Her Second Summer Birthday!

For my Summer's 2nd birthday, I didn't really plan to have anything grand.
I thought we can just have dinner with the whole fam. It was the best idea for us since we were so busy with work and all.
So I looked for nice restaurants where there's good food and Summer can play and have fun too.
First thing in mind was 'The Creamery' at Selecta Kids Universe in Mall of Asia.
Besides that it's near both me and Mayce's  work, food choices there are great.
And best of all there's the huge play area where Summer can have a blast!

We haven't tried playing at the big play area, we've only tried the play area for the smaller tots.
She had so much fun there, so i thought for her birthday, its time for her to conquer the 'big girl's' play area.
So that was set. Less than  a month before her big day, I thought I was settled with that idea.
Everyone seemed ok with it. I know I was, but at the back of my mind i know I just might still come up with something, i don't know.
So later on I thought, maybe it  would be more fun if Summer gets to play with other kids,
her cousins and my friends' kids on her birthday!
So I went to check The Creamery's party packages and  rates, it was more or less the same cost as McDonald's or Jollibee, well almost.
And just the same, it includes the food, the venue a few balloons, banner, host and some loot bags.
But it does not include the play pass to Cosmic Kidz play area  which would pretty much defeats the idea of having kids at the party if they cant play at the play area which is practically right in front of them without having their parents to pay. I don't want it to be optional, I was hoping its open for all.  So hmm....
So I scratched that. I went back to Plan A, 'the family lunch / dinner out'.
Convenient for everyone and no fuzz for me.

But things changed when one day we decided to go to Luneta park when we went ut for a jog.

Summer had so much fun there and I know other kids would too.
The place seems pretty neat, the playground is pretty big and kids don't play by the hour.
Its practically free!!

Then, a bright idea! :-)
Summer's birthday party will be held here! Yes, perfect. unlimited play, no cover charge.

It wasn't easy going through my preparations, given a very little time in between office work,  mommy duties. But for the love of my daughter, I managed to put things together. <3

So that weekend that i have left, I headed to Divi for the things I need.
Loot bags.
Miinnie Mouse Sticker booklet
Candies and more candies
Minnie Mouse wallet for the girls
and Mickey mouse tumbler for the boys
Minnie Mouse Balloons, Banderitas and giveaways for the adults ( foldable fan ) that they can use since its too hot outdoors. I just printed the 'thank you note' on a sticker paper and put one on each fan.

So from my original idea, I opted to make the party a little more 'discreet '.
I wasn't ok with it, but if that's what its going to take to make this possible so that's how im going to make it.

So I had to omit some parts of 'the works' i was going for.
No more Cotton Candy man, and Mamang sorbetero.
Had to shortlist my guests, we cant have too many.
And we have to minimize decors.
So ok, I can deal with that.

I just brought in some kiddie set chairs and a long table for the food.
During the event day, we weren't able to set up right away.
It was already late, our guests are starting to arrive, so I wasn't able to set up the balloons
I was only able to put up the banderitas and place the minnie mouse center pieces ( that i made myself Ü )  on the tables and thats it.
Not exactly how I planned it, but it was ok.

I got the food from Amber's just across the park, along TM Kalaw , i got us 2 bilaos of Spaghetti  and Pancit malabon and a few boxes of pichi-pichi. We also brought in buckets of  fried chicken and hotdog on stick with mallows :-) and of course her Minnie Mouse Birthday cake from Goldilocks.

So thank God it went well! Kids had fun and my friends and families were there too.
Most of all, I can see that Summer had lots of fun, and im already good with that.
Looking forward to my daughter's 3rd :-)
I wonder what ill come up with next, lets see.


I hope my daughter is proud of me for pulling this off.

Summer was absolutlely thrilled when we were singing the Happy Birthday song to her!!

She was gigling the whole time, "feel na feel" nya tlga.

This is exactly the reason why I pushed for this birthday celebration. 

 To have more of our friends and family to sing to her, greet her and be with her on her special day.

Here she is, my little Daddy's girl.

Back at the Luneta Children's Playground

One Saturday, I decided to bring Summer out for a jog. Mama Wowa came along too ( my mom ). We decided to go to Luneta park.
It has been a while since I last visited that place. I had some of the best memories
of my childhood in Luneta.I remember my Lolo Daddy who used to bring us there with
his Yellow Volkswagen beetle. Back when we were kids Luneta for us was a wonderland! :-) unlimited happiness!
I remember the canteen inside the playground, those attending the canteen were deaf and mute, and I would watch my lolo order for a chicken sandwich, flapping his arms like a chicken and putting his palms together, which he means "sandwich" a chicken sandwich! hahaha. It was really cool!! He's a 'suki' na, in that canteen, and they absolutely love him becuase he's such a charmer. I just don't remember how he orders our Hotdog sandwich. :-)
That was one of my fondest memory of my lolo... ahhhhh,  Im starting to miss our old man. 


So there, anyway as I was saying, we were excited to go there.
But of course that was ages ago so I didn't really expect much from the place now.
We went to see the Children's playground, I was surprised to see that the playground was
newly painted, the dinosaur statues were soo bright and colorful, and surprisingly, it was clean.
So I let Summer play and run around . We played on the swing, see-saw, monkey bars and of course tried all the slides!! it was sooo much fun! 

I remember the tall colorful slide, right in front of the entrance. That used to soo intimidating for me before.
I would see it as a giant slide and I always get nervous every time I get on one of those tall slides, but once I get off, i would think I was the awesomest for conquering my fear! :P
But now whe i tried it, my butt wont event fit in those slides!! LMAO! how depressing. :-)

On the good side, Summer seemed to have a great time, though she got a few bruises on her knee from running and and got herself dirty, we still had a blast!
Im so happy that she enjoys these things.


Ill make sure to bring Summer back here. :-)
 

 

Halfy Birthday Love!

First time mommy, so i feel like celebrating every moment of my child's life. It sounds crazy but I feel like I can't even wait for her first birthday! :-)
But of course I'm just also very thankful that Summer is such a happy and healthy baby.
I could not explain how much joy she brought into our lives, I thank God every day that He gave her to us.

Some parents celebrates their new baby's birthday per month since they were born until they turn 1. Well I tried to do that too but I couldn't keep up. So what I did, i planned something different and more special. We celebrated her first half year with us. 
We called it her Halfy Birthday. It was really reall fun. Its like a dry run on her actual birthday. But it was really simple. We held it at Jollibee and we just ordered food for everyone. No need for loot bags and parlor games yet. We'll have to save it til the next 6 months. :-)

I also got her a cake, I ordered specially for this occasion. I got her this half cake. I got it for the price of 1, but had it in two halves. The bake shop was nice accomodating enough to grant this request. They said it was a first time for them  :-) My friends were so 'aliw' with the cake and with the idea of having a Half-y Birthday. I was too!
I just cant wait to celebrate her First Birthday!
And im looking forward to other events in her life too! <3

 The whole cast!
See you on the real Birthday bash!
Thanks for coming :-)

my supposed "13th Journal"

Good Monday y'all! i had a great Sunday at home with the fambam, although that's all the weekend I could get for this week. I'll just make it up til' next  :-)

I planned a lot of things to do but failed. ( even posting a new blog entry ) ended up staying at home watching TV and cleaning my car and playing with Summer and Rain. ( Summer's cousin.) 

So I'm here at work now doing this again (just like with my first post. haha! )

I was planning to show you a notebook I got where I can write about anything 'Summer'. I had it last August and so far I only have about 3 entries :(  sad. Im toooo lazy to update it, and also got lazy to post it to this blog.

But here it is. I just had the picture taken this morning while I was on my way to work and while I was on stop to a red traffic light. hehe!
So, I got this notebook from the dept store. It caught my eyes because its yellow and it has gold edges on each page. And right on the cover, it says "Beautiful days of my life" which is exactly how I feel every time I think of my daughter.♥


Here's a photo of that diary. It already got kind of dirty since its always in my bag together with other stuff. But I never get to open it as often as I want to. 

Like I mentioned on my introduction, I have 12 diaries I still keep. This notebook I got for Summer is supposed to be the 13th, but I guess Ill only get stuck with those 12.

But here I am with this blog trying my best to update it  with my new life's little pieces.

I don't know if there's still anyone who still keep a diary, but if I only I could keep up with my busy schedule, I would still like to keep one. I remember putting all of my emotions in there, there was one diary i had, that if anyone read it they would think whoever wrote whats in it is such an ugly and insecure girl. LOL. because it was full of bitterness and self pity :)

But of course I was too young to filter my emotions then. So it should be different now. And like they say, we don't really grow up we just learn how to express ourselves in a more discreet manner as you age or sometimes act more appropriate in public. ;-)

I have read some do's and dont's in blogging, one is not to over share. I tend to break that rule sometimes so I guess this time I have to be careful.

Sometimes, my beau Mayce would tell my that I am "over sharing" on Facebook. but I don't think that I do. But sometimes realize it too late, :-) a couple of times I had to remove a post.

Prolly the bad side of not letting out what you feel. I'm so used to having friends around to diss all those emotions. But since we're all too busy now, Facebook seems to be the most convenient alternative.

But I guess, these things you have to live with, reason for us exploring other things with out the things or people you used to having around all the time. My readers can be my new friends and I would really appreciate a small talk and what you think about the blog. Thanks for visiting :-)

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Precious Moments Baptismal Celebration

The first ever big celebration I had to plan for my Summer was her Christening.
This happened over a year ago, July 2011 and I just wanted to share this very precious moment with all of you.
It is such a wonderful and fulfilling event for parents to bring their child to the Christian world so I made sure that day was well spent with friends and loved ones.


Giving birth through a C-Section wasn't just physically painful but financially excruciating as well. Plus, Summer had to be in the incubator for a week since she had a little bit of complications due to some difficulties during her birth, reason also for the emergency C-section for me. And so, our planned budget for childbirth was waaaaay out of what we expected. But we were able to manage, thank God! We just had to adjust a little bit. But we are very thankful that despite a rough start, Summer turned out to be a healthy and happy baby.

With a limited budget in mind, I still wanted to make sure that her baptismal celebration will still be special. 
As a first time mom, I went through different mommy forums to ask around and learn from other seasoned moms so I could get ideas in preparing this special occasion for my daughter. As I go through these never ending conversations, I stumbled upon this thread at the Smart Parenting website about Baptismal celebs and all. I didn't wanna settle for just any ordinary venue. I know there's something nice and fab out there that I could afford where we could hold Summer's first ever special event. Then, I saw one member post a restaurant called 'Precious Moment Tea House and Restaurant'.

I checked the photos and I was delighted with what I saw. So I researched further and found out that Mr. Sam Butcher, the creator of the iconic and endearing teardrop-eye children owns and runs the place. They also have a main branch in Aklan, in the Visayan region, which I heard was also a great venue in that area.
So I checked their rates and found their packages very reasonable. The place isn't just a restaurant but also a showroom of Precious Moment dolls, figurines and other PM items.
It was so petty. Without a doubt, I found the perfect venue!
I even made a special invitation to our guests, here it is:

  

And with no second thoughts, I had my daughter baptized at the church of my Alma Mater, "The Most Holy Trinity Parish Church" in Balic-Balic Sampaloc, Manila where I finished elementary school and where I was baptized too!

My friends were even teasing that I chose this church just because the church is yellow, my friends know that I absolutely love anything yellow, its hard to believe,  but really It was just a coincidence that favored me big time! :-)
 
So after the wonderful ceremony that sealed my daughter's Christianity, we headed to the venue and more than anyone, I was suuuuper excited!
On our way there, it rained a little bit, I was kind of worried because the reception was a bit far from the church I didn't want my guests to have a hard time looking for it or get caught on traffic but surprisingly our guests arrived just on time. ;-)

The venue is decorated with Christmas theme all year round, and that is one thing that really got me in booking this place.

Christmas in July! Perfect :-)

Here's some photos of the venue.

 

These are just a few of the photos we took during the event. I was so glad they loved the place, it was so pretty and dainty!

Don't even get me started with the food! I really didn't expect too much, but man, it was superb! I am not even kidding, from the soup to the main course to every dish, I really couldn't think of anything that's not nice. It was absolutely delicious! I hope they keep that up co'z people aren't only gonna go there for the ambiance but people would keep coming back for the food!

For the souvenirs, I did it myself too!  
I would love to give out PM figurines but they are really expensive. These are considered collector items so can you just imagine how a small piece of figurine would cost.
So I had to think of other options that would also be fitting for the event theme.
I wanted to give away something useful so I thought of giving out hand sanitizers. 
So I bought some small pink bottles, got me liters of  hand sanitizer, mixed it with some of Summer's cologne for a personal touch. I also made a sticker label with a Precious Moment design and put Summer's face on it. Then I put it in a small little cutesy pink pouch. 
And here it is 

I was soo happy it turned out great! The effort I put into it was definitely worth it and I wouldn't mind if I do this all over again for my precious little daughter Summer.♥

Precious Moments Tea House and Restaurant used to be located at Laredo St. in Palanan Makati, that is where we held the event. But they moved to a more convenient location along Buendia.
You may visit them there to and  check out the place or try their food, pastries or coffee.
Here are their contact details:

Contact Numbers	(632) 887 5252  and (632) 387 1092
Address	95 Sen. Gil Puyat Ave. (Buendia) Cor Osmena Highway Makati, Philippines
Website	http://www.preciousmomentsmanila.com
Email	preciousmomentsmanila@facebook.com http://twitter.com/manilapreciousm

this took me forever!

I have always, always wanted to make a mommy blog. Now finally, after countless attempts to start one, I feel that this is going to be the real thing.

More than anything, I want to make this blog because i'd like to share my experiences, thoughts, joy and even my worries and frustrations about being a parent.

I have a daughter named Summer and if I start telling stories about her, I would need more than one day to share stories about her and she's only 1 and a half! So I will just make a separate article about my precious little Summeroo and let me just continue with my first ever post on my first ever mommy blog. ( i feel really excited about this ^_^ )

So why did it take me forever to start this? Well, like most of the working moms' dilemma,  its really difficult to take your time, or even just find the time to sit down and do something for yourself or in this case, write something specially when you get home. The first thing you would usually want to do is play with your child and spend some quality time with her after spending your whole day at work, and of course get some rest too. 

I am lucky to have my mom and a 'yaya' to help me take care of my baby, but of course I make sure that I get to spend time taking care of her too. Every time there are milestones in her life, I am so amazed (sometimes to a point of having tears in my eyes, lol! ) and I feel that I have to capture that, but a lot of times it happens so fast and I'm afraid that I might even miss some of those milestones. 

Every time I get home from work I always ask my mom or yaya to tell me how Summer's day went and what she did that day. As much as I want to always be there for her, I know sooner or later she will understand why mom and dad has to go to work everyday and that we will always be there to love her and care for her, but there will be some time apart so we can give her the best for her future.

There's so much more Id like to share about the beautiful, messy, crazy and complicated life of being a mom.

From how my world turned 360 degrees, and just how crazy for 2 pink lines on a pregnancy test change your life forever! From a carefree single career woman who drives around town like I have no house, to a mom who has a "little me"  to take care of  and works her butt off with a watermark trace of my now gone night life :-)

This life I thought I couldn't live, is the life I couldn't imagine not having now. It surprises me everyday how I go by enjoying every minute of it, yes even without the things I thought would make me happy before I had a child.

This is still surreal for me. But I am enjoying every day, every struggle, every tiny heart attacks, every big or tiny food stain on my blouse, toys on the floor I trip on,  little sleep and a small bank account. This is my life. And I love living it specially with my little love.

So, here you can see me live and learn all these. 
This is the life of a hard worker, a complicated partner ,  a stubborn but loving daughter ( not proud! :/ ) and a happy mom. Watch how I balance this out :-)  I'll see guys around!