My Daughter's 4th Birthday - A 5000 Peso Achievement! :)

The saying 'time flies' is not enough to encompass just how quick kids grow. I still remember how my little darling was just a babe I cradle in my arms while she sleeps like a little angel - now, I can't cradle her in my arms to get her to sleep, she's far too heavy for that and she doesn't want to be 'babied' anymore. :(

But, no matter how much of a 'big girl' she already feels, I'm still going to throw parties for her for as long as she wants them. They may not always be as grand or as 'pretty' as Mommy dreams them to be, but one thing's for sure, I'll always try to make them memorable.

This year, we were working on a very tight budget, and very little time. We were at odds on whether to throw a party or just go somewhere, and of course money matters weren't helping in making an early decision. So, what happened was we had to prepare a party in two days - two very short days for a DIY party at home!

We're Back and Talking about DIY Birthday Backdrops!

Aha! This blog is ALIIIIIVE!

I was thinking of going into some long winding apology about life and what kept me back from writing a post for the past three months - but well you know the drill - WAHMMY duties was what it was all about. :)

Anyyywaayyys, my daughter's fourth birthday party is just a couple of months away and I have done close to nothing. I bought her a birthday dress. Haha. Oh and I do have a theme and some printables already - it's going to be just an intimate house party (finally.). Due to budget constraints (big school's up for my little girl in June), everything is kinda a gray area right now as far as her party is concerned, but what I'm sure of is she can have a little celebration at home. So I thought, I'm going to give myself a challenge this year - I will plan the entire fab little celebration in two to three weeks at most. Can I do this? Hmmm, we'll find out by May.

In the meantime, as I lament my woes, I've gathered some awesome ideas for party backdrops from the web. For the past few year that I've been looking into kiddie party ideas in the Philippines, most backdrops I have seen were made of either a tarpaulin print-out or the more expensive styro set-up.

Little Girl's 3rd Birthday Party - My DIY Projects - Part 1

So I was thinking which of my many drafts (eeek guilty!) to finish for posting...

And then I realized...hey, I promised a post about my little girl's party for her turning terrific THREE! So there, problem solved. Let them drafts hang on for a moment. :)

Working on my DIY projects for my little girl's birthday was definitely NOT an easy task. I had to do them in between work (I'm a WAHM, work-at-home-mom) - like typing one paragraph for an article, and then cutting paper the next. :-) My workspace was swimming with glue, paper, and whatnot. But I loved it! Oh how I looooved it!

The DIYs were actually pretty basic, nothing super fancy. But they were all labors of love - and that's what matters right? :)

Prepping for Terrific Three! :-)

With kids, time really does fly by...my little princess will be turning three in 3 months!


I can still remember her learning how to walk, getting a fractured thigh just when she was starting to walk on her own (because of a little accident), bouncing right back like nothing happened, getting hospitalized thrice last year, starting to talk up a storm, and beginning to look less like my little baby to more of a beautiful little girl.


But ahhh, enough of my 'dramatic' moments... We all know what turning three means to me, and that is....another reason to plan a kiddie party! Yey! *insert cheers and confetti drop here* I have a feeling that by the time she turns four, she'll be the one to give me her 'birthday commands', so I'll take advantage of the fact that I can still do 'my thing' with this one. Hehe.


We've done the big venue clubhouse type, and last year we did the fastfood version, so this year, I decided to  keep the guest list small, the details more intricate, at a venue closer to my heart... OUR HOME. :-)


Yes, this third one is going to be a house party!


And I'm uber-thrilled because this is going to be mostly DIY. Our home isn't that big to require the help of a pro decorator, and well, the purse strings are tighter this year since she'll start schooling soon. :-)


For her third birthday party theme, I decided to go for a generic concept with the addition of elements of her current favorite cartoon, Ni Hao Kai Lan. Here are some of the party elements which I plan to DIY:

1. Photo display 
2. Entrance standee
3. Photo wall (ala photobooth) I'll just do the layout and have the trap printed. 
4. Masks and Hats
5. Dessert/Candy Buffet
6. Personalized Treats (errr, just the packaging. I don't know how to bake. :()
7. Lootbags
8. Tags
9. And everything else that I can do in my power. Hehe. 

My mom-in-law is a grrrreeeat cook, and she has been, for quite some time, longing to cook for her third apo's party. She didn't get the chance to do so for the baptism and 1st birthday because those were catered, and the 2nd one was in a fastfood, so I thought of giving her what she wanted all this time. Hehe. So food is kinda settled, just need to sort out what and how much she'll be cooking. (Downsizing a guest list in my family is a chore I tell you, that's why I'm so excited to finally have a small at-home event.)

We plan to do an afternoon event, so we'll definitely serve more on merienda-type of food (suggestions are welcome! :-)) 

I had been conjuring her birthday plans since December last year, but being swamped with work in the past month had delayed my getting the DIY things started. But so far so good for February, I've already done some mock layouts, tried making a table-top standee, and will soon start drafting stuff for her photo display. 

I'm just so glad we were able to buy our color printer last year, it's going to make a lot of DIY things happen for me this year! Hehe. 

Oh, must get that little pre-birthday photoshoot on the calendar too! :-) Already have some photographer prospects, I just need to talk it over with hubby. 

Ahhhh, so much to do, and I'm sooo excited!

Will update you guys the soonest with more about the theme and what I've done so far. :-) 

Happy Holiday Preps! :-)

Oh the joy! The site where I do my online work is down for maintenance for the next 30 minutes... enough time to do a quick post! Yey! :-)

Anyway, the holiday season is upon us, and Christmas and New Year happen to be my two most favorite holidays of the year, so I'm really giddy with excitement. This year has been pretty awesome for me and my family, so I plan to host a special thanksgiving/noche buena dinner at our house.

Kiddie Partyholic was on Halloween Break...Or not! :)

After our little Snow White party, I had a 'party-withdrawal-sickness'. I was missing that crazy fun rush of preparing for one. Thankfully, the opportunity presented itself before I was too sad for words. :) My younger brother turned 25 years old on October 28, and since hubby's schedule at work won't allow us to go trick-or-treating, I decided that we'll have our own little halloween/birthday party.

It's A Snow White Success! :) PART 1

It turned out to be a rainy Saturday morning, despite the fact that Typhoon Pedring has already exited the Philippine Area of Responsibility... So our little house party, had to be relocated to our subdivision's little function hall, which was thankfully unoccupied and available for the rest of the day. :)

Our birthday girl Angel (my hubby's niece) was super excited for her party, since her last big one was her first birthday. :)We, hubby and I, were actually more excited than she is, being that we would be doing almost 100% of the party decor. We had such a small budget allotted for this particular party, and it was really challenging for us to put together.

The DIY Wonders of the Online World

It's been a really crazy week, this. But all fun just the same. :) I was able to put in a few hours of party prep 'work' (I wish I could do more of it, it's just so enjoyable!), and those are like the highlights of my every day. 

After weeks of browsing the awesome featured parties on Hostess with the Mostess, Kara's Party Ideas, and the Celebrations at Home blog, I began to wonder, how on earth do they get to do such extraordinarily amazing parties? How much does it cost? Do they have party planners? I have a list of questions that I would love to ask given the chance... :)

Based on what I've read from the party descriptions, some of them do have suppliers where they buy their stuff from, but I discovered that a lot of them...are proud DIY (do-it-yourself) projects!