CJ's Third Birthday

CJ's third birthday fell on a Wednesday. I really had no plans of giving him a party. After all, they say that kids only have bday parties when they turn 1, 7, and 18 for girls and 21 for boys. CJ had a party for his 2nd birthday but it was also a sort of housewarming for our house. I started to think about a party for CJ's 3rd bday when I was waiting for him at the Mother Goose waiting area (His first day at Mother Goose was on January 7. This deserves another post.) The yayas, lolas, lolos, etc. were all talking about birthday parties. Kawawa naman ang anak ko kung wala siyang birthday party diba. So that night, we decided to throw a bday party for him. Since it was going to be in school, I figured it would be very simple, so no problem with that. Parties, I learned, were usually held on Fridays because that's their P.E. day and they can play games during the party as part of their P.E. class. Turns out that someone had already reserved the Friday slot (Jan. 18) so I chose Jan. 16 (Wednesday, and CJ's actual birthday) instead. We would just be serving food during their snacktime and that would be it. Simple enough. The secretary just told me to bring invitations on Fri (Jan. 11) and she will be the one to distribute it. I think it was Wednesday when I tried to look for Cars invitations but could not find any in Landmark. I only saw Cars treat boxes and decided that I would use the treat boxes as invitations and lootbox in one. Hubby shot the idea down because the idea was to put marshmallows in the treat boxes para mura lang. Syempre hubby said e cars ang box mo, naturally children will expect to see a car inside. He had a point. So I looked for a Cars picture on the internet, pasted it on a powerpoint blank slide, put some texts, and voila! I had an invitation. I had planned to print it at Tronix in Riverbanks where the fee was only P2.50 per 3R but there was no time so I squeezed in the printing into my busy schedule (I had a meeting that day and lunch with my friend Momer/Ding) so I got it printed at the Fuji shop at the dela Rosa Carpark at P6 per 3R. Pwede na rin at least di hassle. I also bought a Cars tablecoth which I turned into a banner. On Saturday (or was it a Sunday?) I was able to buy Cars balloons at Megamall and sticks din. Hubby said he could be the one to blow the balloons using his air bomba in the car. We also ordered the Cars cake at Shoppersville. I ordered the chocolate cake (yummy!). I read it dessertcomesfirst.com that it is one of the top 5 chocolate cakes in Manila. What else? Hay, basta dumami ng dumami ang mga stuff na kailangan bilhin for the party. Naku in-underestimate ko na naman ang party.

Come party day, we picked up the cake at around 10:30 am, then we went to Riverbanks to order 60 spag meals (with coke, bahala na kung bawal yun sa bata, minsan lang naman hehe). May allowance na meals for the teachers and other bantay, etc. For delivery at 12:50 pm sabi ko sa Mother Goose. Umuwi muna kami then hatid si CJ sa school then andar na naman. Hay I forgot to write about the balloons. Okay mga 10 balloons ata nablow ni hubby then nasira ang pang-bomba. Ano ba yun. We had to pay P6 per balloon para i-blow nung neighbor namin na may balloob business. Hehe. Bumili kami ng ice cream eto pinaka-hindi ko na uulitin talaga. Medyo natutunaw na yung ice cream nung party, we had to scoop it pa because I had this bright idea na lalagyan ko pa ng marshmallows, chocolate chips, m&m's, at hershey's chocolate syrup ang ice cream. Ayun sobra na take up ang time at di na kami masyado nakapag papicture. Next time talaga bibili ako kung in cones mga cornetto either that or yung ice cream in cups na o kaya sundae from jollibee basta sobrang hassle. Yung spag naman from Jollibee nagmamadali ata sila di na nilagyan ng scotch tape, ayun may konting lumabas na spag from the styro, sige na lang. Tapos ako naman akala ko dapat ilagay na yung food sa tables ng kids para pagdating nila derecho kain na. Ayun may mga bata di na nakapagpigil kumain na, e dapat pala maghugas muna ng kamay at magdasal. Sobrang daming lessons learned. Party talaga, kahit gaano kasimple e di dapat ina-underestimate. Anyway masaya naman si CJ and that's what's important. Nakakatawa sya kasi when he was told to sit in front tapos the kids will give them their gifts at siya magbibigay ng giveaways, deadma siya sa gifts kasi busy siya sa kakakain ng marshmallows. Hay after a while ang dungis na ni CJ dahil din sa ice cream hehe. Pero happy naman siya sobra.

My thoughts on everything:
1. Nice sa Mother Goose. I like the facilities, the kids, etc. so much more than Child-Parent. 'Nuff said.
2. Do not underestimate parties. Parties need a lot of planning. Btw, yesterday I paid na for CJ's tuition for Feb and March and his reservation fee for the next schoolyear. Junior casa na siya next year. Pina-reserve ko na rin yung Jan. 16 kasi Friday yun, malamang may kukuha nung date na yun for sure. Ang daming may birthday ng January nakakaloka! I'm seriously considering hiring a party person to organize everything at wala nako problemahin/ May budget na lang siyang pagkakasyahin. Kasi sa costly mistakes kung ako lang gagawa e baka mas makatipid kung professional ang gagawa kung baga.
3. Ang laki na talaga ni CJ. How time flies. He is such a cute and adorable and super intelligent kid. Haay.

My 29th birthday/ CJ's first field trip

This is overdue but I have to blog about this. I spent my 29th birthday with my little baby CJ on his first field trip. Cost was P650/head and the itinerary included: Gardenia Factory in Laguna, Lucky Me Factory I think also in Laguna, and Paradizoo in Tagaytay. Call time was at 630 and naawa talaga ako sa baby ko kasi I had to wake him up at 5minutes before 630 (our house is just literally a stone's throw away from the school). Syempre nabwisit ang baby. At ang pinaka-nakakabwisit pa e the bus left at past 8am na. Bad trip diba. May mga tao talaga walang respeto sa time ng iba. Hindi na nila inisip na mga bata ang liit-liit had to wake up at 630 because of the call time tapos ganyan sila. Bastos diba? Ang baby ko pinaliguan na the night before dahil na-foresee ko na na imposible mapaliguan yun before 630 am. E ang regular wake up time nya e 9-10am. Imagine at 630 am di ko pa napapakain ng breakfast ang bata, at di na nga nahilamusan o napunasan man lang kasi umiyak na e, nilabas ng bahay at napunta sa school para tumahan na pag nakita ang kids ayun, tuloy-tuloy na, I totally forgot na di pa sya napupunasan and such.

So anyway, as expected, naurong ang skeds ng lahat. Ok naman gardenia factory, very high-tech. Mainit kasi syempre bakery nga diba. We watched a short video then nagsuot ng hairnets/haircaps. Shempre wala naman naintindihan mga kids hehe. I bought some bread at the factory store, factory price daw, e 5 piso lang ang minura. Nye. Then lucky me factory. Dami noodles (obviously). Amoy noodles kahit sa labas ng planta. Bawal magpicture. May official camera sila at 1 picture lang tinake. Mga 12nn something na nun so ang mga kids gutom na diba. Buti na lang pala napakain ko si CJ ng breakfast sa bus at natulog din siya sa bus. Usapan diba bring your lunch, syempre some people mga engot (including the school directress) na walang food so we had to go to Jollibee to buy lunch. Since gusto ni CJ ng Jollibee bumili na rin ako. Usapan take-out lang then eat lunch at Paradizoo. Some people na naman sarap talaga sakalin ayun, kumain pa ata at ang tagal bumalik sa bus, sarap talaga sagasaan. Hindi na nila inisip ang mga bata gutom na! Ang ending we were able to eat 130 pm na sa Paradizoo. Bwisit talaga. Paradizoo naman so-so, nothing spectacular. Mabaho din. Anyway the whole trip happy naman si CJ eto mga observations ko shempre from the point of view of an adult na diba. Pero I'm sure wala siyang naintidihan na educational dun or anything hehe.

Sana matutunan ko na magpost ng pictures dito sa blog para makita ko rin to as reference in the future.