Our baby is turning 8 this year !

It’s already the month of July, soon it will be the BER months, start of the happy months! Usually during this time of the year I am already all worked up, excited planning for my Unica Iha’s birthday. Last year she had a blast celebrating her 7^th birthday in school. It was a 1^st, ^st since it was also her 1time to go to school. Considering there were only 13 of them, Benz included, the party was festive ! We had a buffet table specially designed for kids, a piñata, & a “pasabit” – a bamboo contraption where goodies such as toys & others are hanging on a string, kids would jump up & down continuously to get the toy they want in particular.

This year, well this year is going to be different for sure. Our baby girl wasn’t able to go to school. Our family is experiencing a dire financial crisis. But I won’t let this put me down, I will still plan the best birthday celebration for Benz, hey miracles happen. I am hoping against everything that by September 17 everything will be alright.

Let’s start. They say Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so let’s

start the celebration with breakfast. I want a quiet yet very distinctive morning, not the usual buffet breakfast, but an old-fashioned breakfast in a comfy place named ISABELO’S found in san Roque Marikina. When I said quiet, I meant quiet, meals in Isabelo’s whether breakfast, lunch or dinner is strictly by reservation only. So options were either their air conditions restaurant, or their outdoor picturesque garden marquee. HMMM decisions decisions 

As much as we love the great outdoors, I’d pick the indoor restaurant. Weather is unpredictable, it could easily turn fresh morning to humid morning, so we’d rather be on the safe side so as not ruin the birthday breakfast.

  

2013

It's another new year of planning planning for the best birthday ever for my unica hija ... for a change I want to start this year by planning small scale LOL

How to throw a party with just P1,500 !

It does sound impossible—spending only P1,500 for a party. But it’s really not, thanks to that great Filipino tradition of bayanihan and that fantastic human ability called ingenuity. Here, we show you exactly how you and your friends can pull it off.

Venue
Hold your gathering at the place of one of the party’s attendees. Or since you are, essentially, the head party planner, why don’t you volunteer your own pad? Never overlook home-court advantage—holding the party at your place removes the hassle of driving home (so you can drink as you please, for instance).

Entertainment
Assign one of your friends to bring a karaoke microphone and then get your musikero cousin to take care of the playlist. For good measure, bust out your guitar. If your friends are of the couch-potato kind, however, borrow someone’s 40-inch flat-screen TV and put on a DVD. Better yet, record the season finale or the first episode of a hot new TV series and press play when the party starts. Party entertainment issues, solved!

Invitations
Spend zero on invites by maximizing the internet. Create an event on Facebook and tag all invitees. To be sure, send everyone an email from the office. And just in case, send everyone a whatsapp, viber, or text message, as well as an iMessage and BBM to invite, plan, and coordinate. The most efficient invite? The face-to-face kind.

Food
The nourishment of your guests will be your main and biggest expense. And the simplest way to work around this challenge is to throw a potluck party.

But before assigning people the dishes that they should bring, get your party details in order. After deciding on the venue, set the time. The most cost-friendly time to hold a party is the period in-between meals. This way, you’ll only have to serve snacks or pulutan.

Next, set the theme. As you’ve harked back the bayanihan spirit (magic-sing mic and songbook in tow), why not go all-out Filipino and serve classic Pinoy dishes? Either assign your cohorts to bring the food, or you can take care of it yourself and just charge your friends later on. If there are 15 of you going to the party, you could each chip in P100.

Here’s a sample menu that you can serve: a huge plate of pancit malabon for 15 will set you back about P600. Complement this with 24 sticks of pork barbecue (after all, what’s a party without those skewered goodies?) At P480 for 24 pieces, you have nine extra sticks and P420 in balance. If a piece of pan de sal goes for P3, 24 pieces will cost you P72. You now have P348 left. For dessert, half a gallon of ice cream will probably cost you P250, leaving you with P98. Use it to buy nostalgia and get bags of kornik, green peas, and mixed nuts.

An alternative menu would be to get bags of frozen mini pizza crusts (a pack of 24 goes for about P50). Spend the rest of your cash on toppings (tomato paste, canned sausages, mushrooms, onions, cheese, tuna, and whatever else you like on your pizza). Then set up your buffet table as a make-your-own-pizza station. Complete the set-up with an oven toaster so your guests can bake their pizzas on their own.

Top off your merry-ienda by scraping together your change for sodas and ice. Your generous friends may also be counted on to contribute more in the way of drinks. You can supply the water and some more of the good time.

And there you go: a party that’s low on expenses and high on fun . . . so do you think it would work with my 8 year old ? LOL Good luck to me !