Y Turns 1

Warning: Photo-heavy

I just committed a blogger sin that I vowed not to commit - it took me a week and two days before I wrote a post about Y's birthday! His first birthday! Because of this, I think I've got some explaining to do.

First, his birthday was exhausting. I think I already pointed this one out in the Sneak Peek that I posted weeks ago. I never knew planning (and then executing) a birthday party would be so tiring! I swear, I was drained of energy before, during, and after Y's birthday. Hindi na ako uulit. 

By the way, to those who sent greetings and excuse messages that time, I'm sorry if my replies were either late or too short. Pagod lang talaga si Davao Mommy.

Second, his birthday fell on Holy Week. That should have given me enough time to blog, but Y's yaya went home. This means I was on full-time mommy duty. Also, I was kind of making it up to Y for almost totally ignoring him during the party (as explained here).

Third, I was kind of busy campaigning for my entry as part of Sample Room's Blogger Circle. I wanted to focus on one thing at a time, so I focused first on the thing with the deadline.

Fourth, just when I already had time to blog, Y came down with a slight fever. I had to take a leave from work to take care of him myself. Yes, I don't let the yaya take care of him when he's sick. #humblebrag

I guess that's it. I've exhausted my reasons; am I forgiven? Hahaha. Anyway, I think you're already tired of reading my words, so I will let the photos do the talking. Enjoy!

Party Preppers

Our do-it-yourself cupcake toppers. Shoot me an email if you want me to send you the raw file!

Homemade moist chocolate cupcakes c/o Lola

Y's "guest book"

I did not want to buy a thick guest book (too cumbersome) or anything that resembles a book. I wanted something simple that I could place inside his photo album, so I made a "guest page" using the design for his tarpaulin.

The house setup

We just used our dining table and covered it with a Mickey Mouse mantle. Please don't mind that it's pink. The photo looks peaceful and serene, but the kitchen is one big mess. :D

The Mickey Mouse corner.

Well, actually, this is where we placed the utensils table (later on). I placed some Mickey Mouse wall stickers and placed Y's Mickey Mouse chair (which I wrote about here). However, the effect is underwhelming because it doesn't fit the chair properly. Perhaps I can find Y a better chair when he grows a little bit older. :-)

And yes, that Y's thumb blocking the view.

Party Proper

Cupcake tower!

Our Mickey Mouse cupcake tower is purely DIY (do-it-yourself). My mom baked the cupcakes, we made the tower from scratch, and I made the cupcake toppers. Hurrah!

Mickey Mouse Birthday Cake

The parents found this Mickey Mouse-themed cake in a bakeshoppe near our house. It's cheap, so cheap I wouldn't even tell you how much it is. Hahaha! I know that's not the real Mickey Mouse, but who cares really?

Cupcake closeup. Yum!

Buffet in the foreground and elders in the background

My sister holding a couple of balloons (duh?) :D

Can you spell h-a-g-g-a-r-d?

We were practicing how to clap this time. :D

I would tell you about the outfit, but I look so bad, soooo... never mind. Hahaha!

Random photo of my sorority sister, Lenin, my mom, and Y's yaya

Waiting for the others

Don't the cupcake tower and the hotdogs scream children's party? :-)

My guests from my previous workplace arrived. Y wouldn't clap anymore!

These are our dear family friends' twin daughters.

I love having children in the house.

Group picture!

Another group photo with my sorority sisters and fraternity brother.

I wasn't able to take many photos during the party itself, and there were a lot of guests who weren't Kodaked. Sayang. :-(

The Aftermath

This photo was already taken at 1 in the morning when we were just finishing cleaning up the house. Y woke up a few minutes earlier.

I realized I forgot to take a photo of the wall decors my sister made. :-)

Tarpaulin and wall stickers and balloons

Christmas came early!

Can you believe this gift opening happened in the wee hours of the morning? Everyone was still up, so all of us gathered in the parents' bedroom!

Candy Crush - literally!

The Morning After

This looks like a selfie, no?

And another one for Instagram!

Just in case you're wondering why Y looks like that in the photos above, here's the little boy's breakfast.

And these are some of the candies and chocolates that survived the crushing. Don't worry; Y didn't eat any. 

Whew. What a day. :-)

_________________________________________________________________

Do you like this post? Never miss out again when you click on the elegant chair below:

Or by entering your email here:

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for daily updates on my mundane musings.

Yuri Turns 1: The Sneak Peek

I'm supposed to blog about Y's first birthday party last night, but I can't write properly. I'm soooo tired! I really need to rest, but I also need to work. Ayayay.

The party was supposed to start at 4:30pm, but well, the guests started pouring in at 6:30. We Filipinos seriously need to change that concept of Filipino time. Y was getting cranky already. As a result, the little boy didn't get to enjoy his party as much because his bedtime is 8pm. Poor little boy. I also couldn't go to sleep with Y since I have to entertain the guests pa. Kaya I told his yaya to sleep with him in our bedroom. So sad.

At 11pm, the last of our guests went home, and we began clearing up the mess. I told my mother I was feeling guilty because it's Y's birthday, and yet I wasn't able to pay attention to him the whole day. Thirty minutes later, Y and his yaya went downstairs because he woke up. I took the remaining of the night as a chance to make up to Y.

So we bonded and opened gifts until early morning. We didn't get to sleep until 2am. Then, Y woke up at around 6:30. Gosh I'm so sleepy. And my body hasn't still recovered from all that work yesterday. So forgive me if all I can show you by now is this collage:

I'll blog about it tomorrow. I'll just finish working first and then I'll try to rest (if I can).

_________________________________________________________________

Do you like this post? Never miss out again when you click on the elegant chair below:

Or by entering your email here:

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for daily updates on my mundane musings.

Birthday Preparations - Progress Checklist

Y's birthday is tomorrow na! Aaack! I feel as if there are still a million things we need to do. Ang hirap pala magprepare ng party when you're working full-time. Worse, last minute na ang decision for the party.

Pero kaya to. Gora!

Anyway, so far, we have already done these:

✔ Printed tarpaulin

It's gonna be an old-style house party, with homemade food and the ever-present tarpaulin. I just made the design a couple of hours last Friday, and it got printed in the shop the next day. Whew! By the way, here's the design:

Pardon the rough edges; as aforementioned, I just did it hurriedly in a couple of hours! #sweat

✔ Bought wall stickers and decorations

My mom took care of this in their trip to Uyanguren. I guess she got carried away because now, we have a looot of wall stickers and decors. She also found this cute Mickey Mouse coin bank that's shaped like a "1." We will use that as centerpiece.

✔ Bought ingredients for the dishes

We actually did this last week in SM. Kaso, when we went to Gaisano Mall last Saturday, we found out that groceries there are a lot cheaper than in SM. There are a lot of promos pa. Huhuhu. Next time, diretso na GMall punta namin.

✔ Washed Y's "party" clothes

This is actually funny because the elders decided to buy a Mickey Mouse shirt for Y. They also did it in Gaisano Mall last Friday. Kaso they were not very familiar with the department store. The salesladies kept pointing them to one section of the Baby Department where all the clothes are priced 1k! Sabi ko wag yun kaya they looked for other options and ended up buying a toddler's shirt. Konti na lang, kasya na sa sister ko. Hahaha!

So when we went back to GMall on Saturday, I told them where I usually buy Y's clothes. There, we immediately saw cheap but orig Mickey Mouse shirts. We bought two, so now Y has already three Mickey Mouse clothing. All's well that ends well, I guess!

By the way, we only bought thin, sleeveless shirts for Y. In other words, sando. I didn't want to buy anything fancy for him because I want him to be as comfy as possible. Also, it's summertime and hindi naman centralized-aircon bahay namin. :P

✔ Ordered cake (to be picked up tomorrow)

I had a lot of aberya regarding Y's cake. My first choice was a schoolmate of mine back in high school. She's just starting a baking business and her price is very reasonable. However, she backed out because she's to go out of the country on the date when we'll be needing the cake. Based on Instagram photos, she's already in Australia now. :P

I had a lot of other second choices of local bakeshops, like Sugar Munch and Joniel's. While the prices for ordinary cakes are affordable, their prices for customized cakes are too high for me! I want to save as much as I can on this party. I also avoided other bakeshops who only bake fondant cakes. Meh. I don't like fondant. Also, how can a 1-year old eat fondant?

My supposed final choice was either Goldilocks or Red Ribbon. I was okay with the prices and resigned to having a commercial cake for Y's birthday.

That was until we found a little bakeshop tuck near our place. They have a catalogue, and they have a Mickey Mouse cake! We bought a small slice of cake, found it to be good, and made an order the next day. Yay!

✔ Rented tables and chairs

We also took care of this last Saturday. This includes the balloons na din. I didn't order a lot of balloons - just six - because I didn't want those things popping up and scaring Y.

✔ Bought ingredients and materials for cupcake

I also wanted cupcakes badly, but given the prices, I decided not to have them anymore. I mean, how can something so little cost so much? Kayo bakeshops ha! You see, we're not really used to ordering baked goods because my mom bakes amazingly. But I understand that she can't bake for Y due to her busy schedule.

However, there was suddenly a change of heart last week. My mom suddenly mentioned to me that she will bake cupcakes for the party! Using her famous moist cake recipe! Yay!!!

✔ Created cupcake stand

You read that right. We just made our own cupcake stand. We tried to look for these things over the internet and in baking equipment shops, but somehow, I just couldn't pull out P500 to pay for one. You see, we're not the type of people who host parties often. If I buy one, I wouldn't know when or if we'd be able to use it again. So thanks to my crafty mother, we made one that doesn't cost a single cent. ;-)

On the other hand, these are the things that we have yet to do:

✘ Pick up cake (of course)
✘ Buy one more dish
✘ Cut up cupcake toppers
✘ Cut up dish labels
✘ Prepare "guestbook"
✘ Clean the house
✘ Decorate the house
✘ Cook (of course)
✘ Bake cupcakes
✘ Make cupcake frosting

As you can see, there are figuratively a million things we still need to do. But we need to work first! Did I mention the party's tomorrow? Aaahh! How I wish these things can take care of themselves already!

Wish me luck!

_________________________________________________________________

Do you like this post? Never miss out again when you click on the elegant chair below:

Or by entering your email here:

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for daily updates on my mundane musings.

This Week's Shopping Finds

I know I'm not supposed to waste money beginning this year, but I believe a grouchy saver is a bad saver. This is because a grouchy saver dreads the day his salary comes! Why? Because he thinks nothing good comes out of it. He becomes miserable. This is why I make it a point to also make "happy" purchases that won't burn a hole in my pocket.

I haven't bought any "wants" for this month, so to avoid feeling grouchy and deprived, I decided to shop a little this week. This is a good idea for me: allot one spending week for each month. It's just like diet cheat days! However, I'm careful that the spending doesn't exceed my budget. :-)

Enough about the talk, let's get to the actual work! Take a look at these cheap but cute finds I scored this week:

Hey Mickey!

Well, this is not an actual purchase I made. It's actually my younger sister's gift to Y, which we will be using in his upcoming birthday. (Next Tuesday! Gaaaah!) We bought it from Toy Kingdom, which had an Araw ng Dabaw sale where a lot of toys were on 50% off. This Mickey is included in the sale. It originally costs around P650, but we got it for just P300. :-)

It looks like a simple plush toy, but it isn't. What is it exactly? Abangan! :D

Moonwalk Harness as seen here

You have seen the Moonwalk Harness in my previous post. You see, Y isn't walking independently yet. I know he already has the ability to walk, but somehow he's still afraid to walk on his own. Also, he hates being in the stroller. So this harness is perfect in helping him practice walking! In addition, I don't have to carry him around. Whew!

Unfortunately, the harness is not on sale. I bought this for P399. It would have been better if it's also 50% off! #abuso

Tons of headbands! (Everything's new except for the three in the middle.)

Here's another loot for me and my sister! My mom and dad were in Uyanguren yesterday (that's Davao's Divisoria!), looking for Mickey Mouse decorations for Y's birthday. They chanced upon a store that sells headbands for cheap! If you're a long-time reader of my blog, you might have seen some OOTD posts of my sister. If you're observant enough, you will see that she wears ribbon headbands all the time!

Here are some OOTD posts: http://www.davaomommy.com/2013/03/its-been-ages-since-ive-been-out-on.html, http://www.davaomommy.com/2013/02/my-camera-less-sunday-ootd-and-other.html, http://www.davaomommy.com/2013/01/outfit-of-day-posts-co-instagram.html. Take note of the ribbon/flower headbands.

Imagine my sister's glee when the 'rents brought these kikay accessories home! They also bought three for me. Thank yer! By the way, these goodies only costs P5 - P25 each. ;-)

Iiiieeee *blush*

Finally, something for me! As I defensively mentioned above, I believe a grouchy saver is a bad saver. I don't have to be a miser. Budgeting money doesn't mean leaving nothing for yourself. In fact, when you budget your money, you also need (IMO) to allot something for yourself. This is what I call "Happiness Expenses."

Don't get me wrong; I just leave a certain 3-figure amount for my Happiness Expenses! :D

Anyway, last week, I was browsing my Instagram feed when I came upon a photo by prelovedbyazel. She posted this photo of a cute pair of sandals from Zara! The photo itself piqued my curiosity, but what's better is it's not preloved! You see, I have no problem buying preloved clothes, but somehow, I'm not very comfy with the idea of preloved shoes. Nice to know it's brand new!

Plus, it only cost me around P450. (Price of the shoes + shipping fee + Western Union fee). Isn't it a great deal? It arrived yesterday, and they're so pretty! I can't wait to wear them!

New sandals!

What about you? What are your most recent cheap "happy" finds? :-)

_________________________________________________________________

Do you like this post? Never miss out again when you click on the elegant chair below:

Or by entering your email here:

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for daily updates on my mundane musings.

Birthday Preparations - Invitation

I know that most parents would plan their firstborn's birthdays months ahead. However, I only got to planning Y's birthday late last month, as I didn't want to go overboard. After all, he wouldn't remember a thing from the celebration. Also, I didn't want to host a huge party because Y's beginning to get stranger anxiety already.

The first plan was just to celebrate at Jollibee. It's not so expensive and wala talagang hassle. Everything would be taken care of by the staff already.

But last week, I realized that all my guests are adults. As I'm still in my early 20s, most of my friends are still single. There would virtually be no children, except for the celebrant. I thought to myself, "Baka naman hindi namin maenjoy yung kid's party? Baka magtulakan lang kami pag games na?"

To avoid the possible awkwardness, we decided to just hold Y's first birthday at home. This way, kahit anong trip ng guests, okay lang. Also, there wouldn't be any food or time restrictions. Thus, the actual planning for the house party began - a few weeks before the actual event.

I did send out this invitation already:

Obvious ba ang theme?

Well, I tried searching for ready-made Mickey Mouse templates, but I did not find one I like. So what I did is look for a background with red and black polka dots. Tapos mano-mano na yung Mickey Mouse silhouette. I just added three black circles, and ta-da! Instant Mickey Mouse invitation.

For the fonts naman, what I used were Minnie and Waltograph. These are both free fonts that you can download from the internet. I would tweak this design a little for the backdrop (the elders want an old-school tarpaulin - okay!)

We also finalized the menu already. Oo kami ang magluluto. My mom is a mean cook kasi. :D

Now, all I need to do are the following:
- Finalize plans for the cake.
- Discuss plans with the baker.
- Look for (cheap) Mickey Mouse giveaways.
- Canvass and buy stuff.
- Basically everything else :P

_________________________________________________________________

Do you like this post? Never miss out again when you click on the elegant chair below:

You can also follow me on Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest for daily updates on my mundane musings.