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.

1st Parteeehh!!!! part 2: The Cake

As mentioned in my previous entry, the chosen theme for our son's dedication is "Angry Birds".

First, I tried and inquire from our trusted local bakeshop Goldilocks and Red Ribbon to check if they have already theme cake for Angry Birds but apparently...None. They only have the regular baby cakes , disney, cars and Ben 10 cakes for boys. And so, the search for a good patissier (Pastry Chef) started. Knowing Multiply and Sulit, I've search and search for suppliers doing customized cake. Also bumped to a theme cake supplier "Cakes R Us" in Megamall whom the owner was very accommodating and helpful. I almost seal the deal with Cakes R Us, however, someone pledge to get my son his Angry Bird theme cake and so, sad to say, I have to backed out and withdraw my order.

I already have a sample Angry Bird Cake that I want the cake supplier to copy or at least customized for us. It's just a simple 8" cake. Not a fan of styro layered cakes! For me, all should be edible! :P
At first, I was thinking of having cupcake tower cakes with 8" cake on top. However, again, due to budget constraint, I have to limit my choices. *Sigh*

I even tried to look of a caterer who can do all the package from food, cake, tarpaulin and party favors similar to what Max's Restaurant offers. But even if caterers are willing to have such package, still, they won't be able to do customized theme cake.

And so upon searching, inquiries here and there, exchange of emails from one supplier to another, I settled and chose Icings 'n' Sprinkles. The owner, Anna Yap has suggested a theme angry bird cake design she already did for her previous client and showed it to me if I want it that way too. With the limited time left to place the order and decide, I said Yes to the available Angry Bird cake design. It is not made of fondant and gum paste molding but she promised me that same tasty and shelf-life quality will be preserved.

True enough, the cake was beautifully tasty. Everything edible. Well, except for the sticks that holds the Angry Bird cookie and the letters. c",)

I loved the chocolate cake. It's not too sweet and moist. The soft texture, just right. The icings are my favorite...it's really so yummy!!! The cookies, though hard (as expected) is delicious too!
If I am to rate, 5 the highest, it will be:

Presentation & Design: 4
Taste: 5 
Customer Service: 3
Peso Power: 4 (At P1,250 or approximately 29 USD, I find it sulit)

Here's the cake made by Icings 'n' Sprinkles

Munching on the Angry Bird cookie after the party!!! :P

Happy Mommy