JD's Nursery Rhyme Themed First Birthday at Museo Pambata

Hi I'm back!!! Well not totally. I just had a few minutes to spare in documenting this special detail in our lives. JD is one year old! How time flies really.

Amidst all the busyness, I was actually able to pull-off JD's first birthday and my first events styling stint! So just to give you all a glimpse, I'll let the pictures do the talking. Warning photo heavy.

The invite
As what I usually do for my kid's invites, a few cliparts and rhymes from the internet, and here's what I came up with.

The stage
From conceptualizing the backdrop, painting Jack & Jill's well and the Old Woman's Shoe, as well as creating the cardboard tree for the baby, yep that's all me. The cardboard letters and fabric buntings were care of Mama. The Japanese lanterns were all from Divisoria. The pompoms were made by me from Japanese paper and with the help of Martha Stewart's video tutorial. These were all created just a day before JD's birthday (finished painting around midnight). With a little help from my kids' yayas and my eager beaver R, here are the results, voila!

The centerpieces

I searched the net, particularly Pinterest, for various centerpieces. However, surprisingly, there were limited nursery rhyme themed parties that really captured my eye. I just raked through Divisoria, National Bookstore and SM for various knicknacks and those are what I came up with. I just had to mention again, assembly was all done the day before. Yup I really am killing myself (just kidding), it was a break from all the busyness at work. For the flower baskets, I scored great deals at Dangwa and supervised the kids' yayas in the arrangements.

The candy/dessert buffet table and cake

For the backdrop, I made paper medallions out of colored cartolina and printed out JD's monthly pictures and hanged them using wooden clothespins. The carrot cupcakes were care of Mama. Bought the candy from SM supermarket. Containers were from SM as well. The cupcake tier/stand was from Divisoria. To stay in line with the nursery rhyme theme, see the baker (from Pat-a-cake) figurine which I got from Dapitan arcade. It held the scoop and tongs with its little niche at the back.

The cute and delicious cake was from Midnight Snacks. I was so lucky to have found Larisse in FB. I already saw a pic in Pinterest of the cake I wanted. It turned out she was the one who made it! Her prices are very reasonable considering the craftsmanship and the yumminess. I highly recommend her.

The venue and caterer

Daddy A and I really want our events to be a fun and meaningful experience for our guests. We had R's birthday in  a zoo right?! So why not a museum this time. Museo Pambata is literally a museum for kids. Unlike the traditional museum where you can't touch anything. Here, the kids are free to play and interact in the various areas of the museum. One sad thing though is that Museo Pambata does not have a standby generator. And what are the odds that a 15 minute power outage came in time for our party! Bummer I know =( If not for that, I'd give the place a perfect ten.

Our caterer was one of the accredited ones of the venue, Sta. Ines-Pablo Catering. Mr. Andy Pablo was very accommodating and really made his clients the top priority.

The AVP

The songs I used for this AVP were Colby Calait's "Capri", Parokia ni Edgar's "Your Song" and John Lennon's classic "Beautiful Boy". Watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCA0olkEn_Q

The entertainment

In line with our theme, we got a puppet show from Roppets Puppeteers. The Three Little Pigs was great, The Backyardigans was kind of dragging and The Tatlong Sikat, albeit the lesson in the end was maybe not for kids of all ages. Maybe we should've sticked to the classics such as Goldilocks and Jack& the Beanstalk.

The loot bags

The canvas bags were care of Mama's shop. We filled it with story books, craft kits, colored pencils and modeling clay.

Photo/video

Again we went with the very professional Marvin Rosello, whom we first worked with during R's 1st birthday.

Happy first birthday JD! We love you so much. May God continue to bless you with good health and cover you with his mantle of protection. Hope you grow up to be God-fearing and kind.

You may not be able to remember this party, but when you look back at this post, hope you'll know how much love and effort we put in just to make your day special.

Living in the moment

Hi still remember me? I'm so sorry my over neglected blog. To think it's been over a year since I started this. Whatever happened to Ms. Multitasking Me? Admittedly it has really taken a toll. Tao lang po.

However, it truly is a breather to just live in the moment. Take in everything as they come, the good, the bad and the magical events of life. Would you believe, even if I have a backlog of posts since November, I can still remember details of every precious moment that occurred. The sights, sounds, scents, taste and most specially how I felt. My kids' giggles, warm embraces and their laway-filled kisses. My husband's jokes, the long conversations over dinner dates, holding hands (insert kilig). Basically moments of love.

Just this weekend our tablet got drenched in water (don't ask how nalang). Upto now we are still awaiting diagnosis if it would still survive together with a month's worth of photos which I haven't saved (que horror!). Imagine, JD's first plane ride, his first swimming experience, visits to Papa's for his birthday and 1st death anniversary, and catching R on video while singing Let It Go with matching costume and wig! Hay thinking what maybe lost, honestly brings tears to me. But just like what I've said earlier, it's living in the moment that matters most. We can never go back to the past, but the memories will always be there. And even if there may not be pictures to document those. The moments are forever etched in our minds and hearts.

Image from the web

Little accomplishments

Oh how I miss blogging! At first I thought the long holiday break would give me time to tend my much neglected blog huhu, boy was I wrong. I wanted to do a lot during the vacation but I don't know how time just simply flew by. I guess that's really the case when it's spent with the ones you love, which I don't regret.

Nevertheless, I was able to squeeze in some to dos or should I say little accomplishments specially when the kids were asleep. Allow me to indulge you a bit if you don't mind. For memories' sake narin ;)

1) Replenish my freezer stash - because unli-latching kami ni JD during the holidays, my milk supply improved and I was able to replenish my depleting freezer stash upto 3 days (just enough for quick out-of-town assignments at work).

2) "Sort of" finished my playroom project - as I've mentioned in my home decorating/decluttering posts here and here, I plan to do a simple storage project for the kids' room. This was my mom's idea actually. We were window shopping in SM and saw these little easy to assemble tables (parang Ikea lang) in various colors. I wanted really a parang bench with drawer bins underneath to store toys. But she said it's more expensive to have that custom made. At least these tables cost Php500 each only (if you have an SM Advantage card). Then we just covered some used cardboard boxes with scrap fabric, and voila! I also placed the wall decals we bought at SM Baby company for only Php45. Just two more boxes/bins to go. Hope I get to find the time.

Before

After

3) Manage our finances - Daddy A and I were able to take short trips to the bank during our leave to manage our funds and investments. Also, I chanced upon this great buy from National Bookstore at Php115 only. I vow this year to complete this monthly bill organizer and keep track of our expenses. It really helps kasi nakakakonsensya when you see how much you have spent the past month, and you can point out which are really necessities and which ones you can do without.

4) Post some blog entries - okay, at least there are a couple of entries, but the list of backlogs is still looong (see post). If only our internet isn't acting up, there would have been more.

Anyway, like I said I'm quite happy with the little accomplishments along the way. What's important is that I get to spend more time with my loved ones, those that matter most.

From our family to yours

What I learned in four years of marriage

As I've written in this post, Daddy A and I have been together for almost a decade (more than 5 years being BF/GF and 4 years of being hubby and wifey). But having a BF/GF relationship is so much different from being married. It's really different when you share one bed, one banyo, one toothbrush (hehe joke). Most specially once you have kids, and problems that are far more complicated than san tayo kakain or what movie we will watch. That's why getting married is not for the faint-hearted, those self-centered, and those who easily give up. You really have to be ready. Ika nga "hindi parang kaning isusubo na pwedeng iluwa kapag napaso" (not like cooked rice that you can spit out when it burns your mouth - ayos ba translation ko?).

It's not about looking for someone perfect, neither is it about settling for less. You just have to find that one person whom you can't imagine life without.

Just read this timely quote from a friend's FB post:

"He's not perfect. You aren't either, and the two of you will never be perfect. But if he can make you laugh at least once, causes you to think twice, and if he admits to being human and making mistakes, hold onto him and give him the most you can. He isn't going to quote poetry, he's not thinking about you every moment, but he will give you a part of him that he knows you could break. Don't hurt him, don't change him, and don't expect more than he can give. Don't analyze. Smile when he makes you happy, yell when he makes you mad, and miss him when he's not there. Love hard when there is love to be had. Because perfect guys don't exist, but there's only one guy that is perfect for you."  - Bob Marley

Hope whoever reads this may find or has found the perfect one for you as well. Love, love, love =)

Another year down this crazy, exciting, wonderful road of marriage. Here's to forever dubs!