Allson and Allison's Wonderpets + Hi-5 Partey 2012

This year was the easiest, most hassle-free, budget-friendly birthday preparation i ever had for the kids.

I got two 8" round cakes from Cakes and Memories (fellow moms from the South knew for sure how terrible this bakeshop's customer service was-- [past tense, ok?], nevertheless, i  got my cakes from them. the frugal mommy i am. their moist chocolate caramel cakes are superb, i just can't resist it!)
An 8" round cake would be enough to cover my kids' blowcakes. I got 2 of them. They won't be the star of the event anyway as we were holding the celeb at a play place. The kids might just ignore the cakes.

I got about 2 dozen balloons prepped for their mini party. Was expecting around 20 kiddie guests-- that's about 9 from allison's class (they're 19 in class  but i thought only nearly half would make it to Rob), 3 brats from the neighborhood, a nephew, and 6 officemate kids.

The initial plan was to get 2 cakes from C&M and order a giant pizza from, where else??? Pizza Hut of course! :D But Pizza Hut Robinson's Place Dasma and eve SM Dasma is not serving the giant one anymore. So I crossed it out from my planner. Will have to get trays of pasta from a friend then. Oh, jeez. this reminds me of Hannah. I miss her. :) Moving on, the plans weren't realized as I was very busy a few days before the kids' celebration. I was not even able to print out a peg for Allson's Wonderpets cake. I just gave the C&M staff a cutout of the wonderpets logo so they can make a gumpaste that would look like it.
Bought 3 boxes of Country Style crazy squares, logs and twists, 2 cases of C2, some candies and gums, and 2 dozens of non-woven mini bags (for the looties). Did an Art Attack for some Hi-5 hands, Jupjup artsys, and WOnderpets logos from spare construction paper we have at the office. Tagged some facebook friends on an e-invite, printed out a few invitations for Allison's classmates and the neighborhood kids, and texted my closest friends and relatives. This would do, I guess.

Come after shift, November 13, rushed from the office to the bakeshop to pick up the cakes.

Allson's Wonderpets Cake was very plain and dull. I even had a slight argument with the staff on how the gumpaste logo turned out to be. They didn't make a blue border for the red W on the yellow gumpaste. It didn't look like Wonderpets'! So we bought some candy-coated chocolates (mini Nips, to be specific), opened about 14 packets to collect blue candy-coats to complete the blue border for the Wonderpets logo. Added dots of red and yellow candies over the little cake, and voila! My efforts brought some life to the little blowcake!

Allison's Hi-5 cake was topperless. I was sleepless for several days contemplating on what to do with it. It has to resemble at least a bit of the Hi-5 theme. That morning, I thought of borrowing Tita Ginny's picture stand (a piece I have commissioned JenClaymaster to make for Ginny on her 27th birthday) as it resembles some color as the base cake I've ordered. Didn't realize it can do the trick. Here's what happened:

Not bad, uh?

Now we move on to the party. There was no program or anything. We just let the kids rule the floor. Set a Hi-5 and Wonderpets dvd playing at the background, and there you go...

The three hours were well-spent. It was a fantastic way to celebrate my kids birthdays, with this age range.

I told you, it was hassle-free.

Here's Allson's Tarp--

The Loot Bag Contents (Gums and Candies)--

 

The Invites-- 

Oh, let me share with you the peso powers. You won't believe it!

Action Station 3hour exclusivity-- 4,500 powers
8" Round Cakes from Cakes and Memories @485ea-- 970 powers
24 balloons on stick @13ea-- 312 powers

Mushroom Pasta Trays (serves 30) -- 700 powers
Country Style Doughnuts disc @20ea-- 720 powers
C2 Solo x 2cases @7.75/bottle-- 372 powers
Candies and Gums-- 500 powers
Non-woven bags @12ea--  288 powers
Allson's 3x4 tarpaulin-- 180 powers
Invites @4.75ea-- 114 powers

What have I not included? Oh, the gas to and fro, mobile phone talktime, and miscellaneous ones... :)

Top of the Grocer List

What I needed to buy every 10 days:

Two Weeks of Struggle

Their dad left us shortly after their birthday celebration. And that was.... on the very next day!

I tried to push thru with a post birthday celebration for the kids to make use of the left over cakes and cuppies, balloons, party hats, candies, lootbags, and tutus. Before I tell you the story behind the reason why I was out and struggling for more than two weeks now, let me share a few captures from our backyard celebration:

Now, for the story where the struggles all began.

Drich and I fought over a very petty reason, which I wish not to disclose for the meantime.:)  He left us that Sunday morning. The neighborhood kids were already invited for an afternoon party and there's no way that I can not push it through. I had to do everything on my own again.

There you go..... Money hunt, groceries, cooking, contacts and preps. All done by myself. Alone. I can't complain. Because, again, I am alone.:)

Monday. I was still able to do the usual first-day-of-the-week to-do's and was even able to run an errand for some dog food and scheduled a session with the sonologist. That Monday, I found out we're having another baby girl. I was happy.

Come Tuesday. It was a so so day. Haven't heard anything from my husband yet. But that's okay. I'm used to his stow away- give me time to think about things- i need time alone drama. That night though, while I was at the office, our Meralco meter base at home got burned and our whole block was power out.  The neighbors were able to get their lines fixed the next day as they only had problems with their wirings. But ours was a big facer. We need to get a new base, start a new line and request for a new service application.

Wednesday. The Meralco inspector gave us instructions on filing for a new service app and installing the new wires and meter base. This was not a joke at all. Imagine, we had to scout for gazillions of hardwares to look for the right wire types and sizes. The wire buying task took us almost half a day which did not leave us a choice but to push the installation job for the next day.

Thursday. The money-hunt day.:) I was left with no choice but to withdraw from the kids' bank account. I was saving their money for the holidays but that's the only quick fix I can think of for the meantime. I was able to get a thousand from Nanay Mily for the Meralco Application and stuff. I didn't waste a second then. I rushed to Meralco to secure a meter base and fill out some forms and all.

In the afternoon, while I was trying to set myself for a siesta, I felt this adrenalin rush and decided to clean the garage and frontyard. Mom saw me rummaging through some bins and she helped me with it. We were able to collect old car spare parts, my kids' empty milk cans, some old toils, old boxes and empty distilled water bottles. This looks like an afternoon trip to the Junk Shop! And so we did:
 

We were able to sell these junk for a total of 408Pesos! Not bad!

Friday. All materials were successfully bought. Our Certificate of Final Electrical Inspection was  requested from the City Hall. I thought everything was set. The field inspector paid us a visit but he requested to have a few wires changed again. I was disheartened and almost gave up. Well, I actually gave up that day. I'm left with a few hundreds in my wallet and I can not spend that for another roll of wire. I was saving them in my billfold for Allson's milk and household allowance.

Come on Lalai, you can't fall apart today. Well, I think you deserve a little rest. Let's go visit your Ate Nice at Chateau Elysee. So there you go...

The kids enjoyed some swimming spree 'til about seven. They then dropped me off at the office for my night shift :)

The Weekend. No updates yet. Still struggling, but getting by. :)

I know, I'll get through this. God will always provide. I know.

April Bills Day

It's "April Bills" Day.

Allison and I picked up the money from Metro yesterday and we headed straight to Festi to pay for mom's tickets and send her Tita Ginny's Philhealth requirements.

I had no plans of paying off all our bills, when it suddenly occurred to me that, yeah, it's time to... LOL!  And so, we took the elevator going up to the Sun Shop. Allison got our queue number and we lined up at the cashier. I was shocked that, again, my bill was a whopping 5,200! Aaargh! No, I'm not getting another nervous breakdown today! I kept my self cool, and breathed in. I promised not to browse the web on my phone anymore. Not even with wifi!

Now I am having second thoughts of treating my eldest to Auntie Anne's. Good thing she can also be bribed with a 15-peso McDip and a 28-peso Monster Coke Float. I'm saved!

We dropped by the grocery for baby Allson's nappies and decided to go home. But wait! I remembered we still have another due for the pc we bought. Another bill to pay. Good thing there was no penalty albeit it's almost 2 weeks late.

There you go... For our first batch of April Bills Day.ü