My Lovely Chrysanthemum.

I came across an old video from Scholastica about a little mouse named after a flower. I showed it to Chrysan and giggled as we slid the DVD into the player. She climbed my lap and watched as the story unfolded.

Her name was Chrysanthemum and she loved, loved, LOVED her name. She loved her name so much that she would whisper it to herself, Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum, Chrysanthemum!

Alas, when she went to school, her classmates didn't think it was such a lovely name. "It's so long. It scarcely fits your nametag," said one. "You're named after flower?!" said another. This made school difficult for the little one. Chrysanthemum endured the teasing until one day, she and her classmates discover that their favorite teacher, Mrs. Twinkle, was named after a flower as well! Of course, all ends well.

After that short story, I held Chrysan in a tight embrace, told her how much I looooove her name and how special she was. Chrysanthemum means golden flower, I said. Chrysan therefore means golden and that makes you my golden angel! My 4 year old beamed with pride.


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Mico's 1st Birthday Party: Vintage Golf

The wonderful party date finally arrived! Everything that morning was perfect. It was sunny with a slight breeze. The lawns looked freshly cut. The plants looked lush and green. The tent with the elegant swags I ordered was set up early. The table setup looked great. It's brown upholstered chairs were a perfect fit for our theme. A lounge area had even been added. It's red sofas looked so inviting to sit on. The mini golf courses were installed and ready to be played. I envisioned children laughing and frolicking in the grass while my photographers happily clicked away at this picture-perfect party.

   

However, a story would not be interesting without a villain or a crisis. In our case, Mother Nature sent us  RAIN.  I left the venue just an hour before to fetch my family and on the way back, the rain had started to pour. Rain water was rushing down the sloping roads and gutters. Our wheels would run over puddles and splash the cars beside us. I closed my eyes to shut out the scenery but images of raging rivers and 10-feet puddles kept playing in my head. I had coughing fits in the car because it felt like my throat was closing up. I was expecting my husband to berate me that I should have a Plan B, knowing that Philippine weather was    unpredictable. To my relief, he didn't.

At the venue, everything had to be setup all over again. The rain only started less than an hour ago and they hadn't finished moving everything into the safety of the tent. There were suppliers and guests all trying to fit into a 10x10 meter tent. It was a mess but as they say, "The show must go on!"







                                                                                    Mini Golf Time!!!
We gave out starter kits for the kids. Inside were: a green vest, a checkered golf cap, and black gloves.
I must say these turned out so cute! The rain slowed down to a drizzle but the kids couldn't wait to play on the greens. Armed with their clubs, caps and umbrella-toting parents, they ran to the fields to test their putts and swings. We had a total of 9 holes. Each hole was unique. There was the bridge, the vortex, the Angry Birds hole, the windmill challenge, the traintracks, etc. Here's a video of the mini golf if you want a visual.

                                                                                    
The Food
While the kids were playing, the buffet was finally opened to reveal what the adults were looking forward to: a gastronomic spread by Chef Nicolas Cantrell, winner of Battle Gruyere Cheese, Iron Chef America Season 9, and Chef Chris Cortez.
The menu is listed below. I can go on and on about the yummy food. Did I mention the chef won a challenge in Iron Chef? lol!

Salad and Appetizer

Chinese Cold Cut Platter
Poached Chicken, Pork Sausage, Ham with Century Eggs and Marinated Jelly Fish

Seared Tuna Carpaccio with Asian Slaw

Assorted Lettuces with Condiments and Dressings

Soup

Pumpkin Soup

Main Course

Émincé of Pork Zurich Style with Mushrooms in Cream Sauce

Dory Picatta on Tomato Linguine

Herb Roast Cornish Game Hen with Peppercorn Sauce

Old-Fashioned Beef Pot Roast

Lyonnaise Potato

Pilaf Rice

Desserts

Assorted Mini Pastries

Vanilla Panna Cotta with Exotic Fruit Coulis

Apple Pie with Cinnamon Cream

The Carving Station
Also added to the buffet was a carvery featuring Kurobuta pork belly. What's the big deal about Kurobuta? Well, it is what Wagyu is to beef. Quoting from the website link above:
"Sweetness and juiciness are two factors that distinguish kurobuta from run-of-the-mill pork. This sweetness and rich flavor come from the high levels of intramuscular marbled fat - the very thing that pork producers have dramatically removed..." resulting in a high degree of subcutaneous marbling....literally food to die for. Yum! 

Where's the magician?!!
Sorry. No magicians, no bubble shows, no fancy dog tricks. It was a simple but fun party. They say pictures say a thousand words so I'll let the pictures do the talking for me.  I got the hi-res pictures within a week from the party and I was very happy! Here are a couple of pictures but you can see the complete set at this link.

The Mico Cup. 

What's a birthday without costumes, right?
Of course I needed to have costumes, after all, that's what my company does.
Together with my partner, Mimi, we set out to make the cutest golf costumes on the planet.
Here's the birthday boy in his golf costume by Bumblebee and Company, of course!

Big sister plucked out one of the flags for the mini golf. Argh!

Every family got some picnic blanket time. I'm sending them their hi-res photos as souvenir.
We look like a mafia family here. Haha!

Enderun was a beautiful venue.
Beautiful buildings, large lawns, and wonderful greenery was a definite A plus.
If you want to sample their food, you can dine at their culinary school's restaurant: Restaurant 101.

CLICK HERE FOR MORE PICTURES HERE!!!

Here's the list of suppliers. I give them all A's!

Photographer: Alyssa Fadera
Aila was referred by a photographer I met at a friend's children's party. 
I won't post her rates here but let me tell you, her rates are really good! Get her while she's not yet charging an arm and a leg. =)


Venue and Buffet: Enderun Colleges
Most people think Enderun is expensive. Their prices per head ranges from P550 to P1350. That's the same rate as most caterers but Enderun's advantage is the venue! Renting the garden had a minimum consumable of 35k (take note: consumable!). If you want the Atrium inside (capacity of around 160 people) is 75k. I just used the garden. Their venue and food is hard to beat! Real bang for your buck. 

Green and yellow jellybeans: Candy Corner
I planned to have green, white, and yellow candies in a candy buffet or as centerpieces for the tables. Supposedly, Enderun would give me vases and glass containers but they ended up just giving bowls. I didn't take it against Enderun because I didn't really coordinate this properly. (That's what I get for not hiring a coordinator)


Tents: Tentworld
Elegant set-up. Not your typical kinakalawang tents.

Costumes and giveaways : Bumblebee and Company
Love yourself, di ba, so I give my team a thumbs up! The whole family (except hubby who refused to wear a costume) looked so adorable in our vintage-inspired golf costumes. 


Mini-golf Setup: Bumblebee and Company
Uber fun! The setup eventually got all mixed up because we brought in into the tent then back out again. The kids didn't mind. They just liked getting their hole-in-ones. I used a mix of real metal golf clubs and plastic golf clubs. In retrospect, I shouldn't have used the metal ones because the bigger kids were attempting to swing the clubs at each other. Yikes!

Cake: Little Miss OC's Kitchen
She made my son's Angry Bird's cake. This caked came out cute, too. I really wanted a fondant cake for the pictures. I wish I made it a 2-tiered caked instead. The cake inside was burned and dry (well, I did order it last minute, so no complaints.) but the fondant was nice and chewy. Her fondant has the texture of chocolate fudge. Sarap!

Blonde Ambition: My little Tinkerbell

It seems that girls will be girls, however androgynous their upbringing is. Growing up with her brother and his gazillion cars, trains, and guns, you'd think she'd be a tomboy. And yet my little girl still asks for the most kikay of all things =) Someday, she hopes to be a ballerina. Her next party, according to her, will have a princess theme. She ADORES anything PINK. She dances ever so prettily and my heart just melts when I see her pucker her lips.

Counting Calories

My 4 yr old refused to move away from under the table. I finally said, "Mmmm...brownies." She squealed with delight, scurried out and nearly knocked over the table.

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Teddy's Thoughts: A Compilation

April 12, 2011
My 6 yr old asked if we could go to my mom's condo. I tried to explain the concept of rent to Teddy by saying that Lola doesn't live there anymore because she was lending it to someone so she can get money. "No way, for real, Lola?!" he said, looking disturbed, he turned to his lola and said, "We have an extra room in the house, Lola. You can move in with us."

Golf-themed Birthday Party

My bunso's 1st birthday party is coming up and I'm trying to come up with a party that everyone, including adults, can enjoy. I've narrowed my theme down to Mini-golf and after searching high and low, I've found a company that rents out mini-golf courses. The company is called Adventure Golf. The price is a bit steep so I'm re-thinking my party theme. But my mouth is drooling for this setup!

Angry Birds Birthday Party

Looking for ideas for your kid's birthday? Why not try an Angry Birds Birthday Party!
My 6 year old son loves this game and asked for this theme.
I didn't really want a big party (nor did I plan to spend a whole lot. haha!) so I did most of the activities myself. For those things I couldn't do on my own, I hired experts to do them for me.

Here's what I did.
Below is the video invitation using www.animoto.com

I downloaded the mp3 of the game from a site which I googled.

Video Invitation (A cheap and a great way to save the trees, I say!)



The Costume
Of course I had to include a costume, after all, that's what my business is all about! Here's the Red Bird costume the celebrant was suppose to wear which I completely forgot about! (Luckily, my daughter was able to use it for her nursery graduation program.)

Angry Birds Cake
Here's the fondant cake by Little Miss OC's Kitchen. I discovered her from Mercato Central. It's the same person who makes the Angry Birds and Plants vs Zombies cupcakes. The brown fondant was chocolate flavored and tasted like chocolate fudge. I'm not fond of fondant but this tasted exceptionally good!

Snack

We have a cereal dispenser in the kitchen. I incorporated it into the party by placing a sign that said "Bird Feed". I filled it with Cap'n Crunch which had a couple of colored pieces. I think it added a nice touch to the party =)

Balloon Decorations
I found a parent who posted the Angry Bird template on the internet. She had a lot of great ideas for this theme. (Big shout out to The Party Planner  for the ideas!) All you need are colored balloons, an airpump (if you plan to make a lot), tape, scissors, a pc and an printer. I made the mistake of putting them on sticks. Our party was outdoors and they kept flying off because it was such a windy day. I suggest using string for outdoors.

Revenge of the Pigs
Of course, what's a party without games, right? My son had traffic cones lying around. I decorated them to look like red angry birds using art paper. I also found a green ball in his pile of stuff. I also cut out some piggy parts and stuck them on the ball using tape.

Pig Knockdown

I made these pigs using toilet paper rolls. Thanks to my biz partner, Mimi, for the suggestion!

(Sorry. I can't seem to make this picture vertical.)

Dart Board

I'll have to admit I was running out of ideas. I just purchased this inexpensive dartboard and pasted a bird on it to make it seem like it still follows the theme. I also bought small slingshots which they can use on this board.

Egg Hunt

I purchased a couple of plastic eggs from a local toy store and filled them up with candies. I then scattered them all around the playground for the kids to find.

Giant Slingshot

I attached a garter to an old swing. The kids used beach balls on the slingshot to try to knock down some old boxes I wrapped in colored paper. Sadly, the wind was against me. It knocked down the boxes, even before the kids could launch the ball.

I let the kids wear Angry Bird and Pig hats.
These little girls look so adorable! =)

Well, there you go! It was a simple party but my son had such a great time!

Special thanks to Daddy Jing Gines who took most of these pictures!

Groupon sites in the Philippines

Hayz, sarap window-shopping on these groupon-type sites:



http://www.buyanihan.com/index.php
http://www.cashcashpinoy.com/
http://www.crazydeals.ph
http://www.ensogo.com.ph/
https://www.dealgrocer.com/featured
http://www.localroam.ph/index.php
http://www.beeconomic.com/Philippines/
http://dealspot.ph/
http://awesome.ph/
http://www.plejee.com/index.php
http://kuponan.ebaysocialapps.com/

Greetings and Salutations

How does one begin a blog? I suppose introductions are in order.

Three decades and four years ago, my mom cursed the high heavens while giving birth to me.
I was a measly 5 pounder who could have easily slipped out the womb but nay, I didn't make an effort to budge. I was happy to stay in the womb for as long as I could if not for that doctor who shoved my naked bum into this unfamiliar world.

To this day, I am still pretty much the same. Just as I was not keen on venturing out of the warm sac I was swimming in, neither am I too keen on going on adventures. Oh, I love reading about them but it just stops there.

Hence, Facebook, Twitter and all these social networking sites are perfect for me. Here, each click is an adventure!