Cagalli's Corner

I posted this at n@wie yahoogroups. Maybe some of you will find it useful:

THEME: Harry Potter!

When I first mentioned the Harry Potter theme, a lot were saying it wasn't ideal for a birthday party cause it's a little dark. It's more appropriate for a halloween party. Still, we pushed through with it cause I love the Harry Potter movies and I know we could do a lot of things with this theme. Happy naman ako sa naging result nung party. We tried to make it super Harry Potter talaga. We even played the Harry Potter soundtrack as background music, hehehe.

VENUE: Casa Milan Clubhouse

This is not our first choice for the venue - not because it isn't pretty - but because it's a little expensive. We wanted to get Green Meadows Clubhouse, or Acropolis, or Corinthian Hills, but they were all already booked when I started planning. I totally forgot that November is peak wedding season! Anyway, it's a good thing my uncle knew someone from Casa Milan and got us a 50% discount. Asthetically, I really liked Casa Milan. It has a landscaped entrance and the main hall is air conditioned. We also rented out the terrace area for the Diagon Alley and the inflatable jumper castle. The subdivision was also near ours so it was easier to bring things back and forth from our house.



CATERER (ADULT FOOD): Verleo

What can I say? We loved Verleo! I only heard of them through the ravings at N@W, and I'm so glad I booked them. A lot of my guests commented on how great the food was. They didn't know it was not expensive at all. And it was abundant! I'm definitely getting them again in the future.

Here's what I got from them: Japanese Fried Rice, Birthday Noodles, King Dao Spareribs, Beef Teppanyaki (on the spot), Grilled Prawns (on the spot), Fish Fillet with Cream Corn, Halo Halo with Leche Flan.



KIDDIE FOOD: Grandma, Lola Pearl, and Fairview Lechon

Since the kiddie buffet will only serve around 50-60 kids and the dishes are much simpler to prepare, we decided to prepare it ourselves instead of getting from the caterer. Thanks to my mom's and tita Pearl's great cooking, we served spaghetti, fried chicken fillet and chicken lollipop. We also ordered pork barbeque at Fairview Lechon - a family long-time favorite. For drinks, we bought Zesto Orange from the supermarket. Verleo provided the kiddie buffet table, kiddie tables and chairs, and served the kiddie buffet.

CUPCAKES: Tita LA

My sister baked yummy chocolate-chip cupcakes, topped with chocolate icing and merengue colorful witch hats. It was a great complement to the cake and a yummy addition to the kiddie desserts.



HARRY POTTER CAKE: c/o fellow n@wie Jhoanne (polkadots)

The cake was delicious! We got the chocolate flavor and it was moist and not too sweet, even after several days. The Harry Potter topper was also nice. My aunt wanted to bring it back to the province to show to the kids there, hahaha.

Jhoanne was really great! She was so helpful and has a lot of great ideas. I also got my Main Hall Tarpaulin, Styro Happy Birthday Sign, Food carts and kiddie couches from her.



FOOD CARTS (Cotton Candy, Ice Cream, Snow Cone): c/o fellow n@wie Jhoanne (polkadots)

We put the food carts at the Diagon Alley and it was a hit. I saw a lot of the adults eating cotton candy and ice cream. I was only able to try the snow cone though. It was good that we had them cause I think we ran out of juice and it was a great thirst quencher.

KIDDIE COUCHES: c/o fellow n@wie Jhoanne

The kiddie couches were really nice! I love the Harry Potter picture on it and the color (black). It wasn't cheap looking at all. Kalli loves it too! I saved one couch for her and she carries it all over the house.

A lot of the guests wanted to have one, but I only ordered 10. The couches were the House prize. The kids were sorted into the 4 Hogwarts houses and they earned tokens (house points) by joining game booths and the games that Wanlu prepared. The couches were great incentives for the children to participate.



HOGWARTS TARPAULIN AND STYRO HAPPY BIRTHDAY SIGN: c/o fellow n@wie Jhoanne

One of the problems I had with tarps in the past was that it almost always didn't show the correct color, specially for gold and orange. I was worried that the big castle tarp will have the same problem. I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't so. The colors were vivid and correct, and you wouldn't notice the place where they connected the 2 tarps to create the 1 big tarp. The Styro sign was also very nice :)



HOST, MAGICIAN, VENTRILOQUIST - Wanlu

I heard that Wanlu was great that is why I booked him, though I haven't seen him perform before. And WOW, he really was great! He really knows how to capture the audience. He gave life to the party, and his magic show was awesome! The puppets were also very entertaining. We laughed and laughed and laughed, hehehe.





GLITTER TATTOO - c/o Wanlu

The glitter tattoo station was a hit. Even though it was stationed at the Diagon Alley at the clubhouse terrace and the show has already started inside the main dining, the guests were still going out for the Glitter Tattoo. Too bad I wasn't able to get one :( The kids and adults loved it.

GAME BOOTHS (Bull's Eye, Hoop-a-loop, Shoot that Ball) - www.kiddie-party.com

I got the game booths from Kiddie Party because they had the best package price. I also got the standees from them. I am quite happy with what I got. What really surprised and WOWed me was that they were SO VERY helpful! They came early to set up, around 11am. We were also there already cause we were doing the decorating and balloon columns ourselves. We didn't really have any experience with balloon decors and ended up making sloppy balloon columns, hahaha. Truth is we were really pathetic. I guess the kiddie party team noticed that too cause all of a sudden they started making the balloon columns and doing the decors! They were really awesome and I was so thankful :)





STANDEES (Harry Potter, Hermoine and Ron, Hagrid) - www.kiddie-party.com

Instead of getting a styro backdrop, I opted for a big tarpaulin backdrop (c/o Jhoanne, see above) and some Harry Potter standees from kiddie-party. They were cheaper alternatives and worked quite well in setting up the theme too. The guests loved the standees. A lot of them had their pictures taken with them, some even staying after the party just to take pictures :)







HARRY POTTER LOOT BUCKETS: DIY

The loot buckets were a hit, if I say so myself, hahaha. Even some of the adults wanted to get one. It was really a labor of love cause we made it ourselves and it was kinda hard to do! But in the end, I was more than satisfied with it :) We put Harry Potter things in it from Divisoria (pen, sticker, bubble, ruler, keychain, puzzle cube), and some toys and candies.







ADULT GIVE-AWAY (RUM BALLS): Tita LA

My sister made the Rum Balls and we packaged it in small pretty tin cans. If you like rum cakes, you'll love these. I'm so addicted to them! Some guests started ordering after they tasted it from the party. Visit http://www.zoto.com/iyaleo/albums/12924 to see the packagings and other flavors.(Shameless plugging here!)





INVITATIONS: DIY

I'm also very happy with how the invitation turned out. I did the layout and we just printed it at home. I had to test different papers cause I wanted to make it like one of those greeting cards. I think I ended up using the board photo paper from CDR King. My sister and hubby had to cut it for me though cause I couldn't cut straight to save myself, hahaha. The rolled parchment paper attached to the owl's feet contained the invited kid's acceptance letter to Hogwarts. We tried to make the wordings pretty authentic, hahaha.







INFLATABLE CASTLE: MyJumper

My sister found this supplier via sulit.com. I found their rates and terms quite reasonable and they were easy to talk to. My only problem was that they were a little late cause they got lost on the way to the clubhouse. Some of the guests were already there when they were setting up. Another thing, I didn't think the jumper was used much during the party cause I had it set-up outside (at Diagon Alley) and the show was inside. I believe they preferred to watch Wanlu more than play in the jumper, hahaha. It was good that they stayed late though cause some of the kids were able to play after the show. My baby girl loved it too :)




CONTEST PRIZES: Divisoria

I think I went overboard with the prizes, hahaha. I believe I went 3 or 4 times to divisoria to buy them. But it was so nice seeing all the toys on the table. Really great incentive for the kids to join the games. I also had really nice best costume prizes to encourage them to buy scarves and hats and brooms and robes from the Diagon Alley (with their play money of course) - that is if they didn't come in costume.

KALLI's GOLDEN SNITCH COSTUME: Bengie Agustin

Tita Bengie is our suki designer/mananahi. She was the one who did my wedding and entourage gowns. We're always happy with her work, and Kalli's costume was no exception.
ENTRANCE TARPAULIN: Ninong JunI made the layout of the Tarp and Kalli's ninong printed it. I love Kalli's pictures in the tarp. She looked so happy in them :)



DIAGON ALLEY ITEMS and PROPS

SCARVES: Grandma

My mom made scarves (around 10 for each house) for the Diagon Alley. Again that was a labor of love since she had to stay up pretty late some nights just to finish them. The guests loved them - even the adults. Everywhere, you'd see them wearing the scarves :)

HATS and BROOMS: DIY

I wanted the brooms to look like those in the harry potter movies so we used twigs instead of the "walis tingting". I got the twigs from divisoria. I made the hats from cartolinas and felt paper (for the sorting hat).





ROBES: Becky

We bought black cloth from divisoria and had our neighbor mananahi sow them into toga-like robes. We intended to do it ourselves but we just ran out of time.

WANDS: Divisoria and DIY

I bought some harry potter toy wands from divisoria. Others, I just made from sticks, hahaha. We put them in DIY boxes and "sold" them at the Olivander's shop :)

PHOTOGRAPHER: Us? and friends

We didn't hire any photogapher since my husband and I do photography ourselves and we thought we could handle it. Unfortunately, we got so busy mingling and looking into the details that we forgot to take pictures! I was sooooo sad about it given that we spent so much time and effort on the details of the party :( But good thing we had some friends who were there and took some pictures. We didn't have a video though :(

Anyway, here are some pictures of the party:
Party Details:
http://iyaleo.smugmug.com/Birthdays/KalliTurns1/Kalli-Turns-One-Party-Details/18334378_LZ94vh#1411897675_c3pRH9J
Party Pictures:
http://iyaleo.smugmug.com/Birthdays/KalliTurns1/Kalli-Turns-1/18337705_wBcKsS#1412348975_7v4x3fz

Here are the links to the photos we have so far. Enjoy!


Party Details: http://www.zoto.com/iyaleo/albums/12844/

Pictures by Daddy: http://www.zoto.com/iyaleo/albums/12725/

Pictures by Tito Angie: http://www.zoto.com/iyaleo/albums/12816/

Pictures by Ninang Tetet: http://www.zoto.com/iyaleo/albums/12836/

Below are Kalli's latest tricks....

1. Recently she has learned to point to her nose when we say Where's your nose?
   
2. Wonderwoman! She would try to put her hands on her hips... but they always end up on her stomach cause her arms are still short. I just love this trick - it's so funny :)


3. Remember her lion trick? What did the lion say and she would try to roar. Well, she has also learned the What did the cat say. The cat sound that she makes is a higher note than the lion. And just for fun, we also taught her What did grandpa Rizal say since her grandpa Rizal is always so loud. Grandpa Rizal sounds like the lion, hehehe.


4. She has learned to Bless! She will take your hand and touch it to her forehead. See, magalang baby ko! :)


5. When we say I'm thinking, she would put her point finger on her temple and tilt her head a little. Sometimes she misses and ends up putting her point finger in her ear, hahaha.

Kalli has also learned to do other stuff like...

1. She can walk now! Oh right, I already told you that...


2. But did you know that she has also learned to climb up and down? Yup, she climbs up and down our sofa when I put a big pillow below it. She's also been climbing up and down our bed - although it is still too high for her and thus needs assistance. She's so determined though, I'm scared she might fall.


3. She's eating on her own now. Well, ok, maybe not all kinds of food yet. But I usually cut her biscuits to small pieces and put them on her table during merienda. She would then eat them on her own :) She can also wipe her own mouth with her bib if you say Wipe your mouth. And she has always known how to drink from her own cup. See, my baby's independent now ;) Only thing is that she throws everything on the ground when she's finished with them - like her cup and bib and food :( She's also pretty choosy with her food lately.

Ok, that's it for now. I may have forgotten a few others but I'll tell you about them when I remember :)

Oh, and below is a picture of Kalli that her daddy submitted for his photography class. The instructor loved it. Well of course he would! Who wouldn't love that face, right? Kahit medyo dugyot at parang yagit, hehehehe....

Until next post!

Don't say it, I know. I've been delinquent again, I'm sorry. Been doing some planning for Kalli's 1st birthday and there's still so much to do!

Anyhoo, it was Kalli's 11th month birthday last saturday. Her lolo and lola and tita Elsa visited her and we had a mini-lunch party in celebration of her month-birthday, as well as tito Bernard's birthday.

In the afternoon, we went to Trinoma for some shopping and snacks. Kalli also practiced her walking at the Trinoma park. Yup, she's walking now! She's still a little wobbly at times specially when she starts running, but she's getting better and better :)

Here are more pictures of her (and us) at the park.... Don't you just love her facial expressions ;)

Sorry for not posting sooner. Kalli has been sick and it was such a heart-breaking and scary experience for me, specially when her fever went up to 40 degrees celcius and her paracetamol didn't seem to be working much in bringing down her fever. She was so weak, red faced, with puffy watery eyes, it just broke my heart seeing her like that. Kalli, who was always strong and energetic - my energizer baby - couldn't even sit and play when she had the high fever. She just wanted to be carried by mommy all the time. She was so irritable, she didn't want to be carried by anyone else.

It all started with grandma, who had the nastiest cough and colds. Even though grandma kept away from Kalli, my baby still caught the virus :( And now even tita LA and mommy (me) have it! Anyhoo, Kalli really had it bad. We even brought her to the ER of Medical City one night when her fever was really high. She was taking paracetamol, ibuprofen and antibiotic that time to combat the sickness, and I was giving her sponge baths when her fever was high. Kawawa talaga baby ko :( It was fortunate one of my friends is a pediatrician and I was able to constantly ask for her advice (super thanks Rose!).

Anyhoo, now the fever's gone, but Kalli's still taking the antibiotics. Her doctor prescribed a new one since the first didn't seem to be working. She still has a nasty cough and it keeps her awake at night most of the time. But atleast she seems to be getting better everyday. She lost her appetite when she was so sick and until now she's not eating anything, except Marie biscuits and milk. She lost weight, which is sad :( I hope she'll get well soon.

Here are the tricks that Kalli learned this week:

1. Show your tongue - Kalli would stick her tongue out - obviously, hehehe


2. Twinkle twinkle - She not only sings to this tune, but now she even raises both her hands and does the close open - twinkle twinkle di ba? :)


3. What did the lion say? - She would roar! - or atleast try to, hehehe.

Oh, and last night she threw a tantrum when we were trying to put her to sleep! She's learning a lot these days - the good and bad, tsk tsk tsk.

By the way, she already has 4 teeth! There's a gap between her 2 upper teeth though, and I'm a little worried about that :( She has learned how to chew and bite and is eating quite easily now - even her finger biscuits. She loves mashed potato, avocado, and cerelac brown rice. Last night I fed her mashed carrots from the kaldereta that we had for dinner. She has also eaten rice with sinigang soup, some fish meat, minced letchon manok, mashed sayote with rice and tinola soup, mashed banana, grapes, papaya, mashed kalabasa, and many others. She doesn't seem to like sour food and drinks. Her face goes "mukhasin" when we make her drink orange juice or sinigang soup, hahaha. We bought her a high chair last week (an early gift from grandpa for her 1st birthday) and she loves eating at the table with the family :)

Anyhoo, here's a picture of Kalli doing her version of "blowing the candles" ;)

My oh my, but how time flies. Kalli's now 9 months old! It seemed only yesterday when she had her 8-month birthday and her titas and grandmas baked her a cake. Now she's 9-months old and has added a few more trick in her sleeves. Let's see...

Last week she has learned to wave bye-bye, moving her arms - elbows to hands - left to right. She has also started mimicking our actions and has learned to answer the telephone! Everytime we say "hello" she would put her hand to her ear. This trick gets better when you put an actual phone (mobile or not) in her hands. She would bring them up to her ear, and sometimes even start babbling, as if talking to somebody on the other end! Oh my goodness, I worry that she'll be "telebabad" when she gets older, hehehe.

Ofcourse she still does her "up-down" trick where she lifts her arms up and says "aaaaa" (her version of up). She has also learned to sing, not just with grandma now (that was her "thing" with grandma - and only grandma - for the longest time), but with any of us who sings her favorite "TARARAN" song. She also sometimes sings "TWINKLE TWINKLE" - all with the lyrics "Aaaaahhh". Her thing with Grandpa? The "huli-huli". Grandpa would catch her and she would lie her head next to his - cheek to cheek - and say "Aaaaah". Notice that that's her favorite letter? Hahahaha. But she can also say the letters E, O, M, P, B, L, Y, N and R - when she's babbling. She can't seem to pronounce vowel I, so no mommy or daddy yet. Sadness :(

Hmmm, what else? Well, she knows "No no no no" and will shake her head left to right empathically when you say it. She also knows "Yes" and will nod her head - up down.

Physically she has grown taller - she can now reach the top of her crib and has started moving around, holding on to the rails (and sometimes letting go and trying to walk on her own!). Her hair has grown longer - what little there is anyway. We sometimes tie it up and make a pig tail. She looks quite the big girl when she wears her hair like that. She has started losing weight - I guess because she has grown more active. Her legs are still full of "bentisingkos and dyis" because of her old mosquito bites :( Kalli has the most sensitive skin!

We're trying to teach her to blow a candle in preparation for her 1st birthday (which I already started planning, hehehe. Save the Date - November 10, saturday). But so far she has only learned to pout her lips - sometimes spouting saliva instead of air, hehehe. Oh well, she still has 3 months to learn.

She likes to be carried by "mamamamamama" all the time. Her daddy thinks I'm spoiling her. I disagree with that. I just don't like seeing her cry is all. What's wrong with that???

Anyhoo, I think I've written quite a lot already... so that's it for now. Until next entry :)

Last August 2, we brought Kalli to Blow-up babies at Serendra and had her photo shoot. She enjoyed it a lot! Oh ok, so maybe she just enjoyed the first part when all was still new to her. Then when the actual shoot began and everyone was calling her and trying to make her laugh, I think she got confused then. I'm glad the photographer still got really good photos event though Kalli didn't smile so much.

Quite frankly, I thought the pictures were so expensive. Nevermind the fact that they are a little cheaper than Picture Company. Still, 850 pesos for one 8"x10" photo (without frame) is too much, in my opinion. Specially when they don't give you the high resolution soft copy. But when you see the pictures of your baby, so cute and adorable, you just wouldn't be able to resist getting a copy, no matter how expensive they are! Oh well, it just one of those things...

Anyhoo, here are some of Kalli's pictures... I also made tabblo albums so go check them out :)

tabblo at http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/285591/

tabblo at http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/285610/

tabblo at http://www.tabblo.com/studio/stories/view/285628/

If you want to check them out, the URL is http://www.blowupbabies.com/. They have branches in Serendra and Cubao.

Daddy (and by that I mean Leo) arrived last night from Poland and it was the first time that Kalli saw him again after 2 months. We got home at around 10:30pm last night, and I wasn't even sure Kalli would still be awake that time. But she was, and she met us at the door, carried by grandma, and carrying this "Welcome Home Daddy" banner in her small hands. It was so cute! If I were Leo, I would have cried! hahaha.

Anyhoo, Kalli has grown a lot in the time that her daddy was away and I actually was not sure if she will recognize him and be open to him carrying and hugging her. But to our delight, she did! She was all smiles when she saw her daddy and didn't even hesitate when daddy carried her. She kept looking at him and smiling wherever he went, as if saying "There you are daddy". Well, I should have known she would recognize him. After all, she was daddy's girl when Leo left.

This morning, when she woke up with her daddy beside her, I thought she might cry or fidget. But she smiled again and immediately went to wake him up. She touched his arms then tried to climb on him. When he opened his eyes, she proceeded to show him her "Up Down" trick (She raises her arms high up and says "Aaaaaaa" - her version of up, then brings them down). Then I held her hand and she showed her daddy her "Close Open" trick - which she has NOT been doing this last month but did for her daddy today :)

I guess she will always be her daddy's girl.

It's quite a challenge putting Kalli to sleep these days. She doesn't seem to want to sleep. Even when she's so sleepy and her eyes are already drooping, she'd fight her sleepiness to the very end. When you put her on the bed, she'd roll and sit, even when she can barely open her eyes. She will not let you carry her facing up. She will only let you carry her upright. And when she realizes that she has put her head on your shoulder because she's just too tired to lift it up, she will immediately bolt up! Tsk tsk tsk... will my baby become an insomniac???

So I found some free time last night, around 1:30-2:30am (hehehe), and I created 2 new tabblos for Kalli. I already posted some of the pictures here, but for those who want more, here are the links:

At 8 months old, Kalli is quite the energizer baby! She has learned so much since my last post. Now she can sit (and actually stand - although she can't stay standing without support yet) on her own. She crawls so quickly now that she needs constant watching. I'm worried that she'll fall from the bed or bump her head on the wall. And she will climb almost anything just so she can stand! The pillows, the walls, our bodies... anything she can grab on. She can't seem to stay in one place - she keeps moving around! She's an expert on her walker now and can navigate thoughout the house very quickly, which annoys (and scares) her tita Dutchy to no end since she seems to love chasing her everywhere. Even in sleep, Kalli is so "malikot". She rolls all over the bed. Like right now, as I'm writing this blog, she has gone from the middle of the bed, then down, then up, and now she's stuck to my sides and she's trying to push me off the bed. Hahaha, for someone so small, she occupies so much space!

Anyhoo, I've got so many more things to tell but it'll have to wait until next time. For now, here are some pictures of Kalli at 7 and 8 months...

"Dungis" Kalli playing with her milk bottle


Kalli playing with the water during bath time

Kalli inside tita LA's big bag

"Siga" Kalli reaching for her apple - No apple for you baby! Just Gerber...

Kalli the princess