Birthday Surprise

I turned 36 this year, and was thoroughly surprised with a birthday party attended by my nearest and dearest. Not one for big celebrations (dinner and drinks with family or close friends will do), I don't usually make extensive plans. This year, with a slew of things on my plate for the month (so much that I'd - horrors - forgotten Little A's final Parent-Teacher conference scheduled for the Monday after school let out for the holidays) I didn't even think about my birthday. Big A's is four days ahead of mine and I'd barely remembered to buy him a cake.

At any rate, b-day rolled around and I had a briefing for a major corporate event scheduled for later that week. I left Little A in the capable hands of his Shadow Teacher, rushed off to the meeting and then straight to the shop to relieve my staff so she could have a meal break, it being the other person's day off. Errands followed, and I made it home at about 430pm, not having had a bite to eat all day.

Big A mentioned that we'd be having dinner at a favorite restaurant of ours, which wasn't unusual as we eat there whenever he wants a good plate of Spaghetti Bolognese (i.e., every other week or so). I finished as much paperwork as I could while Little A napped, and after he'd had his afternoon tea, we were off.

At the cafe, the staff knew us so well that we didn't need to look at the menu. Little A wandered around as I sat and savoured a few moments of quiet, until I had to stop him from entering a room that I thought was off limits, since it was usually reserved for private functions. When I got to the door of the private room, the lights went on and everyone yelled, "Surprise!" I think Little A was as surprised as I was.

Big A had delegated the invitation assignments to one friend per group, each of which occupied one table - my dearest childhood friends, university friends and former workmates, relatives, Little A's godfathers and their wives, and my fellow book club members. This last required a bit of cyber-stalking, apparently, since Big A did not have the contact info of anyone in this group, having only met one or two of them until that evening.

It was a lovely evening spent catching up, eating good food, and receiving my favourite presents - books, delicious eats and bath and body products! I feel lucky and blessed to have had 36 years on earth. I hope many more are to come.

Three's Company

This week, I will bake more cakes than I have in the past six months. My boy is three, and we are celebrating in our own little way.

Unlike my artsy younger sister, who could give Martha Stewart a run for her money in the crafting department, I have neither the talent nor the patience to cut out a gazillion crepe paper streamers and glue them into intricate shapes with added tiny accents. That said, Little A would probably love running through a flat with crepe paper streamers dangling from the ceiling so maybe I should get out those scissors.

My Martha moments come in the kitchen. Since this is birthday week, I am baking, baking, baking, with plenty of help from my dear food blogger friend.

On Sunday, I made a chocolate cake for myself, a yogurt cake for Big A's family (it was his grandmother's birthday as well, and 96 is certainly a milestone) and cupcakes to take to school for Little A's classmates the next day. The last were with a little help from good old Duncan Hines since I didn't have enough butter nor sugar to make the frosting from scratch.

This afternoon, I will make another chocolate cake, and a gluten free sponge cake for tomorrow, when Little A celebrates with his cousins. That way he can have his cake and eat it too.

Three years have been chronicled in this blog so far, with many more to come. For his third year, I wish my little boy good health and happiness. He knows how much he is loved.

Turning Two

In a little over two weeks, my son will be two years old. Two years old! My fellow parents are lamenting that their children are now putting on uniforms and starting "big" school while other friends are just about to give birth or are still pregnant. So it goes, the cycle of life.

Meanwhile, my little boy will turn two and his grandmother is insisting on throwing him a birthday party. So I dusted off all the preparations I made over a year ago for his Knight and Princess themed party, and we are having it this year, weather cooperating or not.

Last year, my husband and I purchased balloons, giveaways, (swords for the boys and fake jewellery for the girls) a tablecloth, cake toppers and designed the invitation. We thought about hiring Shetland ponies for the kids to ride, but the costs were too prohibitive. Then the rains came. July in Manila is well within the rainy season, and last year there were plenty of thunderstorms, monsoons and all the rest of it. Wet, very wet. So we opted for a safe first birthday celebration at an indoor soft play centre, which Little A enjoyed until he got sleepy a couple of hours in.

This year, we will rent a bouncy castle, tents and set up a play area for the babies in my parents' garden. We purchased a new printer and I spent several hours printing out invitations on parchment, cutting the paper to size, burning the edges for the "old" look, and sealing them with wax. I've bought large quantities of spaghetti noodles, tomato sauce and mince, since our local culture requires noodles for long life to be served at birthday celebrations. This weekend, I hope to find an artist to produce the dragon pinata we need and find a baker who can make the cake we want without charging us an arm and a leg.

Meanwhile, the birthday boy is done with his milk strike, which was followed by a ten day or so food strike, during which time he would eat nothing but cheese biscuits and the occasional slice of pizza. I wonder if he looks forward to the coming year. Two years old means talking and toilet training, maybe even preschool. I sure hope I'm ready.

Birthday Time

Two weeks to go. July 5th is my son's first birthday. He's long been toddling, so will officially leave babyhood very soon.

In my family, there is an unspoken rule that a child's first birthday must be celebrated with a big party. Since Little A is the first grandson on his father's side, we figured we would have no choice but to celebrate. My first idea was a pirate party. How cute would that be? Eye patches for everyone, Little A in his red and white striped Marimekko top from godmother P in Finland, Peter Pan-inspired games. Big A nixed the idea - he said too many people would have the same theme since Disney's big Pirates of the Caribbean franchise had just released its final movie in the trilogy. He was right. At a christening, we overheard the baby's mother saying she was already organising the pirate-themed party for her son's first birthday.

Big A wanted a manly theme. Knights, then. And princesses for the girls (though he preferred Knights and Wenches, with activities like rape and pillage, looting the town and the like.) Excited, I started planning. A 3-stanza poem would comprise the invitation, and it would be printed on tea-stained parchment and rolled up like a scroll. We would hire a bouncy castle, or one shaped like a dragon, and looked into the cost of having Shetland ponies for the kids to ride. We bought plastic swords for the boys and costume jewelry for the girls. Art activities would be shield and cone hat decoration.

But Little A's birthday falls during Manila's rainy season, and this year was a particularly stormy one. Then his grandmother fell ill with a mosquito-borne fever that could be potentially fatal. So the party in my parents' huge garden needed to be rethought.

Indoor venues large enough to hold bouncy castles and tables and chairs for 40 children and 80 adults in our area were not easy to come by without huge cost. Discouraged, I packed away the swords and jewelry and decided to just take Little A and his cousins to Gymboree and then out for a meal and cake. The Knight party could wait for another year, and in the meantime, we could go on a trip with the money we would save.

Two Sundays ago, we went to inquire about a small private party at Gymboree, only to find out it was closed on Sundays. No matter, there was a backup plan. A restaurant with a massive indoor play area had just opened nearby, so we went to see that. Little A was asleep, so he and I stayed in the car while Big A when down to get information, phone numbers and the like.

Half an hour later, he came back with a huge smile on his face. He loved it and immediately booked a 20 child party. I was to take care of the details and we would confirm the following weekend.

Since I hadn't seen the inside, all I had to go by were friends' photos of the place. I selected a menu, spoke to someone on the phone and told them I wanted to see the loot bags and birthday cake that came with the package when we made the confirmation deposit. Unsure about the quality or quantity of the giveaways, I purchased additional ones and had stickers made to label them as Little A's 1st birthday thank you tokens.

I was pleasantly surprised the following weekend, not only by the cleanliness of the play area (Little A is still at the stage of licking everything in sight) but by the loot bags, the cake (though there was no telling what it would taste like!) and even the invitations they provided. We sealed the deal, and in 2 weeks, Little A and 19 of his friends get to run riot for 2 hours under careful supervision by qualified staff. He will turn one with a celebration, that much is certain.