Happy 7th Birthday Kien-Kien!!!

Here's an almost 3 minutes recap of her happy 7th birthday.

Kien's 7th Birthday - Preparation Week 3-6 of 6

The night before Kien's birthday we transported every props we can to my husband's office building, where the event will take place. I got busy with work and didn't have time to post weekly. Instead I'm updating you in one go.

Party Favors and Table Decorations

3rd Week. We completed our trip to Divisoria to buy items for out games and lootbags. We decided that the lootbags will only have candies in them and no toys anymore.

I asked Kien if the girls will like creepy creatures. She said yes. I also added candy ponytails and rubber bands. I'm sure the mommies will like it. This morning in Kien's school, I saw some a girl wearing our give away.

Game Prizes. The toys were wrapped and color coded. The purple are for boys and the striped oranges for the girls.

 4th Week. I still needed something for the boys to wear so it's not going to be very princessy for them. So I tried looking for tutorials on how to do a pirate hat.

Pirate Hat Prototype 1. I found this suggestion from youtube, but didnt work because the head wont fit and it used half of my cartolina.

Pirate Hat Prototype 2. This one's easier to make. I decided I'm going to cut out my own hat and put studs in it. I made 16 hats out of 4 cartolinas. This project cost me P100.00

Loot Bag. I've been obsessing on finding the right purplish bag. I know a little bit of photoshop and made this instead. The final design has a bigger rococo detail on top. This is made out of lilac colored bondpaper, you can buy for P30.00. Made 10 of these.

5th Week. Nothing much happened on the fifth week. The tower for the castle needed shingles and that was it for that week. 

My husband fashioned this from scrap boxes. I wanted fish scales shingles so he made me do the shingles.

6th Week. I promised myself that everything will be complete on the 5th week, until I remembered the games!  This is the week when I will follow up my cake, food, tables and chairs for the kids, and face painting.

Games. Pin the Pirate. We have extra cartolina, and my husband draws. Combine both, cost free props!

The cupcakes at red ribbon cost P450.00 for 6 cupcakes. I want 24 cup cakes. cant spend that much, so we baked. The only expensive ingredient was the Goya chocolate I used.

Excuse the graffiti on the wall. Those were sprayed paint the week before this event by Vynil on Vynil. They're work of art!

Those balloons on the floor have been popped by my cute son when I came back to the venue. I love those pompoms too! (those were salvaged from 2 different events)

Castle. The bar B-Side who lent us their chairs and tables have high tables too. That is where we stapled the castle walls. Thank you B-Side!

 The Happy Guests.

We are so grateful to a lot of people have helped and lent us their personal and business stuff just so Kien can have this one happy party. I want to list them all!


Lola Shirley and Lola Baby - For watching over Kimbo while all the Ate's were busy helping with the prep. Also for the extra food you prepared.
Lolo Chris - Photo Booth
Tita Pet - For Hosting the Party
Tita Pet's Friend - For the purple mantles
Tsang - for bringing chicken
Te Willette - For the Chaffing and plates
Rae & Steph - for the Pompoms and great ideas
Malinao & Jimenez Family for helping clean up all the mess we made that day.
Kim - the father of my kids. For spoiling us at this party. Kien had everything she wanted, even her face on the tarpaulin :)

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Kien's 7th Birthday - The Preparation Week 2 of 6

Nagging works!!! (Joke)
My loving husband is game with the "not-renting-out-any-props" idea. He suggested we make towers as entrance to the party square. There were so many sources of inspiration from the internet. So many I was almost tempted to force myself in doing a big fortress type venue. I simply looked at our bank statement and had a reality check. Budget!

Gladly, our friend Stephanie Sy, had so many DIY ideas that looked easy to do and materials are affordable.  

 Martha Stewart pompom instruction said, use 8 papers, which I did. But it seemed my pompom is a little weak.

Steph and Rae had better pompoms. Good thing I kept it and had templates to follow now.

This Glue!
I liked using the piping type elmer's glue, but this one was easier to spread without using my fingers. (or maybe I'm really just sloppy handling glue)

We went to divisioria to look for loot bags that will fit the theme of the party. I didn't want to use the plastic bags anymore. To no avail.

We went to this place called Chocolate Lovers in Quezon City. The prices were reasonable and we even found a treasure box. 10pcs for Php59.00.It was easier to shop for boxes (almost complete) There were also baking supplies and goodies for me to splurge on :)

Now the purse...I need to do something about the purse as the theme calls for purple and pink. They only have red purse. This might have to be a back-up loot bag.

At the first week of preparation, it was really overwhelming to know that there were so many things to do. A lot have not been crossed out of my list. I even bought a new planner for this! As time goes by, it now seemed easy.

My eldest sister said, she'll bring roasted chicken. My other sister will be hosting the party program and the games.  My mother-in-law will cook her 2 famous dishes. My mama, I'm forcing to cook shanghai.  And I am still counting future volunteers! ;) wink wink!

Kien's 7th Birthday - The Preparation Week 1 of 6

Kien's 7th birthday is 6 weeks from now.  I had no idea how to get things started.  All I know is that I want some pompoms that Daphne Paez had on her daughter's party  Fancy Nancy themed party. (That's a book Kien reads). I read Ms. Paez blog about the party & ordered a cake. But that was it.

Look at the pompoms on top!
Rae's party setting is fabuloso!

Luckily, I met the mother of Kien's classmate, Rae.  Rae hosted her daughter's 6th birthday.  We live in the same building with small units, yet she managed to make the party minimal & fabulously decorated.

She moved the furnitures to the bedrooms. Rented chairs and tables. Gave activities to kids. Gave me ideas and pompoms!!!

If I can make that work in my house I'll be able to save cash on the venue. That was my thought. 

Jumpstart
Ok. Ok. So my mind kept rolling from then on. How do I move things around in my house? Sure I can do this...Until ideas came to mind. How about use that huge vacant space in front of my husband's office? Business partners said YES! How about the chairs and tables from that night club/bar, they're close during daytime. YES! How about table clothes? Got an angel for a sponsor. YES!

The List
Martha Stewart in her website said, 6 weeks of preparation. Mine is not in her order, but I will try to do what I can in 6 weeks.

The list. 1st draft.

Of course I made a list. 6 pages.  I have a doodle of where the chairs and tables are gonna go, castle, pompoms. A list of guests (limited as in school classmates). A list of games, food, activities, prizes.

DIY's
I'm telling you, I'm very lucky.  One of our friends (Ms. Stephanie SY, also my husband's business partners) have volunteered to do the decorations.  Well she said, she likes DIY projects, doesnt actually do them, but will look for people to do the job. Sounds fine! I like it!

The DIY idea is not just about saving on cash, but also putting in that extra special love on this birthday project. Those first 4 birthdays that I hosted for my daughter I remember every single detail because I cooked, I researched, I worked my heart out for. The 5th & 6th, it was so simple, it was in school. All I can remember is I ordered from Jollibee and Red Ribbon bakeshop.

You know how you've been given so many ideas, you read too and research. Then suddenly you get this pumped to work on the project with enthusiasm with ideas of your own. Here's some of mine...

Princess Hats

Invitation Card for Boys. Look at the Pirate!

Invitation Card For Girls
It says Pirates & Princesses.

I had the courage to do all those because my daughter is right by my side to approve or reject anything I'm working on. That invitation card has been revised 3 times!  Thank you for the WWWs and thank you for friends!

There will be no clown or magicians planned to the party. The sorbetero has been scrapped too. The face painting is a definite. Our friend Steph have so many fun activities thought of. Hopscotch and whiteboards. Castle cutouts made from cardboards. I CANT WAIT!!!!  These are the things that I'm very much on board with because it says fun but not gastos. It's like having a party planner only better.