Dearest Daughters,
You must know full well by now, that I'm no craft, food, photo, or party planning blogger. Mostly, I just write about crap (literal and figurative) and once in awhile, some serious stuff.
Nevertheless, moreover and whatnot, I do ALL those things: craft, food, photo and party plan. Two out of four of which are nouns and not verbs as I had anticipated when I first started writing that sentence. Irregardless... (Not a word, FYI.)
So, once and awhile I like to show off some of my verbs.
After party overload from having a two children and a new home's worth of welcome home parties and housewarming parties and birthday parties and baptism parties, I told myself: I AM NOT GOING TO OVER-DO THIS ONE.
The fact that we unintentionally delayed Danjo's baptism until her first birthday already cut the work in half, so I was starting to feel pretty good about myself.
We'd have the party in the church fellowship hall instead of at home, which sort of eliminates kid's party expectations of games and other entertainment. We hired a childcare provider if parents need to get rid of their children. And the lawn outside had plenty of bugs, weeds and trees to keep most children occupied anyway.
We kept food simple. Well, as simple as a Filipino family can. Meaning we had enough food to feed a small army, as opposed to a large one.
I wasn't going to have a theme, nope, nothing, nada, zip.
But, then I called my sister, the party planning guru goddess, beside whose parties any shindig pales in comparison.
And she was like: no theme? And I was like: um, no. Um, okay, maybe. Like, bright and flowers and stuff?
Because I had already designed this:
INVITATION
Long story short, one thing led to another and I give you Danjo's First Baptism and First Birthday Bright Flower, Kinda Garden-y, Lady Bug-Related-Ish Party!
GREETINGS and GUEST BOOK
This was a last minute idea, mostly because I felt like people entering the party, which replaced the usual coffee hour, might need some initial direction. So, I wanted some sort of "Welcome" station.
It was the late the night before, so I don't remember if the fingerprint guest book/note cards were my idea or Auntie Katherine's. Being the children's librarian she is, she delivered on the fingerprint art originator's name who I couldn't quite put my "finger" on (hardy har): Ed Emberly. And in two seconds flat, I printed out some examples from the Inter Webs and the soon-to-be Ninang Katherine created the inaugural fingerprint creation.
Also, watch out, I have your fingerprints, people.
FAVORS and CANDY BAR
I knew, to keep things simple I WAS NOT ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH GOING TO DO FAVORS.
And then when I was searching for insect themed candy on amazon.com, I came across this Back To Nature Crazy Bugs Macaroni & Cheese
My eighty-five year old grandma ran around running errands with Auntie Katherine and me all day. THEN came to help set up at the church the night before. I'm so thankful she was there to help cut the paper, wrap box tops and add the sticker I designed to the whole shebang. I hope she's since recovered!
(sticker, based on invite, designed using picnik.com and printed using zazzle.com)
For the taking, I also had garden tools that I found at Michael's for 50 cents each and pinwheels. Which were in little buckets and old milk bottles on the tables. You can peep those when I talk about decorations, below.
And, oh, *just* a candy bar. And you know how that goes... it could have been way more obscene. Seriously, it was not as labor intensive as the Dessert Buffet from our Halloween House Warming party last year inspired by this; I was trying even then to scale it down to semi-homemade. But, you know how we roll, gotta feed the hungry Filipino family!
(Top to bottom, left to right: Mini jelly bean cupcakes made from Trader Joe's Vanilla Bean mix; brownie bites with candy corn topper; mini pumpkin bundts also made from a TJ's mix with green licorice stems-can't remember where I got the idea for those, but Country Living features similar ones; "ghost face" iced oatmeal cookies (inspired by a book from the Public Library) decorated by Auntie Tammie; chocolate covered marshmallows inspired by Parents Magazine, but last minute execution went to a team of two year olds, so more like a Halloween party in your mouth than discernible monster faces; bowls of Reese's Pieces; green chocolate drizzled white and chocolate covered pretzels (TJ's again, holla!); homemade candy skewers inspired by this-note to self: NEVER do this again, huge, sticky mess; and a haunted castle cake, also made by Auntie Tammie and two year old girls.)(And oh, right also made little toothpick toppers from stickers and scrapbook paper. And notice the Target wrapping paper back drop. I use it ubiquitously.)
Whew. That was a tangent.
So, here's Danjo's scaled back Candy Bar... lollipops, gummy worms, chocolate lady bugs
DECORATIONS
Repeat after me: keep it simple, Lauren. I will record for you the amount of time and thought I put into decor.
I didn't even let myself "go there" with decor. It was in an unsightly fellowship hall, with these floating paintings and homemade drapes thrown together for a previous event; nothing I could do to make it "work."
But, look how contently everyone is consuming food and socializing? That is the mark of a good party!
My sister found tissue papers pom-poms at Diaso that Unkinan and Ninang Jess so graciously fluffed and hung. My time: zero seconds.
I threw the buckets (borrowed) and old milk jugs (I had) of favor gardening tools and pinwheels on the tables. Along with some stretchy frogs and lizards. My time: counting the shopping, but not driving, to get the tools, pinwheels and reptiles, I'll give you 15 minutes.
Again, I'm not a photographer, craft or food or otherwise blogger, so don't let me lead you to believe that the photos here are awesome sauce or, even, comprehensive. Actually, most of these photos are stolen from my brother and my mother in law! So, anyway, you can kind of see the buckets and pinwheels in this picture:
The NUMBER ONE tip I have for you is this: Target wrapping paper. Lay it out. Cut some up. And people ooo and aww over it, like you actually spent some time or thought on your decor. But, my time: 15 minutes to cut table cloths and runners for 10 round tables and a few long ones.
And we got some sunflowers from where else, but Trader Joe's! And by "we," I mean Unkinan and Auntie Jess, so my time: zero.
Decor in a half hour.
FOOD and DRINK
Okay, enough, Lauren. Stop, really.
But, how could I not at least semi-home-make my baby a cake? After Babybel's Hungry Caterpillar and Wonderpets cakes? So, I found inspiration from Martha and went with a sunflower cupcake cake.
Mad props to Auntie Katherine and Auntie Sami on their cupcake decorating skillz. With a z.
Extra cupcakes played the parts of ladybugs and bees.
Following the Filipino tradition of slaughtering and consuming an entire pig to celebrate important events such as these, we served lechon.
This was supplemented by rice, of course, and a salad. But, silly you, if you're thinking that was enough.
We hired a Super Yummy Town "taco cart" style catering company, La Palma. They don't have a site to my knowledge, but I have Francisco's number and his mom makes some mean al pastor if you want some. They were awesome, friendly and brought SO MUCH FOOD. I, of course, got not photos of them, other than in the way background of photo of the fellowship hall above.
Drinks were water, lemonade (from a mix), and iced tea (from instant tea bags). Served from glass dispensers and with sliced lemon from the backyard, so people feel like they're getting their money's worth.
Because in addition to eating a lot, Filipinos also charge for their parties.
I'm just kidding. That's not a thing.
Love,
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