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 powers8" Round Cakes from Cakes and Memories @485ea-- 970 powers
24 balloons on stick @13ea-- 312 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... :)
