Lana’s Birthday Celebration Hereto & Thereto

HAPPY 1ST BIRTHDAY, LANA!

I ordered 2 boxes of lip-smacking Brazo de Mercedes (crème filled log cake) from Liza Bray and she delivered them in the office today. My officemates enjoyed them and thought it was sweet of me to bring a cake in. I also brought with me some of her 1st birthday Princess paper plates and serviettes to use and a few of her personalized balloons.

In childcare, I also bought a chocolate cake and some balloons. The cake was only purchased from Safeway. The reason was so the ingredients are clearly written in the label for staff to know for allergy reason purposes. I was told at the end of the day that the kids enjoyed the balloons and the cake.
In the Philippines, my relatives also celebrated Lana’s 1st birthday courtesy of my loving mom. They’ve got personalized balloons and cake and yummy food there as well. Photos supplied by my ever-favorite cousin, Rodel. Thanks, Insan.


Lana also got a birthday card from Nona and a bike from Daddy.

Happy 1st birthday sweetie and many more birthdays to come. You’re still oblivious to all of this but I’m sure when you’re big you’d realized that mum and dad went to all this trouble for you because you are loved! God bless you always. We love you!

Below is the copy of the birthday greetings that was placed in a local newspaper where I work. Click on the image for a bigger view.Thanks to all well wishers who sent in their birthday greetings for Lana. Thank youuuuu!

1st Birthday Presents

As I have written in one of my posts, we have requested our guests, through a poem to give Lana a book instead of other things. We want her to have her personal library at home. And we are so happy with the outcome.

Most of them did give books which is really great. Among her other gifts were a Disney inflatable lounger, pretty clothes, a picture frame, a photo height chart, undies from Pumpkin Patch, a Royal Doulton melamine dinner set, a Dora cloth library bag and name tag.

Her birthday pressies still in their respective gift bags and wraps.

Presents unwrapped!

A BIG Thanks

Presence & presents. Thank you to all of our guests who came to Lana’s 1st birthday party. Thanks for the gifts and most of all for taking the time off your busy schedule to come to celebrate with us. We’re very grateful. Terima kasih to my Indonesian friends who came to Maldon for a long drive.

A smile for Mita's camera.

The lovely smiley faces of Lana's guests.

Of course, a big merci to my always-there-for-me friends who have helped me organized the party and cooked the food. What would I do without you, guys? Hopefully, I’d be able to return the favor in the near future. Luv yah!

The sistas. Auntie Sonia aka Tita Pretty 1 & Ninang Donna aka Tita Pretty 2.

Ninang Donna aka Tita Pretty 3 with AAron.

Auntie Gina, Ninang Donna aka Tita Pretty 2 & Ninong Arnel.

Grazie to my mom, who paid for the party supplies that I ordered online. The house would be dull without them. They certainly mesmerized our guests, as they were pretty and unique. I was stunned by the transformation of the house. Salamat, Mama.

Lana's first photo with Mum on that day.

Kudos to my other half who blew up the balloons and put them out in the streets. For looking after the kids swimming to make sure they’re safe. And for doing other thousand jobs around the house for the party. And for doing a big clean up after the party. Thanks, Hon!

Lana playing with the balloons before the party.

And also thanks to my little girl for making us all happy. Everything we’ve done is just for you although you were still oblivious to what happened yesteday. When you’re big and can understand it all, you’d know that we did it all for you because we love you so much, our beautiful Princess!

Lana's Pre-Birthday Celebration - An Incredible Party

Birthday Cake. This splendid birthday photo cake was a gift from Ninang Liza Hill baked by Michel’s Patisserie in Kangaroo Flat. It tasted good, not very sweet and it has got pink icing and 100’s & 1000’s sprinkled on the sides as per my request. It was very pretty!
Piñata. Well, since most of the kids were having the time of their lives swimming, the kids at heart had to pull the strings off the pretty tiara piñata. Our little Lana initiated the pulling assisted by me. Pete was kind enough to video the whole ‘pulling’ episode. I requested that the piñata not to be damaged so I can keep it in Lana’s room as a memento.
Lolly bags. The 40 or so lolly bags were distributed by Sonia aka Tita Pretty as I was too busy doing a million other things. Kids love lolly bags and it surely was a joy to have one.
Souvenir. The teddies in the cups were well received by the guests. My effort paid off as they thought the souvenir was charming. It surely is a delight to own one.

Balloons. I love her balloons. Ninang Donna kindly picked them up from The Confectionery & Party Shop in Lansell Plaza. I only had a dozen of them blown up, as it was unnecessary to have all of them blown up with helium. Besides I have to put some away for Friday for her birthday at home. Daddy blew some of them up by his air compressor. He also had to tie some in the street posts for signage so the guests would know where to go. What they could see were the dancing balloons in the corners of streets with Lana’s smiley face. I was told that the road sign leading to our house has vanished so the balloons were a wonderful idea.


I was extremely tired after the birthday bash. I’ve never been this exhausted in my whole life. Fortunately, I will resume work on Tuesday so I still have time to muck around and be lazy tomorrow and savor it all.

To sum it up, the party was incredible.

Lana's Pre-Birthday Celebration - Party Food

There was plenty of food. I have photos of some of the chow that I cooked/made. The others didn’t have pictures because I was too busy to photograph them:

Flower bouquet. This was a first timer in the house. I’ve never made this before but it’s become a party hit. It was made as a centerpiece-cum- decoration but the only difference is that they’re edible. Ninang Amy in Canada initiated it and thought I’d make it at Lana’s party. It’s like a version of fruit kebab in a vase. I wrapped the vase with a serviette to coordinate with Lana’s theme. It sure was a pleaser! Kids enjoyed them, too. Sushi. Made with lots of TLC. For the filling, I used rice, fresh cucumber, grilled soy chicken, eggs, avocado and smeared wasabi in the rice. For dip, I used soy sauce, more wasabi and preserved ginger. One of the food I must have at my party is my blissful English trifle. The sought after recipe came from my mother-in-law. A layer of strawberry sponge cake, strawberry jelly & custard topped with fresh strawberries. This dessert would make your mouth water. Delighful! It’s becoming my signature food! Fried chicken wings. Auntie Gina gave Lana a box of very fresh chicken wings, thanks, Gache! I fried them in my sent-from-above deep fryer. Crudités. By late afternoon, I was surprised to see that the plate of crudités was almost empty. I was expecting they will be ignored but I was wrong! In it were fresh cuts of celery sticks, cucumber, orange capsicum & my new favorite dip – cream cheese & chili sauce! Potato Salad. Our party guests took pleasure in eating my potato salad. I, myself enjoyed it. I also made some curry eggs with olives. A great appetizer.

Sonia aka Tita Pretty cooked her renowned pancit (fried noodles) and adobo plus her delectable native tikoy and rainbow jelly (not pictured).
Chicken kebab. Ninang Donna aka Tita Pretty 2 ordered some chicken kebabs from work. I grilled them and added some lime at the end of the sticks for garnish.
I have requested Ninang Donna, Lana's other Ninang Donna,(I should call her Tita Pretty 3 to distinguish the two Ninang Donnas. They're both pretty anyway) to cook some mouth-watering embutido (no photo) for me since I like the ones that she cooked on Aaron’s christening day. I keep some in the freezer for me to enjoy later. She also cooked a Jollibee style spaghetti that was a favorite of the kids.
Ninang Jing also brought her crunchy coated peanuts. Too bad, I didn't sample them. They, too finished quickly. She also cooked some satay chicken.

Greek Salad. Ninang Jing's very good at making salads. She made me a greek and a garden salad. Yummy!
Some of the guests have brought food like luscious dessert, brazo de Mercedes courtesy of Liza Bray & Jennet, also the latter brought her celebrated yummy fruit salad.
Other guests brought food or drinks. I didn't have the chance to photograph them all.

Lana's Pre-Birthday Celebration

I have to post some of Lana's pre-birthday celebration pictures today. There are lots of them including videos but I have to upload the others later. I have tons of things to do so here are some of them:



Lana’s Pre-Birthday Celebration

1st Birthday Planning - Souvenirs/Give Aways

Been really busy. I will just post Lana's give aways
then I'm going to get things done. I have taken a photo of them last
night for blogging purposes.

How I did them:
I bought the teddies from Manila and instead of using the paper cups for drinks, I thought it would be a great idea to include them in the give aways. So, I tied some hot pink bow around the teddies' necks, put them in the 1st Birthday Princess paper cups, stuffed some pink tissues in and wrapped them in cello.

Oh, I also put a small piece of quartz taken from around the pool as weights (so they're not so light). For a finishing touch, I bought a nice silver tie and attached her customised thank you cards. I love them! They're very pretty! I hope her guests would appreciate them, too!



The pretty teddies all done and dusted, sitting in the cups ready to go to their affectionate owner!


The teddies before they were dressed up.



Lana's customised thank you card with her photo.


Teddies in bags. The bags are not to be given away, though. They're for display purposes only as I only have a limited number of them.

Ciao! Until next time!

1st Birthday Planning - Pull String Piñata

I have converted Lana's tiara's piñata into a pull string one. It didn't take me a long time. It was a bit messy but it's alright!

1st Birthday Planning - Lana's Tiara

This tiara with marabou is for Lana to be worn on her big day! It can be worn as a headband, it's adjustable and it's got a heart shaped jewel in the middle.

I bought some crowns for the party guests to wear as an alternative to cone party hats. We can all be royalty for a day!

See all 1st Birthday Planning posts.

1st Birthday Planning - Loot/Treat Bags

I finally found some lolly bags from Spoils. For some reason, they started selling Birthday Princess loot bags. I was almost ready to make personalised loot bags out of paper bags when I found them today. The party pack contains 12 bags with tiara design and with words Birthday Princess. Well, I don't know what the boys would say about these loot bags, though.

Now, all I need to do is fill them up with goodies! I found some decent loot toys from a variety store that didn't cost the earth. Thanks God for them!


See all 1st Birthday Planning posts.

1st Birthday Planning - Birthday Cake

Birthday cake. A must for every birthday. I prefer a princess cake (need I say it?)but it doesn't really matter what shape or size of cake it would be. I just want it to be pink and purple.

Hopefully, my sister-in-law would bake me some cupcakes again for Lana's birthday. She and Tim made Lana some pretty butter cupcakes. We didn't want to eat them because they were too pretty to be eaten!

1st Birthday Planning - Photo Op Banner

And there is my little princess fairy with her magic wand ready to grant your worldly wishes!

Another item that I bought together with Lana's other party supplies. It's a picture of a Fairytale Princess in her pretty pink dress. Her face is cut out so the girls at the party can have their picture taken. Ideal if you want to send out thank you's with the girls' pictures. But I just want the girls to have fun by having their pictures taken as the Fairytale Princess. Too bad for the boys. I wish I could find one for them. This is reusable so this can be kept for the next party.

See all 1st Birthday Planning posts.