Allson and Allison's Frozen-Inspired Birthday Partey :)

Now, for a little late blogging on our Frozen-inspired party ❄️

I have already shared in the past how much I am into frugal party planning. This party, so far, was the best I have ever planned and executed with a not so big budget. 💁

Let me share with you what we had for Allson and Allison's birthday bash....

Starting off with the venue. We initially planned on holding it at Pizza Hut the District, but since the place was too small to hold our expected number of guests, we opted for Kenny Rogers again. This was the second party we had at Kenny's, so I am familiar na of the contract and stuff, and the great food. 👍 

Our stage was set up like this:

We got DIY'd Olaf, Anna, and Elsa standees, DIY'd balloon columns, and snowflakes (from National Bookstore).

We had VIP passes (courtesy of Tita Ginny):

and (again) DIY'd invites for our guests:

I have again commissioned Cakes and Memories for these Olaf and Elsa cakes:

And made a hundred vanilla cups to compliment them. :)

My #threelittleindians dressed up resembling Anna, Elsa, and Hans:

Bought tinnie winnie tiaras for the little girl guests 👸:

They looked pretty wearing those tiaras. Happy ako as most of them were dress code compliant! Hehe.. Here are a few of our pretty little guest princesses-- 

Then, I got these stuff for the game prizes and loot bags: 

Everything was all set. So, Tito Bubbles the Clown commenced the partey by introducing our celebrators.

The first game was... (Hindi na ito surprise. Lol) the longest "happy birthday" greeting.

We had some magic show..

And a bubble show, too. :) Tito Bubbles had the kids experience being inside a big bubble.

And oh, that's me! Haha... Ayoko talaga ng nagsasalita in front of an audience. Hehe..

Big thanks to our guests. Big big thanks! Most especially to the Special Science Class of D2CS! They have afternoon classes but they all managed to come and celebrate with us! 😃 Nag-apologize na naman ako kay Teacher Mina and Teacher Irene before and after the event. Hehe.. Sabay bigay ng invitation, then cupcakes. Haha.. 😝

Thanks, too, tita Lia for this family picture:

The party was fun! And really, a successful one! Parties don't really need to be expensive.👌 I am always proud of sharing this party to my mommy friends. Nagugulat sila when they discover that this really didn't cost much. Hehe 😉

For the love of my #threelittleindians,

Xoxo,

Lorie

Halloween Trick or Treatin' 2014!

My kids and I visited The Forum last weekend for our first Halloween Hirit for 2014. We were #teamfrozen for the day :)

This was like a dress rehearsal for our Hans and Anna costumes prepared for Allson and Allison's bash this coming November 8th. I had Aton wear a dress I bought the day before, which was a little big for her since she lost weight from last week's confinement (bad dengue!). The dress resembled a bit of Elsa, thus, we are #teamfrozen.

GE Volunteers, HealthAhead Healthy Nutrition and Fraud Solutions also held this year's Healthy Trick or Treatin'
for the students of Food for Hungry Minds. Of course, my kids can't be absent on mommy's office's event! Aton was in school (and she cannot be absent), so I was only able to tag the two little ones with me. They dressed up as a cat and a witch (who didn't want to wear her hat).

Of course, that cat was a DIY costume, hand-tailored with love :)

And we brought home these goodies:

On the 31st, I had the two little ones visit SM Dasma in the morning for an early trick or treatin', and Ate followed us after class. :) The two indians dressed up as Batman and Princess Anika :)

When their ate came, we had lunch to celebrate her birthday at (where else?) Kenny's. The staff sang a happy birthday song for our celebrator.

Mom brought the kids home while Aton and I stayed for the Costume Contest. We joined the "Fairies" category thinkibg that the theme would be fairies talaga. When we came though, there were a lot of kids wearing princess anna, princess elsa,  spiderman, hulk, and batman. Asan na yung fairies dun? Ayun. We weren't that prepared so we just got away with whatever we had handy. We didn't have a headdress and a wand. So I got that blue glittery leaf thing from the christmas tree, and bobby-pinned a couple onto Aton's hair.

These were the times you'd wish that your make up pallets' shades are complete. My pallet's mostly nude and pale. Good thing I have one pink lipstick! That's all we have for Aton's look here:

Buti na lang she's pretty! No make up needed. Hehe...

Anyway, back to the TOT thing, here's what the two little indians brought home from SM City Dasma on the 31st:

Now for the last leg of my indians' trick or treatin', we visited The Summit Ridge Tagaytay City on Nov 1st. We dressed up as #teamwizardofOz.

That's Dorothy, Glinda (the Good Witch of the South), and Scarecrow. Too bad, mommy didn't have a picture. I was the Wicked Witch of the East with my red shoes and black and white striped socks.

That scarecrow was obviously DIY :) I got some dried grass from the manong egg vendor, and sewed them on Allson's old 3/4's and hat. I found some thick fuchsia craft paper and sewed them on his pants to look like patches. Easy :)

Aton wore the same dress from our tot at the Forum. This time, ibang character naman! Hehe.. This was the peg kase:

The kids enjoyed the activities at the event. There were games, coloring activities, face painting, bubble and magic show, and a costume partey!

We had a hefty lunch at the hotel's Classic Cuisine. Great food! And i feasted on their blueberry cheesecake! Haha.. All-time favorite! 

Our table was reserved for a certain Lorie VErata. Oh, was that me?! Haha..

The girls also enjoyed the snack buffet. 

And according to Aton, it was the best buffet ever!

The kids were given bags of looties after the party..

We so enjoyed this day! After party, we stayed for almost an hour so the kids can play pa.

For sure, we'll visit the Summit Ridge again next Halloween 2015. Their package was so sulit! And we all had fun!

For the love of my three little indians,

Xoxo,

Lorie

October is Here!

It's October again! This means a lot of party preps for me. And a bunch of trick or treats to get ready for.

Will have more than a couple of DIY's here. Starting off with the costumes...

Our trick or treat and birthday party will be Frozen- inspired. So we'll have an Elsa, an Anna, a Prince Hans, and an Olaf. (Guess who's gonna dress up like Olaf?? Hahaha)...

Anika will be wearing her Ate's old dress (that one she wore on our wedding). I'll make a cape for her from some leftover satin from a previous project.

This tutorial kinda helped.

Aton will be wearing a powder blue ball gown. 

I had their dresses drafted but we had revisions when I showed her how I wanted her dress to be. She'll be wearing a haltered top instead of an off-shoulder. It pretty much looked like Cinderella but still resembled Elsa since we used some soft tulle and galaxy tulle for most of its highlights.

Allson will be Prince Hans. He'll be wearing an old pair of navy blue pants, his black school shoes, an old polo under a black vest we bought from Little Prince. Looks like I will be DIYing his tie for this.

And frugal mommy plans to wear a white tee and a white pair of shorts. I'll sew three black appliques for the shirt,

Science Fair 2014

This was my Allison's first science fair at school. It was a privilege to belong to the SSES. The kids had a lot of exposure, and were trained to be scientists (chos!) at this early age.

Since I am "the busy mom", I was only able to extend a little help to my kapwa mommies. While most of the mommies really did extra miles for the event, i can only volunteer to do their nameplates and a few stuff. 

Now here's my Aton:

And her nameplate:

Earlier, Teacher Irene met us to discuss how the presentations would go. Ay, napakalabong usapan as usual. Lols. All we understood about the usapan would be that this kid will go solo, these kids would present by pairs, this kid will do this, this kid will do that.

We were under the impression that we are to present all three experiments. One of these called for dried ice. Alam naman natin that it's very hard to find. But my co-mommies were very much eager to get some, for the sake of this fair.

The dry ice search failed. But we were able to go by. 

Our group had this instead:

The fair was held on a friday. The monday before that, I was all ngarag preparing for it and practicing my Aton for their demo. I am very thankful (again, and as always) that my kid is always game for the challenge.

Here's the first part of her demo:

We were debating pa whether it is hydrogen carbonate or sodium bicarbonate for the other compound. So we weren't able to record a video for the discussion part.

The event was a success. It was a training ground for my aton and her classmates and i was also able to make friends with my co-mommies. I am a happy nanay :)

For the love of my three little indians,

Xoxo,

Lorie

My First Grader's Poster Making Project

Poster making's sisiw for Allison. She's a creative kid. Mataba din utak nyan. But of course, she still needs guidance.

I was excited for her group's poster making project. Kaya naman I had no second thoughts on inviting the kids over for some dry run. May konting briefing with the kids and the mommies have assigned their kids on individual tasks para nga naman hindi na magkagulo on the event itself. The drafting, outlining, coloring, and show and tell tasks were delegated accordingly.

The kids are very masunurin naman and they played pretty well on team work. :) Happy mommy here.

I am wondering though, on what happened to their presentation. We haven't received any feedback yet fromt Teacher Irene..


For the love of my three little indians,

Xoxo,

Lorie

Allison Joins KF Pilipinas

Last year, Aton joined the Kids Fashionista Pilipinas. It was her first time to join a contest outside her school.  I was then, a clueless mom. This was the time when we were still recuperating from our financial struggles. So we really didn't have the budget to spend for her stuff. We still joined despite that because I wanted Aton to gain this experience.

Pero promise, next time, paghahandaan na talaga yan ng kanyang stage nanay :)

Let me share a few clips from the event. Nung mga panahong ito, wala ako kahit man lang digital camera. Though I have a phone naman. A Nokia C3, and I was able to take a few pictures with it. Subalit may mabait na kumuha ng phone ko (God bless you :)). Anyway, if it wasn't lost or stolen, baka wala itong aking present phone. Sabi siguro ng Nasa Taas, "Lalai, it's time to upgrade I will give you a budget, just please upgrade!". Lols. Well anyway, going back, here are a few clips--

The Final Rehearsals:

Their Opening Number:

And Aton's Presentation:

I would be the guiltiest mom non. It was just the two of us. And it was our first shot on a contest of this nature. True enough, you would really need some budget when joining competitions like this. I was looking at the other kids' outfits, ang bobongga! Eh fashion competition nga pala ito. So what should I expect?

Anyway, next time, babawi ako kay Aton. On this competition kase, her Twiggy inspired outfit was just hand-sewn by yours truly. Nakalimutan ko pa nga atang gupitin yung thread after my last buhol. Mejo kita sya sa video. Hindi man ganon ka-bongga yung outfit, but it's a labor of love =) Buti na lang, my Aton never complained =)

The other contestants have PA's and make-up artists with them pa. Sila siguro yung mga sanay na talagang sumali sa mga ganitong competitions. Si Aton ko naman, pinulbuhan ko lang at nilagyan ng lip gloss. Yes, lip gloss. Because at that time, I haven't learned yet the prettifying effect of a lipstick! So walang lip color ang aking bagets. Ganun talaga. First timer kase na hindi nag-research, at di masyadong nagplan. Well, anyway, okay lang yan. We'll koin future events pa naman if Aton would still be interested.

And do you know that she never ever rehearsed her walk on that stage? Sya lang gumawa ng mga poses nya nung sinalang sya sa stage on that day. It was impromptu! Ni hindi man lang sya napractice ng magaling nyang ina. =( Buti na lang at keri naman pala ng powers nya. If you notice though, there was a part when she asked one of the dancers of what else to do. Eh kase nga naman, hindi sya nirehearse ng mommy nya! Pakipalo nga sa butt yang mommy na yan!

I remember, when we were queued for one of their pictorial sessions, yung ibang mga kids who were taking their lunch, mga fastfood yung mga baon nila. Kami ni Aton, we brought our packed lunch. Hehe... Limited kase ang budget ni mommy =). But Aton never complained. Pinabaunan pa kami ni Lola nya ng biko one time. And Aton was proud of her baon (favorite nya kase ang biko). She was sharing  this baon to the other kids, and proudly says, "luto po ng lola ko yan!" Ang babait din ng mga mommies na nakilala namin. On the next sessions, dinadalhan na din nila kami ni Aton ng food. Hehe.. Yung baon namin, rice at maling lang. Pero bigla kaming nagkakaron ng pizza o kaya fried chicken at fries. Astig no!

This event somehow exposed Aton sa mga kids in different walks of life. She also gained friends. And confidence. Maraming maraming confidence. =) Joining the event was one thing we will never regret. =)

And I am so proud of you, baby! Very very proud :)

Xoxo,

Mommy

Frugal Mom's Best Buy of the Day: Easel Board from Toys R Us

Before fetching ate from school, i brought the younger indians with me to The District for an ocular in prep for Aton and Pukoy's birthday bash. After inquiries at Kenny and Pizza Hut, we checked out Metro's Mid Year Sale. We luckily passed by Toys R Us and saw this easel board on sale:

It was on sale for only 399.75 peso powers (originally priced at P799.50) So i got two. One for my indians and one for my bff's little girl.

This is today's best buy. What will tomorrow's be? Haha..

Xoxo,

Lorie

Things you do together when your bff is a kapwa-nanay--

You get to compare prices together, scrutinize nutri facts on food labels, share your best buys, and you chika a lot while getting the grocery chore done!

Voila! :)

Xoxo,

Lorie

DIY Career Shirts

Here's a DIY project for Aton and her classmates' costumes for their 2014 Nutrition Month performance:

I wasn't able to take a picture of the last two shirts I painted, while they're drying. But here's Aton's:

For the love of my indians.

Xoxo,

Lorie :)