someone is turning one

My baby girl is turning one year old this November. Though I embrace every minute of seeing her grow, it quite breaks my heart to realize that this year has passed so quickly. We're planning to throw her a little party, a pastel themed one. Why pastel? Coz I like the sound of it - Pastel Party- and I can just imagine how cute she would be in a pastel colored costume ;) Here are some inspirations I found around the web. The first picture was my pastel themed photo shoot I styled for CosmoGIRL's September 2013 issue. Just loving pastels!

pizza party

 

Last weekend, we were invited to a pizza party. It was actually a kid play-date with a theme :) Amesh from Dreamesh hosted and made the kids creative aprons from dishtowels with their initials on it. See her tutorial here. She also prepped the kids with pizza shaped cookies ordered here and free downloadable pizza templates form here. Amesh is such a prepared momma when it comes to hosting a themed gathering ;) I bought along some of my home made pizza sauce and pre-dough, so that it wouldn't take much time to bake and the kids could help us prepare the pizza before baking them. Unfortunately, the kids were not as excited to play with the real pizza's and dug for the imitations instead :) Talking about this pre-dough pizza, its really good though for quick fixes. First, they come in mini size (suitable for party food), personal panned size (just enough for a brunch portion), and a medium size, and they turn out nice and crunchy if well cooked. I bought the minis for the kids and the personal panned size for the adults. Too bad not everyone came so there were left-overs, but happily eaten anyway. At the end of the afternoon, the kids had fun, the parents were (quite) full. It was a fun day!

Images: by Amesh 

the car party

As planned, we threw Fabian's birthday Car Party two days ago. The one-and-a- half hour party was full of children and smiles, especially from the birthday boy. He was really happy surrounded by other little people :) I'm just happy that he had a good time dancing around, enjoying friends accompany, and that us parents didn't collapse before the party was over :D Here's the pictures of the party and also the party details. Enjoy!

Inspired by the Circus Party invites, I attached three flags on the invitation for the kids to swap with snacks and their goody bags.

I made car pencil toppers from felt to complete the goody bags. I followed a tutorial here but made it more simple by gluing them together rather than sewing ;) I also was inspired by the car toppers found here.

The goody packages were filled with basic stationary, writing books, and snacks.

Can you tell what these cones are supposed to represent? Yes, traffic cones! I cut out bright red paper and turned them into cones and deliberately secured them with masking tape for the white line effect. I knew I did a good job when Fabian woke up seeing them one morning and spontaneously said that they were like the ones in Toy Story... You know, the scene where the toys used them to cross the road? That made my day, alright! 

It was surprisingly hard to find checkered printed paper, so I printed a full A4 sheet in black and white checkered flags. Then, I photocopied them and cut them out into bunting flags to hang for decoration. With paper, everything is easier and also more cheap :)

These traffic signs where signs where the kids should "stop" to take a snack, sip, or goody bag :)

Unlike last years costume, this time I made it myself. Just the felt car application though. I cut out a car, windows, and wheels then stitched them on top of a t-shirt Fabian already had. After seeing the result, I think I'll cancel my thought of taking it off. At least for a while :) 

A lovely car cake made by my sister (again). The asphalt car track is made from crushed oreo biscuits. Brilliant! I added the checkered flags and traffic lights to make it more merrier. I loved it and so did everyone else since there was nothing left of the cake and it was only half way through the party!

The birthday boy!

More into the cake decoration than to blow out the candles, so us folks did it for him :)

I just had to ask the odong-odong to come again. I did ask if they had car shaped rides but, no, they don't. 

His line up of some of the presents by the end of the day. Hope the birthday boy and guests had a good time! :)

someone is turning two

Oh, it's July again and my baby boy is turning two! How fast he's growing:) Therefore, I'm planning to throw him a party. Can you guess what the theme will be from the pictures below? 

They said it all, eh? He's in love with the toy and he can name all the cars living in Radiator Springs :) So, it's only fair that I surround him with his 'muse' with a little twist. It's two weeks till his birthday and ideas are racing in my head. Let's see how it all turns out :)

images from google

fabian's circus party

He turned one. And my dream to throw a circus party finally came true. We threw him his party on the exact date he was born. How time flies!  But due to copywriting and translation projects I agreed to work on some time before the party made me miss a few things that I wish I had more effort in making them complete the party. Oh well, no use in regreting. Here's some of the party props and the pics on how the party went. Enjoy!

I made sure the fonts for the invitations were circus themed. I used the Circus, Carnivalee Freakshow, and JFRingmaster Font I downloaded here.

I attached self made coupons on each invitation. Like being at a carnival, the kids were free to swap a coupon with snack and goodies. There were pink and white candy floss (Gula gula), strawberry and chocolate ice cream (es krim) and goodie bags filled with food, milk, and a drawing book with coloring pencils for the kids to take home. 

I ordered the clown cake from my sister. The face is covered with white chocolate and everything on and surround it are sweet treats. Isn't it just perfect?!

 

My mom made the clown suit. She did a great job! Now, I should learn from her how to make such cute outfits in just so little time.

 

I printed these and the had them enlarged at the photocopies. Then I decorated them with crepe paper. These were stuck near to where the children could swap their coupons. 

The entertainment. I hired two of these "odong-odong" for the kids to freely take turns in riding. It was a big hit. The queue was quite long :) I actually had a carrousel in mind, but that was quite impossible :P

The Party

At the end of the day, what was left was one tired baby, and two happy parents :) 

alif's party plan

My nephews birthday is coming up this December. But so it seems, my working and pregnant sister doesn't have enough energy to plan for it. So, I asked if I could help her plan it all. Ofcourse she said yes immediately and I went all excited. Here are two themes I'm interested in. Still wondering which one will fit for Alif, my nephew, and his parents too. But I was thinking of a really festive and lots of outdoor activities, coz my sister has quite a big garden and a bamboo stage that can me made use of. Which theme do you think rocks more: alphabets or circus?

photo courtesy: corbisimages.com