Whew! I'm dead beat! But in a good way.. Tuka just fell asleep after a day of partying and I thought I should post an entry about it now while I have time because tomorrow, I'll be working again.
Hooray! Tuka's 1st birthday party was a huge success! If I rate it from 1-10 and 10 is the highest, I'll give it an 8. I'll explain later why it didn't reach the 10 status.
A few months back, I already have a theme in mind and I already know what kind of party I want to throw for Tuka. Sadly, due to unfortunate events I had to drop all of my previous plans. And up until the 20th (2 days before bingo) I really thought I couldn't celebrate Tuka's birthday anymore. I have already resigned myself to the idea that Tuka will turn one and I couldn't even buy a bottle of coke to celebrate it. I was already starting to get depressed. Awwww. Hehehe..
Fortunately, I have the AWESOMEST FAMILY EVER!!!!!!!! Everything was one big giant present from my fam bam. Our birthday cake was a gift from Lola Lu and family. Our spag was a gift from Lola Mommy and family. 30% of our budget was a gift from Lola Mama & family. 70% of our budget was a gift from Lolo Tatay. And because it was last minute everyone was hands-on in preparing the party. Lola Nanay, Lolo Papa, Lola Mommy and Ninong Andoy were our main cooks. Tatay, Lolo Tatay, Lola Mama, Auntie Ilay, Lolo Daddy, Lola Naty and Ninang Ayek were on clean-up, food preparation and decorations. Lolo Kalbo also helped with the dishes in the middle of the party.
THANK YOU SOOOOOOO SOOOOOO MUCH EVERYONE! We labs you to the moon and back!
Anyhoo, back to the party. Initially there was no theme. I mean everything was random but at the last minute, I realized there is a common theme among everything that is being prepared for Tuka's party and that is --- COLORS! So I thought, why not a color themed birthday party? I thought it was ridiculous at first, I mean all birthday parties are colorful right? So I did some googling (?) and lo and behold, it's a legit theme. Nyahahaha! Lucky right? So, I went ahead and worked with what I have and here's the result... dan dan dan daaaaaaan...
 |
| Our invitation. I made this using Word. Word - ugh! |
 |
Our only decoration for the day. Made from cut out multi-colored construction papers.
Other theme related stuff were: colorful straws, colorful table napkins, colorful toothpicks for our mini-hot dogs, and last but not the least - colored flame candles. Yep. Multi-colored fire. Can't get any hotter than that.
 |
Inside the house, in front of the television, where I know kids will hang out and watch TV, I prepared a mini spread of colorful treats. Here is one of them - pin wheel candies. I plopped them all inside Tuka's toy - a rainbow colored magic spring.
Beside the pin wheel candies, I placed a bowl of nips for more colorful treats. Choco rainbow, chocolate nips.
The balloons of course were multi-colored as well. The pabitin and the food too. Our menu was simple (as always), we had fried chicken lollipops, mini-hot dogs, rice, grilled milk fish, fried pork belly, spaghetti, cake, native chicken dinugu-an and native chicken nga may ubad kag kadyos. Softdrinks and hard liquor & beer follow. The native chicken dishes were delish! Lolo Papa had to wake up really early in the morning to buy, kill and cook the chickens. Well worth the effort.
For the kids, aside from the colorful treats mentioned above, I prepared colorful ice pop jellies as well. They were a HUGE hit among the kiddies. Everyone loved them and everyone took home a few as a secondary party favor.
 
Some of the kiddies enjoying the ice pop jellies.
The kids mostly played with the toys scattered all over the house. Sometimes they would watch some shows on TV. Midway, most of them played outside with the outdoor toys (bikes, mini cars, balls). We also did pabitin. Later when we handed out our giveaways - GLOW STICK BANGLES!!, most of them played inside again with all the doors & windows closed to make the house dark.
The pabitin. Starring Pugakgak. ^__^
With the glow stick bangles.
Making animal faces using glow sticks. Owl-dorable! ^__^
All in all, the party turned out great. The grown ups enjoyed the food (native chicken dishes), the drinks, gossip, good conversations and mini-reunion .
The grown ups. Bow.
The kids enjoyed the ice pops, the glow sticks, the toys, the TV, the outdoors, the water from the pump - Jonshu changed clothes thrice (?), each others company (?), the pabitin. I dunno, everyone seemed to be in a good mood. No one cried except for Henden's nephew Earl. Everyone was in an okay mood. Did anyone cry/nagbisyo? I can't recall any episodes from the kids. No tantrums, no nothing. So I take it that's a good sign, right? It means the kids were comfortable? Having fun? I sure hope so..
After the party was over I decided to take pictures of Tuka's 1st birthday presents. I thought this would be a great way to end today's entry - with a THANK YOU. ^__^
 T
So, here's what Tuka got for his birthday. A couple of footwear pictured above, a kiddie mat, a feeding bottle by Pigeon, clothes (some brand new and some handed down from his Manongs), swimming trunks, a DIY artwork and home made birthday cards from the kids and a HUUUGE watermelon. Of course, as I mentioned earlier, the whole party was basically a gift, everything from the cake to the food to the balloons - everything!
____________________________
So, there you have it! Tuka's 1st birthday party.
Salamat gid sa tanan nga nag kadto. Salamat sa tanan nga nag amot. Salamat sa nag hatag sang regalo. Salamat sa mga nag bulig - preparar, luto kag limpyo. Salamat sa tanan nga nag bulig sa akon, kay Tuka kag kay H halin sang nag busong ko asta subong nga isa na ka tuig si Tuka.
SALAMAT GID!!!!!! ^__________^
|
|
Read more...
