

9. How often do you go online? and why?
Almost everyday because I need to, I have to and I want to.

10. When was the last time you lied and to whom and why?
Today. To my hubby. Told him it will only take 15mins for me to blog this and then I will sleep, but I guess, i'm going to take more than 15mins. :P


11. Tell me about someone you really admire.
I admire Jerry Yan. Ultimate crush ko. :P
I admire Ninang Net. She's an amazing woman of God.
I admire Ptr. Joey Bonifacio. His passion for being a worker of God is truly something so remarkably adorable.


Now, Here's my questions.

1. Why do you blog?
2. How do you view yourself 5 years from now?
3. What pisses you off?
4. What is your most wildest dream?
5. If you only have 24 hours to live, how will you spend it?
6. Think of 3 persons you hate/hated or angry with. (no need to name them) Why do you hate him/her / Why are you angry at him/her?
7. Do you have the balls to say "Sorry, I was mad at you. Can you forgive me for hating you?" to the 3 persons you thought of in no. 6?
8. Can you totally admit that you are indeed happy and contented with your life now? Why yes/no?
9. Do you know love Jesus?
10. How do you show that you love Jesus?
11. What can you say about Romans 6:23 and John 3:16?


The people I tagged:

1. You - that read this blog. I challenge you. :P
2. Micah
3. Suyen
4. Giday
5. Nani
6. Mei
7. Khim
8. Mae
9. Mar
10. Annaley
11. Ayen

1st Parteeehh!!!! part 1

work + demanding baby = busy mommy


Yes! That's ME :-)


I returned for work last Sept. 5. And for 2 weeks, I've been busy already (as expected). Meetings here and there, updates here and there and long list of unread emails that even added more pressure and stress.


Even before I return for work, I was busy thinking of possible party themes, looking for suppliers, and making my guests list, etc. in preparation for our son's dedication (Christian way of Baptism or Christening). I am so proud and happy of the outcome of my son's dedication happened on Sept. 17. I found out too na magastos din pala ang binyag!!! Grabeh!!! parang kasal?!!! hehehe.

BTW, A BIG thank you for family and friends who celebrated with us! ^__^


Anyways, I will write about baby J's dedication in phases. Let me start with my DIYs 'coz I'm proud of it. :P


Let's start with the theme. Basically, I just don't want a typical, blue baby boy theme. I don't want the typical disney babies, barney and baby stuff and so the quest for trendy theme is a bit of a challenge for me given just a month to organize it before I dwell or get too stressed because of office-works. But considering budget, (which is the biggest FACTOR) i told myself that if I pick a theme, I have to stand with it from invitation down to souvenirs. Time + Budget are two things made me juggle If I should make a themed party or just throw an out of the package party offered by restaurants (i.e. Max's Restaurant). 3 weeks before the chosen date, I trimmed down my choices to 2:


1. Simply Blue: A typical theme for a baby boy. I thought of blue Dots or Circles and teddy bears. Simple!

2. Angry Birds: This is one of the current, popular and enjoyed game characters not only of kids but even by adults. I'm excited doing this but is also challenged to add and or bring out cuteness in it for a baby party. I thought a baby theme is all about cuteness, happy, light, colorful and sweet but not ANGRY!!! hahaha. 


I must admit that in order for us to fit within the budget, DIY is of great help and value. And so, I tried to study photoshop and started to look for suppliers and websites that will help me pull all resources I need for the party.

I am so proud of my DIY invites and so I posted all variations I was able to make.

Here's one of the many reasons that kept me busy for the past month.

Ist attempt: theme = cars

2nd attempt: theme = blue dots

3nd attempt: theme = blue dots

4th attempt: theme = angry birds!!! version 1  ^__^

5th attempt: theme = angry birds!!! version 2  ^__^

6th attempt: theme = angry birds!!! version 3. The FINAL invitation!!! Isn't he cute? ^__^

This one was for the tarpaulin!!!
 Baby J says "Present!" :P

I'm so proud I was able to make cute not - so angry birds invitation and banner!!!

--- Proud and Happy Mommy

Updates!!!

Wow! Time flies so fast....Seems like it's been ages since the last time I posted an entry. Well, it's 40 days to be exact. hehehe.

Ok. Many developments has happened. We booked our last batch of suppliers at Wedding Expo at PICC last Sept. 5.

Invitation Supplier: Booked, Down Payment made. We chose Impress Prints by Calliope Printing. The first time I learned about them was from a fellow W@W sister Hazel. Luckily, they were part of the wedding expo. Yes, they offer very reasonable rates. And they were very accommodating as well. To date, they are working on our layout now. It should be done this month so we can release them by Nov.

Ring Supplier: Because of the very good discount being offered, we decided to change supplier. Our first supplier was a good friend. No bad experience or what so ever. The compelling reason was just BUDGET....MONEY! MONEY! MONEY!. We just need to slash funds and save as much as we can. Ofcourse, in due respect, we informed our friend that we found a great deal and asked for her permission. She's very understanding and gave her blessings so that's it. We then signed with My Diamonds. How can you say no to a 50% discount??!!!!!
Happy us, Happy wallets!!! ^__^

Souvenirs: We decided to add tokens for the Ninangs. Another item to match the first one we bought. Ofcourse, it's from Eventi again.

What other activities we had?

• Pamamahinkan = DONE!
  
• Girls of Bridal entourage has taken their measurements
• Adrian had his confirmation at Loreto Shrine in Sampaloc.
  
• Adrian's Birthday celebration!!!! = fun! fun! fun!
• Application for marriage license certificate and Family Planning seminar
  
• A's mom has taken her measurement as well.
• My Bridal gown first fitting = DONE!!! ^__^
• Marriage License Certificate = DONE

The first one happened last Aug. 22.It was my Mom's birthday. We held it at Bagoong Club Resto in Q.C. The second one happened last Aug. 29. The 3rd happened last Sept 13. The 4th and 5th happened Sept. 18 which was so much fun! Hahaha. Hope the other seminars will be that fun too. While 6th and 7th happened last Sept. 26 when Ondoy has spread his angst in Metro Manila. :-(
I had my own share of story about Ondoy. Really really sad on what I witnessed on that day.
The last happened Sept. 28.

Here's to share some pics taken from our couturier's shop, Noe Reyes.

(My BF, Lady)

(My Cadz, Chinkey)

(My cousin, May)

(A's Tita, Tita Nora)

(My Niece, Tin)

The Girls!!! Girl's talaga lahat

Chinx, Me, Lady

I wish I had the time to "kwento" each detail that happened on each milestone we had for preps. For now, just to catch things up, i think this will do. Nakaka-addict kasi ang mga games sa facebook! hahaha! Yun ang reason why delayed ang mga posts. *wink*

Time to sleep! Zzzzzz in a while.