Aki’s Birthday Party was Featured in Apartment Therapy!

I have been a very very very bad lazy blogger.

Aki was sick. Then, I got sick. I am still coughing like a dog. Now,  Franco is sick too. Oh, and our 3rd helper for the year, she left.  The good news is that we are all getting better and we have a new help. Yey! We are now in Elbi for the 5-day long weekend.  But the bestestestest news is that Aki’s 2nd birthday party was featured in Apartment Therapy! Wootie wootie!

Here is the link:

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/best-kids-parties-awesome-letter-a-my-party-168502

A link to my Letter A party posts is in the sidebar, under Party-folio.

Have a Meaningful Lenten Season!

{Aki’s Letter A Birthday Party} A is for Awww so Sweet

Yey! This is the last of my Letter A birthday party series!

First of all, I would like to say super super super super super super super super super super super super super super super super super super super super Thank You!!! to Leslie for lending me her beautiful plates for our dessert table.

It would have been ideal if we only served sweets starting with letter A. That was the initial plan. After scanning my cookbooks and a trip to the grocery, I had to give up that sweet idea. There just aren’t a lot of desserts that start with letter A. I then decided to go with our motif, blue and orange. And this is how it turned out.

Here is our letter A cake. Aren’t cake buntings the cutest thing? That was the fastest DIY project ever. I came out of the bathroom feeling inspired. With a towel wrapped around my still wet body, I made the bunting in 5 minutes.

I really wanted to make the cake and cupcakes myself but I had to be practical so I ordered from Kalea’s Confection. It is our third time to order and we are definetely gonna order again. Actually, it was supposed to be an orange and blue velvet cake but the orange batter came out too dark. I did not mind that minor boo boo so much since the cake was yummy and the price and convenience were hard to beat.

Cupcakes

Mini cupcakes in blue, orange and white butter cream.

We bought blue and orange treats from Duty Free. We got Reese’s, Time-out, Loacker’s, cookies and cream and caramel Kisses,and gummy orange slices.

{Aki’s Letter A Birthday Party} A is for Arigato

 

Initially, I wanted fill a loot bag of cute items that start with letter A such as apple, arrow stickers, aprons etc. Bad me, I procrastinated for months and only went on full gear 3 weeks before the party. Because I did not have time to shop for  letter A items and assemble loot bags, we decided to give out something very dear to Aki – fishies!! Because our motif is blue and orange, we got blue, blue violet, orange and orange red fighting fish.

Aki loved the giveaways and even protested when the guests started taking home their new pets.

{Aki’s Letter A Birthday Party} A is for Activities

What is a party without games, right?

I prepared three activities to keep the kids busy.

The first was the letter A treasure hunt. We had a map and 2 dozens of letter A’s hidden inside and around the house.

 

Jyl always always wins treasure hunts

 

While the big kids were searching, Aki was busy checking if the props for the next games were working.

 

For the next game,  kids were given blind folds and one colored chalk each. They were asked to write as many letter A’s as they could.

 

{Aki’s Letter A Birthday Party} A is for Adornment aka Party Decors

aka Orange and Blue, I love you!

I really wanted an intimate handmade party for Aki’s second birthday. I wanted to do make the menu, plan activities and most of all, do the decors.  Hubb,l on the other hand,  wanted  big party. For democracy’s sake, I checked out the nearest Jollibee branch. Fastfood parties are easier to plan. Less hassle for the party mom because you can get everything in-house. However, having your party outside your house means you have to follow someone else’s rules.  When they the Jollibee party personnel told me that they won’t let me hang handmade banderitas and pom poms,I realized that  I do want to go thru the hassle and stress of planning a  party from scratch.

Speaking fo scratch, the cost of the materials for the decors was 160 bucks plus another 100 for the pictures, but to me the outcome was priceless!

Orange and blue Ikea curtain.  My aunt gave it me back in 2007.  Back then, I thought the color and the print were so weird. 

 On the left side of the picture are long orange and blue zigzags that were hung above the food.

 

Orange and blue banderitas with pictures of  newborn, one year old and two year old Aki, in the living room.

Happy Birthday greeting above the dessert table.

My handmade monogram orange and blue pillows

I gathered Aki’s orange and blue toys and used them as decors.

{Aki’s Letter A Birthday Party: A is for Attire

My little prince wore the birthday crown that I made

and a light blue shirt that I bullied asked Aki’s Tinang Binky to buy from SM. I asked Binx to get a shirt in size 3T so Aki won’t outgrow the shirt in a few months. When tried on the shirt on my boy, it was just right size. I went to SM Makati to have it exchanged for a bigger size.

{Aki’s Letter A Birthday Party} A is for Appetizing!

In line with our Letter A theme, all the appetizing foods that we served start with the letter A.

Oh yes, I did research on the different varieties of rice. 🙂

Andoks Manok

Asado Pampanga

Some items on the menu do not really start with the  letter A but I found a way to include them.

Enter Aquaculture Tilapia  served with Atchara. check out the Letter A slits.

Aki’s Fave Pasta which is the failed version of my meatballs and marinara pasta. In my defense, I wanted to make amatriciana or arrabiata sauce. My mom convinced me to stick with recipes that I already know by heart since I only had Cheryl to help me out in the  kitchen.

{Aki’s Letter A Birthday Party} DIY Photobooth

Bench + Comfy Pillows + Giant Letter A on the background + crazy hats =

Instant Photobooth!

 

 

{Aki’s Letter A Birthday Party} A is for Amazing Pictures

Before I go into the details of our letter A party, let me share pictures of my Adorable, Adventurous, Awesome, Amazing, Active, Artistic, Astonishing, Animated, Advanced, Affectionate, Athletic, Asian birthday boy!

If you are looking for a photographer, I highly recommend Studio 2716. Working with them was hassle-free. The turn over was super fast. Most importantly, photos were amazing.  Book them now while their rates are still amazingly affordable! Please tell Dom or Anna that I referred you.

30 minutes before the party, the house was still a mess and I haven’t bathed because of this tornado.

the birthdy boy had his cupcake and ate it too with gusto!

{Aki’s Letter A Birthday Party} A is for Akira!

When it comes to planning parties  for Aki, I always get a little excited. Okay, that is an understatement. I get super excited! I started planning the first birthday during my first trimester. For the 2nd birthday party, I started conceptualizing right after Christmas 2010.

For my lay-out and printing needs, I can always count on my sister. After sending a lengthy email with  the text and very detailed instructions on how I want the birthday stationery to look like and after demanding 2 revisions, my creative and not to mention patient and customer-service oriented sister came up with these lovely details that I just love love love!

The invite.

A is for Aguinaldo! This signage was for the gift table.

A is for Arigato! We placed the souvenirs in Aki’s desk.