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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!