The story from the new me ;)

Whoa!! Look at the date of my last post! It was posted in 2013! I've been absent for 2 years from the blogging world. And now, finally, I'm back writing this blog again. I appreciate those who still visit this blog. Thank you for reading my blog. I will try my best to post new story from the new me. ;)

In 2 years, there are so many things happened in my life and many things change and they are all for the better. Believe me! This year especially when I entered the magic number 40, when people say "Life begins at 40", I tell you, that is so true! I feel really different now. I feel like I have a brand new life! I feel more careful and a lot more thinking involved in what ever I do. I feel that I am a different person, a better me. This is the new me! You will notice that my story and my post will be different from the old me. My husband did warn me before about these changes as he has experienced it first and I'm just very happy with a more mature version of him now. We both now are very careful with each other so that we will not hurt each other's feelings. We try our best to understand each other as much as possible because we feel that fighting is not a solution and it is just a waste of energy and time. See... isn't it better now?

In 2 years of being vacuum from blogging world, I've learned to become a mompreneur. I've learned to run a business from the comfort of my home while still functioning as a full time-mom and a driver plus a tutor for my two children, and one of them is entering the teen year. Oh dear... can't you see how exciting my life is? So the word 'busy' is really an understatement for me... :) Every day I do not have a single minute to be wasted. I face so many challenges everyday but these challenges helped me to grow and to become more careful with things I do. Me-time and bed-time are highly appreciated these days. But still, I want to keep writing this blog. People love my story of life because my life is really exciting. So, yes, bare with me, keep coming back to this blog cause I may have posted a very interesting story you don't want to miss. ;)

Good bye 2012, Welcome 2013

December came. In Philippines, December is the busiest month of the year. Christmas shopping and wrapping presents are my favorite thing to do. I am the living proof of that as I was super busy even on the 1st day of December as I opened Sophie Paris stall in a 3-day bazaar. During the bazaar, my knowledge, my skill in fashion and beauty, my business, and my direct selling skill are tested to the max. I worked so hard every day and night to prepare the bazaar. Lucky for me, I had the full support of Sophie Paris Philippines Business Center 046. I managed to earn more  income not only for me but also for BC 046. I managed to get more members too. 

And since Christmas was approaching, as a leader, I had a challenge of pushing the sales in my group even higher. I held a Sophie Solution training and Sophie Beauty Academy together with BC 046. I was so thrilled I was able to share my beauty and fashionista tips to every one attending the event. I made more sales during the event... :D In fact, I had to go back and forth collecting and delivering orders to my group and also to customers. I was also busy attending Christmas party everywhere. At Sophie Paris BC 046 Christmas Party attended by General Manager of Sophie Paris Philippines Inc: Sir Henry Lindberg, I was honored as the Motivational speaker as I shared my experience Sophieling Good, Sophieling Great :)

But then, I had to put a halt on all my activities when my helper went home for her Christmas and New Year break. Since my kids are in holiday, I also stopped going to the gym, replacing it with cleaning up my house and doing all the house chores. I focus on spending time with my little family. I took the children to Enchanted Kingdom, a fun theme park in Santa Rosa. We had a blast in the park as a family. I really enjoy the family time. Even without a helper, I can survive :)

I can even practice my photography again. As we are preparing to welcome the New Year, I would like to end my story here.

Contrary to what many people had feared about 2012 as the end of the world, I started to see status of my friends that said the year 2012 was the best year, and I also want to join them to say that 2012 was fantastic year! It was the year of revelation for me. It was the year of make over and learning something new. It was a better year compared to 2011. As I gain the momentum of being healthy, happy, and beautiful from inside and outside, I hope 2013 will keep me rolling into good fortune and better life. Thank you Lord for allowing me to feel your presence in my life. As we bid good bye to 2012, I give you my hope, love, and faith for a better life in 2013. HAPPY NEW YEAR 2013 to all my readers, my family and my friends!!

Highlight of my life for the 2nd half year 2012 Pt 1

To continue from my previous post, now I'm going to share with you the highlight of my life for the 2nd half year of 2012 before we say good-bye to 2012 and we'll welcome 2013.

Still in June 2012 event, my daughter started her first day of school. She was delighted to go to school for the first time and she wore all pink and carried her beloved Barney bag with her. I walk her to school everyday together with her classmate. So everyday I have 2-hour me-time :) At first I wanted to just sit down at the restaurant nearby her school while reading a book and enjoy my me-time, but then I realize that if I did this everyday, I would feel bored and grow fat as I would be tempted to eat and eat while waiting for her. Luckily, on the 4th floor of the same building, there's a gym. So my friend and I joined the gym and sweat it out for 1 hour at least before we sit down at that restaurant to eat our lunch and have a chat. Usually I would go to the gym for running 3 times a week, then once a week I would sit down doing the lazy exercise: sauna bath ;) This way I won't feel guilty taking in some calories during lunch break with my friends :) See how much calories I burned:

Because I exercise for an hour regularly at least 3 times a week, I managed to loose weight. Yay! The gym regime also taught me to choose my food and change my diet to include healthy menu everyday. My friend and I get really addictive to work out at the gym because after exercising, we will feel happy and healthy. I guess we got addictive to the hormones that are released during working out such as endorphin and serotonin. I prove it my self how exercise can change me and my life completely. Not only that I manage to shed some pounds, I also can think better as exercise helps to pump more oxygen to my brain. I am beautiful and happy inside and outside. That's the great thing about exercise regularly. So, I highly recommend you to start exercising regularly. You don't have to go to the gym. Just start at home! I know the 1st start is the hardest point. But once you get going, you'll get addicted to exercise.

Since now I gain my body shape, my face shines and my skin glow, I want to do makeover to my overall look. I want to be more fashionable and look more beautiful. And I was very lucky to be able to join Sophie Paris Philippines Inc. as their partner. So, my beauty and fashion business days began.

With exercise regularly and doing business in make up & fashion, I am able to transform myself from an ugly duckling into a beautiful healthy and happy swan :) God is also very happy with me too that He helped me to win a basic make-up training from Babymama Philippines photo contest! Yay! I won the prize of learn to do basic make up with Ana Isip. Ana Isip is a professional make-up artist in Philippines. You can check out her work at her website: Makeup by Ana Isip.

That was July to early August 2012.

By end of August to early September, I still continued doing my routine: kids, home, cooking, art & craft, photography, gym and my Sophie Paris business. In doing business with Sophie Paris, I learned the art of direct selling and the art of running your own fashion business. I was shy at first to approach people offering Sophie Paris products, so I just wore all the products myself. But then the response from people were great! Sophie Paris products are beautiful and really eye-catching, especially the bags. When I wear the products, people started to ask me about it. So, there I went, starting to explain and offer people Sophie Paris products. Not only did I manage to sell many Sophie Paris Products, I also managed to get new members to join the happy family of Sophie Paris Philippines and to help me to sell more and to a bigger market. I also saw myself going back and forth to Sophie Paris Philippines main office in  Mandaluyong, Makati. You see how I become busier and busier everyday. 

My days with Sophie Paris Philippines flourished when I won their twitter competition for having the most Sophiesticated Total look. You can read the post on Sophie Paris Philippines tumbler here: 

#SOPHIEsticated Total Look

In art and craft, I made a surprise birthday cake for my husband. I learned to make a fondant figurine and I made my husband fondant figurine that surprisingly really looked like him.. :D

Here is the fondant figurine of my husband:

Having no oven at home didn't stop me from making a birthday cake. I made a no-bake birthday cake the same way as I made cake-pop but multiple times bigger than a cake pop.

My husband got his morning birthday surprise from me... :) He laughed so much looking at the figurine of himself. My daughter was very happy requesting him, "Daddy, can I eat you?".. :D.. :D

In October, still in happy mode, I won another Sophie Paris Philippines twitter competition again. This time I won a ticket to go to Sophie Paris Philippines 10 anniversary Danca Extravaganza and Miss Sophie Paris Philippines coronation night at Sofitel hotel. While I was busy preparing myself and my dress to attend this big event, another Sophie Paris ticket winner contacted me to give away her ticket as she could not attend the event. Oh la la!! How lucky can I be? I got 2 free ticket to go to the grand event!

Then, also in October, I was requested to teach for a day during teacher day at my son's school. I know I am good at art & craft, so I choose to become an art teacher. I prepared my material for teaching to make sure the children would have fun and able to enjoy their creation. We would give our art & craft creations for the class teacher. I divided the classroom into 3 groups, one of the groups doing the fondant art. I prepared the no-bake cake for them to decorate. Here is the cake before and after decorated:

and below is result of my teaching day :)

I am grateful that I was requested to teach in my son's classroom because then I was able to appreciate how hard work it is to be a teacher that has to control and teach 28 students everyday. By teaching in my son's classroom, I was able to get to know my son's classmates this helps my son to feel proud being in the classroom.

Before October ended, my parents visited me in Philippines. This sure brought big big smile on my face. I took my parents for a culinary experience in Philippines. They really enjoyed their trip to Philippines. They agreed that IT IS MORE FUN IN THE PHILIPPINES indeed :)

When they were in Philippines, St. Pedro Calungsod was canonized on October 21. This is a rare event. They said I am blessed. I believe I do as I was able to end October on a high note: I was upgraded to a franchisee level in my business with Sophie Paris Philippines. My group made more than P25K in sales!

In early November, I took the whole family to go back to Malaysia again for a short vacation. This time it was really only us staying in our Malaysia home. I got to clean up the whole house everyday for a week; sweeping, mopping, dusting, brushing, washing, etc. This activity helped me to loose weight more. As you can see, the simpler exercise starts at home! Clean up your house and you'll clean up the fat in your body too! You kill 2 birds with 1 stone :D

Visit to Museo Pambata (Children Museum) in Manila

Summer holiday in Philippines ended nearly a month ago and my children have started their new term at school. Also for my little girl who is 3.9 years old, she has started her 1st day of school last Monday. To help me recover from the holiday mode, I try to get busy as much as possible doing things that I love to do, such as learning some photography techniques, doing some arts and crafts, cooking, reading, and writing. 

This year is our 3rd year of living in The Philippines. I have become more and more accustomed to the way of life here and honestly, I have difficulty proving to the locals that I am a foreigner without my passport. Everything about me is just so Filipina. I get about 99.9% people thought I am local even with my broken Tagalog...:)

As part of my way to learn more about The Philippines way of life, I wanted a visit to Museo Pambata (http://www.museopambata.org) in Manila. Museo Pambata is a museum for children, in which displays all the stories and history of Philippines. I've asked my husband to accompany us to visit this place, but unfortunately, his working commitment is everything to him. Fortunately for me, one of my good friends invited me and my daughter to go there.

Museo Pambata has 8 different theme rooms. We visited all the theme rooms and my daughter got more and more excited as we moved from one theme room to the other. 

One particular room that got me so excited was the 'Global Village' room. The things displayed in this room would be able to explain why I do look exactly like the Filipina :)

In this room, we could see all the things such as musical instruments and children games used in Philippines which are exactly the same as the ones I know in my country, Indonesia. The musical instruments such as Angklung, Gambang (or in Philippines it's called Gabang), Gong, Kenong were on display. The games such as: congklak (or in Phillipines it's called sungka), dampu (in Philippines it's called sudsod), and Philippine dance called Tinikling (a traditional dance in between 2 long bamboo poles). My daughter had so much fun trying and touching everything in there and at the same time, I explained to her that all these things also can be found in my country and her country, Malaysia. 

Especially for Tinikling dance, I have to confess that I don't know the name in Indonesia and Malaysia, but the1st time I saw this kind of dancing with my own eyes was when I visited Sarawak Cultural Village in Sarawak, Malaysia. Before my visit to Sarawak Cultural Village, I only saw the Indonesian dancing with 2 long bamboo poles in the TV. So, this kind of traditional dance where the dancers will dance in between 2 long bamboo poles is a traditional dance of Indonesian, Malaysian, and Filipinos. From here, we can learn how our great great great grandparents had traveled from Indonesia to Malaysia and Philippines and invested the same culture and heritage to the 3 countries. Ha! No wonder I am such a chameleon here in South East Asia. I can look like a Malaysian, or look like a Filipina and definitely look like an Indonesian...:)

Fixing a broken (tele)communication

My family and friends are scattered all over the world, but in this modern world, technology and internet have helped us to shorten the distance and make communication easier among us although we live in different parts of the world. This is my primary reason why I have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Multiply, Yahoo Messenger, MSN, and any other social networking sites. I need to stay in touch with my family and friends, especially with my immediate family. My high speed internet connection is my best friend especially when it is teamed up with my iPhone & iPad. So, I really have no problem to reach almost every one in the world.

For those who don't like to use social networking websites to communicate, there's always email, phone or sms. 

But, unfortunately, the other sides that I communicate with, many of them do not have good access on the internet because the country doesn't have a good infrastructure for the high speed broadband connection or also because the cost to have an internet connection or a smartphone is still too expensive for them. My parents, for example. My parents are retired and they live on pension income which is very little because my dad was only a teacher before he retired. My mom was a teacher too before she retired, but she doesn't get pension money because she was only a contractual teacher. So, with only less than US$100 a month to survive, my parents won't have enough budget to buy a smartphone, a computer, or to install an internet connection. The same thing happens with my brother. My brother has a smartphone but he can't afford to buy the internet package for his smartphone. So, as you can see, I have a broken telecommunication with my immediate family. Annnnnnddddd....to make matter worst, for unexplained reason, my smartphone provider (Globe) in Philippines has problem receiving Short Messages (SMS) that are sent by my parents mobile phone provider (XL) in Indonesia. So, I cannot receive any smses at all from my parents until my parents decided to use a different mobile phone provider. I can't change a provider cause I am a postpaid customer that is bounded by a contract. My iPhone can only use the sim card from that one mobile phone provider.

I noticed this problem by end of last year. I have reported the problem to Globe and they have done any checking to their network between Philippines and Indonesia, and they told me that nothing is wrong. So, that means, the problem could be from XL, because I can receive SMS from other mobile phone providers in Indonesia such as from Telkomsel and IM3. But then, sending SMS to me in Philippines from Indonesia is quite expensive especially for my parents. For me, calling Indonesia from Philippines is expensive. So, the communication is limited only on urgent and important matters. I only call my parents once a month and they only text me when they have important news. They even seldom reply to my text if it's not urgent to reply. Honestly, I feel sad and disappointed. 

But since I have a high speed internet connection at home, I try my best to find a way to fix the broken (tele)communication. This search brought me to this website: www.freesms4us.com. From this website, I can send and receive smses for free to any Indonesia mobile phone numbers, regardless the providers! And the best part is that whenever I send sms using this website, the number comes out to reply is an Indonesian phone number which I can read the reply on the same website.This is important cause that means my parents will send/reply sms to me for local rate. It's definitely cheaper for them and it's free for me. But the downside is, the sms isn't guaranteed to be delivered and received. I hope the website can improve on this because this website is really good to help people that have the same problem like me.

Dragon Year fondant cake

To welcome the new water Dragon Year, I decided to make my own dessert: Dragon New Year Fondant Cake.

I used 4 ready-made mini round sponge cakes with 3 different tastes (melon, yam, and pandan) to be decorated. The decorations are all made of marshmallow fondant that I made by myself. I like to use the marshmallow fondant better than the commercial fondant I bought from the store because marshmallow fondant tastes better.


To continue reading this post, click here: My Dragon New Year fondant cake

My son's Angry Birds 7th birthday party - The movie story

One of the surprises I planned to give to my son on this party was a movie about him, about his journey since he was born, until now. This is my favorite present to give to someone special on his/her special day. I have been making many short movies/slideshow since 2003. Usually I used Windows Movie Maker together with any photo editing software. But this time, I use my new Macbook... :) 

I started to make the movie about my son in early October this year. I collected all his home-videos and photos. I also searched for the right soundtracks for the movie. I gave the title "The Kiwi Journey", as my son is a New Zealander. But since I'm quite new to Mac OS, I had to learn about it first. I used iMovie together with iPhoto and iTunes. It was a very tiring project to do as I could only do it once my kids were asleep. But I enjoyed it. I get more and more familiar with the Macbook, the iMovie, and the iPhoto.

So, after staying awake long hours every night, I finally completed the movie just 3 days before the D-day. 

I brought my laptop to the place where the party would be held to try the projector. I wanted to see how the movie would show up in the projector screen. Everything was good and the movie was ready for screening on the birthday party. Again, just like the cake, I was very pleased with the result. The movie brought tears to my eyes every time I watched it. I can't believe how fast time flies! My little baby boy who was born 7 years ago, has grown up so fast to be a fine young boy ready for more adventure in his own way. Oh my...I can't believe I have become a mother for 7 years! I hope I have been a good mother for all these years.

I prefer not to show it here because the movie contains many private home videos and photos. But I can tell you one thing, this movie has blown away my audience they asked for an encore!...:)

My son's Angry Bird 7th birthday party - The fondant decorated birthday cake story

To continue the story from the birthday party preparation, I will start from the birthday cake making.

Since I was the one responsible for the birthday cake, I learned everyday about cake decorating using fondant. I have never tried this before. It would not be so easy to decorate with fondant here as the weather in South East Asia is forever hot and humid! But I would not be deterred by the weather. I have 2 airconditioned rooms in my house. The AC will be my best friend to control the heat and the humidity...:)

Internet was the best source and best learning media. I learned to make my own fondant using marshmallow as I love the taste better than just pure sugar. My 3 years old daughter is always happy to help me as fondant is like a clay, she had so much fun playing with it. She cut the shape, pasted it everywhere on her toys, and got her fingers all sticky...:O

I made many colors of marshmallow fondant. I also bought a set of Wilton rolled fondant primary colors (which has red, green, blue, and yellow). I didn't remember that 1 of the Angry Birds is black! I completely forgotten to buy Wilton rolled fondant black/grey set or at least a fondant black coloring. I was so sad that I was not able to create my own black fondant. So, I can't make the black Angry Bird.

I also bought more kitchen utensils in nearby supermarket to help me later in decorating the cake. I took out all my cookie shape cutters. I designed the cake decorations on a piece of paper complete with color descriptions and shapes that I already have and I am able to make.

A week before the party, one of my good friends baked a cake for me to try to decorate it using fondant. I am a complete beginner here in terms of decorating cake, especially with fondant. I made the Angry Bird cake decorations for that trial cake. It was for my 12th wedding anniversary. It turned out great! I was able to shape 3 cute Angry Birds and 2 green pigs and put them on top of the cake. So, I had more confidence to decorate the cake. I abandoned my 1st plan to have a giant jelly cake as jelly will not go along with fondant. Besides, the birthday boy requested a giant rectangle cake. He didn't want to have a round cake like the trial cake.

To make things easier, I ordered the giant 12"x16" rectangle triple layer cake from a cake shop without any decorations. I have made all fondant decorations 2 days before I collected the cake. I made the mini TNT boxes from mashed sweet potato fried cake with cheese inside. Then I used chocolate fondant to make the sweet potato cakes more like the Angry Birds TNT boxes. I even got an incident where the chocolate fondant I used to decorate the mini TNT boxes has melted because the weather was too hot. 

When I collected the cake, I was so surprised by the size of the cake! It's very big! It was half of my dining table...:) 

I needed a large area to decorate and I only had a day left before the D-day. Oh my God! I was a bit frustrated because the fondant I have prepared was not enough to cover the whole area of the cake and it was torn because I rolled it too thin! So I had to make an extra dough using a different color :(

I kneaded and rolled the fondant again and again. Until finally I was able to cover the whole cake but using 2 different colors. It was not too bad! Thank God! But my arms and hands were extremely sore.

After I rested my hand for a while, I started to put all other decorations on top of the cake, starting with the green pig family on one side complete with the bunker. The pig bunker was made of Pandan cake I glued with raspberry jam and covered with chocolate icing, then I decorated using many kinds of chocolate   I bought from supermarket nearby. I put the stolen bird eggs cooked inside the pot on top of the bunker surrounded by the pig family. The Angry Birds family was on the other side complete with the slingshot and the empty bird nest...:) I really had so much fun decorating the cake. I started to decorate at 4pm and finished everything by 8pm. Not bad!..:D

Since the cake was giant, I couldn't fit it into my fridge. So I had to keep it inside my air-conditioned bedroom that had temperature of 16 degrees Celsius.

My hands were so sore from kneading and rolling the fondant but I was very pleased with the result. The birthday boy was extremely happy and amazed with his giant Angry Birds birthday cake. He hugged me tightly, kissed me, and said, "Thank you, mommy! The cake is so beautiful just like what I want". My husband gave his compliment to me, "Damn! That's really good!" when he saw the finish result. Many of my friends in Facebook said that the decoration was amazing for a complete beginner like me. 

On the D-day, I didn't display the cake at the start of the party at 3pm cause I was afraid the fondant would melt again. So, the cake was only brought out of the air-conditioned room at 5pm when the cake ceremony started. My guests were all amazed with the cake. The children in the party couldn't wait to take the Angry Birds and the pig family figurines. So, the moment my son blow the candles, the children 'attacked' the cake! They stripped down the cake decorations completely...:D 

I made the slideshow for you to see things I have written about. 

Don't forget to continue reading my other stories about this birthday party! It was absolutely a very tiring event but it was a great party! Thank you Rovio for creating the Angry Birds games! 

The Angry Birds theme birthday party - the preparation

I'm just trying to steal time now to update you about my son's 7th birthday party because I'm afraid if I don't document everything I have done now, it will be expired and the story won't be valid anymore.

So, to continue the story from my last post, I have decided to hold a slightly bigger than a normal birthday party by end of this month, but I still keep it as simple as I can considering I don't have a lot of budget for this party. There won't be any famous magician or a clown, no food carts either. I think it will be the simplest 7th birthday party in the Philippines. I have many discussions with my son to help me cutting down the budget by not inviting all his friends but only those he knows best. But this tight budget actually has a blessing in disguise as I'm forced to become more creative and more resourceful to make my son's dream come true.

My son has chosen to invite about 20 of his school friends, plus another 10 friends around the neighborhood. These 30 friends will come with their parents or their nannies. So I really have to prepare food & souvenirs for at least 70-100 people. Honestly, this is my 1st time holding a party which will have more than 70 people attending. Even my wedding party was attended only by 10 people! :)The food business I leave it to the professional caterer who is more familiar to serve food for more than 70 people. I will do the decorations, the loot bags, the birthday cake, and the finger food for the children.

Since the party theme is Angry Birds, it's easy for me to find many things Angry Birds. One website that I'm stuck quite a long time to get some ideas for this party is http://www.thepartyanimal-blog.org/angry-birds-birthday-party-theme/This website is so great and has all information and ideas I need.Since my last post, I have completed making 5 green pig piñatas using the 4-layer papier mârché technique. I have this idea of building a life size Angry Birds game to add the fun in the party. So, I collected many old boxes around my house; from my daughter's milk carton boxes, toy boxes, until my stove box. I also asked from my friend to donate whatever used boxes they have. I got many combination of boxes: big, small, long, short.I wrapped each box using a brown paper wrapper to look like a wooden block.

Then I painted my son's 4 bowling pins that usually just sit on the corner of my son's toy room. The pins now have 4 angry bird faces. These will be the beaters for the piñata. But my son has tried to shoot the pin using the slingshot instead...:)

Next project was to design the invitation. Again, my visit to The Party Animal website gave me some ideas for the invitation. At first I wanted to make a 3D iPad invitation. I have completed the design & tried to print it in the printing shop. But then, it used a lot of ink and paper, so 1 invitation costed me nearly P100. If 30 invitation, I had to spend P3K! Too much for my budget. Besides, I would need to spend sometime to fold it one by one, insert the styrofoam for the inside to make the 3D iPad looks more real, another cost for the styrofoam, and I have no time as I still had to fly overseas for 2 weeks. If the guess was only 10, I would go with this 3D iPad.

So, I changed the design. I didn't really think of using the 3D iPhone shape as I think the words written on the invitation would be too small and hard to read. But still I can't completely eliminate it. I just had to try it first. I tried to fit the design for 3D iPad into the 3D iPhone instead. With iPhone shape a lot smaller, I can afford to print 2 pictures in 1 paper. I also tried to print it at home since I finally found a shop which sells a glossy photo paper for only P99 for 10 papers. Still, if it is 3D iPhone, I had to fold it and insert the styrofoam, blah...blah...and I'm running out of time as the invitations needed to go out at least 2 weeks before the D-day. I also need to get the RSVP replies as soon as possible so I can inform the number to the caterer. So, I chose the 2D iPhone invitation instead. But, I made a stand for this iPhone shape invitation so that the invitation can be displayed and people won't forget to attend the party. I got the idea for the stand from this website: Dessine moi un objet - iPhone paper dock by Julien Madérou.

I thought when I was overseas, I could work on the invitations, but I was wrong. I was so busy overseas, I could do nothing for this birthday party preparation. So, when I returned to Philippines, I continued working on the invitations day and night sacrificing my sleeping time and neglecting my children a bit. The result? My daughter fell sick! D'oh! She had high fever just when I really needed to deliver the invitations to the school. 

I'm doing all these alone, by the way. My helper helped me in cleaning the house and doing other thing in the house. I still have to cook and take care the children while doing the things for the party. My husband? He only wants to be the guest in the party. Nevermind...I'm used to do one-man show anyway...:)

So, I had no choice. I had to stop doing things for the party and take care my children first. It's God's way of reminding me what should be my priority, isnt' it? Thank God my daughter recovered in 1 day. I geared up to deliver the invitations and texted the people about this party. 

Next, the loot bag, the party peripherals, and the decorations. I had to do major shopping. And, since my budget is limited, the only place I can think of is Divisoria in Manila.

I have never gone to that place before and I heard not many people can 'survive' shopping in that place. Many of my friends fell sick after coming back from shopping at Divisoria.

But I had no choice. I had to go there to keep my budget low. No fancy shopping at high class malls! 

Praise the Lord one of my good friends was nice enough to drive me to Divisoria. She is such an expert in shopping she really helped me a lot buying and choosing things in Divisoria. That place, by the way, was not as scary as what I thought. In fact, it was really a place to do shopping as Divisoria has everything. Literally, everything! And the price is wow! Honestly, you will drool and can't stop shopping. Suddenly you'll need everything...:) I shopped and shopped and shopped from 7:30AM till lunch time! I came home looking like pretty woman with bags full of things, all Angry Birds!! The best part was I still had some money in my wallet and I survived! :) In fact, I think I'm addicted to shop in Divisoria. Ha!..:D

Then, my helper helped me to put things one by one in the loot bags while I did the design for the backdrop decorations. I also bought an Angry Bird bedsheet set. I plan to use the bedsheet as part of decorations. Lucky for me, my neighbor gave my son a birthday gift: an Angry Bird towel. So, this towel will go to the wall as a decoration as well...:) 

I also made special buckets to serve the finger food. I wrapped each bucket with an aluminum foil to cover the inside and wrapped the outside with colorful Japanese paper to pretend that each bucket is a bird-nest. It's very beautiful and cute too. I'm also surprised with how beautiful it turned out. I put a sticker of angry bird in front of the bucket.

So, the loot bags, party peripherals, and decorations are sorted out, except the balloons. I need to blow the balloons only a day before.

So, next to plan is the games and the birthday cake.

I have listed many games we plan to play including some quizzes on Angry Birds and the birthday boy. Since I made too many piñata pig head, I'm going to use 1 to play "Pass the pig head". 10 children will play this game. They will sit around and pass the pig head around while the music on. Since the pig is the most hated character in the Angry Birds game, who ever gets the pig head when the music stop, he/she will have to get out of the loop without any prizes. The last one gets the pig head will win the prize.

Another game is "Save the egg birds". In this game, the children will be divided into 3 groups consist of 5 children. Then the 1st in line has to bite a spoon with an egg on the spoon, then carries the egg to the end of line, then turn around and walk back to the group, then pass the egg to the next player in line without touching & dropping the egg. The group that completes the line first will be the winner. 

Then, the biggest game will be the life-size Angry Bird game. In this game, all big children must line up to take turn to beat or to shoot the blocks so that the pig head piñatas will fall down and then the children can take the candies. My son has tried this game before and he really had fun and sweaty all over...:D He likes it so much but it was very tiring. My son said the real Angry Birds game is more tiring than the one on my iPhone because when playing on my iPhone he only uses his 1 finger. But playing the life-size Angry Birds need him to move all of his body parts, running around to rebuild the blocks. Good exercise for him!...:D I hope other kids in the birthday party will have fun too playing this real Angry Birds game.

There will be a 7-thing ceremony as well. I plan to ask 21 of his friends to give him 7 candies to symbolize that my son will always have a sweet life, 7 books to symbolize that my son will always have a good career, 7 oranges to symbolize gold (in Chinese - as my son is half chinese) so that my son will be wealthy in the future. This 7-thing ceremony is the Philippines tradition for 7th birthday.


As for the birthday cake, I plan to make the giant birthday jelly. I'm still designing it and I still need to practice on creating the angry birds characters for the jelly decorations.

When I have some free time (which is very hard to get), I try to complete the video of my son growing up from he was born until he is 7 years old. It will allow him to walk back down the memory lane and remind him how exciting his life is and will be.

So far, these are the things I have completed and still preparing. With God's help, I really hope I can fulfill my son's dream to have a great birthday party even with a limited budget. Please pray so that this party will be a successful one. I will update this blog again most likely after the party.


I'm working on one surprise for the children. Hopefully they'll like it...:)


UPDATE: 
The dress code for the party is Angry Birds T-Shirt. So, every one in the party needs to wear Angry Birds T-shirt. I bought an original DVD of RIO - The Movie to be shown on the LCD projector during dinner so that the children will sit down nicely and enjoy the meal. I had to eliminate the 7 things ceremony because of time constraint. The party has to finish in 3 hours. 

The green pig (Angry Birds) piñata

My son's 7th birthday is coming in 2 months. Yeah...I know...still quite long. But I'm already feeling nervous since a month ago because my son wanted to have a big birthday party like his other friends who have invited him on their 7th birthday parties. 

In Philippines, the 7th birthday is a very important event. The birthday is special and it has to be celebrated as much as we can. I learn about this culture now that I've been staying here for nearly 3 years. This year particularly important since most of my son's classmates will turn 7 years old. So, since beginning of the year, my son has been invited to many birthday parties; big, grand, expensive birthday parties.

We are not Filipino, but my son really really wanted to have his 7th birthday celebrated as big and grand as his other classmates. He keeps on asking me when will his turn to invite his friends. That's why I am very nervous since a month ago, especially thinking about the budget...:) Holding a big and grand birthday party isn't a cheap business. I have to think about so many things; from what's inside the loot bags, the food, the games to add the fun in the party, and the piñata (the thing that's filled up with many candies and the children take turn to hit it until it breaks so they can take all the candies).

So, in trying my best to keep the budget low but still meet all the standards for a 7 year-old birthday party, I get my hands dirty and started to make things myself. At first I wanted to serve the food from my own kitchen complete with my own idea of presenting the food "The Angry Birds"-way. I have trained myself and tried many combination of food so I can get the shape of all Angry Birds characters on the plate. Oh by the way, my son has chosen Angry Birds as the theme for his birthday party. He loves the Angry Birds game by Rovio. But then for the food business, I don't dare to take it myself. My son has planned to invite more than 40 children, not to mention their parents and their yayas (nannies)!!..:O I can't imagine myself creating 50 Angry Birds Bento though I know it will bring down my budget! I just take the decoration, the games, and the loot bag parts. I plan to engage a professional catering business to help me to serve the food.

The first thing came into my mind was to make the Angry Birds Piñata. I checked on the internet and browsed so many information and pictures about it and how to make it. I tempted to make the Red Angry Bird for the Pinata, but I think it's not the Red Angry Bird that should get beaten, it should be the green pig just like the game. So, I started making the pinata using the 4-layers papier-marché. It took me 5 days to complete it because I have to wait for each layer to really dry in 24 hours. The 5th day was to paint it.

If you are interested in making it also, I'd be happy to share with you how to do it.

What you need:

1. 1 medium size balloon. Blow it to the desired size. The size of pinata depends on how big the balloon is.
2. Old newspapers. Tear by hand; half, then tear vertically about 3cm each. Don't use scissor because the paper will hold well when it's torn by hand.
3. White paper or paper hand towel. Also tear by hand the same as the newspaper. 
4. Glue solution. You can use flour mix with water (1:2 =  for every 1 tbsp flour you put 2 tbsp water) or you can dilute a white glue with water until you have a smooth paste but not too watery.
5. Vegetable oil 
6. Masking tape
7. Poster paint and the brush
8. A medium size bowl for the balloon to sit while you do the papier-marché on it.
9. Cardboard for the crown and the cover of candy hole.

How to make:

1. Blow the balloon to the desired size then tie up the end.
2. Sit the balloon in the bowl. Start by covering the whole area of the balloon using the vegetable oil. This is done to prevent the balloon from sticking to the newspaper. So it will be easier to pop/to release the air from the balloon later leaving the shape intact.
3. By using papier-marché technique: dip the strips of newspaper 1 piece at a time in the glue solution. Then paste it to the balloon until you cover nearly all area of the balloon, except the top part that you have to leave it uncovered by newspaper so that you can put the candy inside. Try not to cover the end of the balloon where you tie up the balloon so that you can release the air from the balloon later.
4. Keep on pasting strips of newspaper 1 layer at a time on top of each other until you complete all the area except the top part.
5. After completing 1 layer, dry it up inside a warm room for at least half a day. It took me 24 hours to dry up completely each layer because it was raining for the whole week here in Philippines.
6. I use 3 layers of newspaper strips. Then the last layer I use the white paper strips mixed with paper hand towel strips. But actually, if you want to paint the pinata, I prefer to use only white paper strips because the paper hand towel will absorb the paint and mix the colors on the pinata. But if you want to cover it with some paper crepe, then it really doesn't matter, even if you don't use the white paper layer.
7. While waiting for the white layer to dry up, I started to create the nose and the ears by using the leftover newspaper strips that I crumpled together and secured with masking tape, then I shaped the pig nose and the ears. Then I do papier-marché again on the nose and ears, dry them up. After drying up, paint them green.
8. Next I made the crown out of leftover cardboard from my grocery shopping bag. I told you I'm trying to keep the budget low. So, recycling things around the house is the best thing to do...:)
9. Once the white paper layer all dried up, you can start to decorate your own way. You can paint it or wrap around with crepe paper. Oh, before you decorate it, pop the balloon first or release the air by untying the end of the balloon. Hopefully the shape still holds.
10. I started to draw the eyes, eyebrows, and nose with pencil. Then I painted the whole area green except for the eyes and eyebrows. Don't forget to paint the eyes and eyebrows black.
11. When the paint covering the pinata dried up completely, attached the nose and ears with glue and masking tape to hold until the glue dried and the nose and ears attached nicely. Paint 2 nose holes black and paint the ear shade black like in my pinata picture above. 
12. The small whole where the end of the balloon was is used to hang the balloon while the open part that I have created earlier by not covering the balloon area with strips of newspaper, will be used to fill up the pinata with candies. After the candies are in, you can cover the whole with a hard cardboard and paint it the same color green.
13. There you have your pinata...:)
14. You can actually shape the pinata in any shape you like by attaching things on the main shape. Make sure you don't destroy the main shape...:)

My next project will be creating the beater. I plan to use a plastic bowling pin that I will take from my son's toy box and paint it with Angry Bird face...:) Hopefully the children will have fun beating this green pinata pig using the Angry bird beater...:-D

In the mean time, I still have to arrange everything else to make sure I meet my budget to hold my son's 7th birthday party. I will update this blog again as and when I have time...:)

Summer Vacation 2011 - Part 1 (Manila - Jakarta - Singapore)

Are We There Yet (Backseat Books) Kids Travel

My children and I have just come back from our lovely summer vacation this year. We spent 1.5 months traveling from Manila, Philippines, to Jakarta, Indonesia, then we spent a night in Singapore before continuing our journey to Ipoh, Malaysia. It was a great vacation because no one fell sick and no trip to doctor or hospital like last year. Praise the Lord for our tip top condition during the holiday.

Unlike last year, we didn't actually plan to visit Jakarta this year. We wanted to fly directly to Malaysia and spent our vacation there. We planned to visit Singapore while we were in Malaysia. But then I had to renew my Indonesia driving license and my Indonesia IC for they had expired this year. So, we diverted the plan to include Jakarta in our vacation. Since we had to include our stay in Jakarta for 12 days, we had to carefully budget ourselves. Unfortunately, the ticket price for Cebu Pacific direct flight to go to Jakarta from Manila was already very expensive. So, we had to look for another way to go to Jakarta. We were lucky because at that time Cebu Pacific had a promotion for Manila - Singapore vv ticket. So, we quickly opted this option. From Singapore, there were so many flights to Jakarta. We chose the cheapest one by Air Asia Indonesia. We were lucky also to be able to get the cheap ticket. We didn't really think about the long transit time from the time we landed from Manila to the time we departed to Jakarta. We didn't plan to go out of Changi Airport to save our money. We planned to stay at Changi Airport transit hotel.

So when we landed in Singapore (at Budget Terminal Changi Airport) at around an hour passed midnight, we just hang around at Changi Airport moving from Budget Terminal to Terminal 2 basement by taking a free transfer bus. We found out that we could not stay at Terminal 1 transit hotel because we had to check-in first to be able to access this hotel. We then walked and took the skytrain to go back and forth from Terminal 1 to Terminal 2. We didn't visit Terminal 3 because Air Asia Indonesia would depart from Terminal 1 at 10 o'clock in the morning. 

It was at 3 o'clock in the morning when my children found the children playground at the departure area in Terminal 2. The kids suddenly got so hyper and run around in the playground, screaming and disturbing other passengers who were trying to catch some sleep. I was already like a zombie. I was extremely tired and sleepy but I still took turn with my husband to watch the kids. 

At around 5am, the kids started to get tired and sleepy. We all walked to the Terminal 1 wanted to check in. But unfortunately, for Air Asia flight, we can only check-in 2 hours before the departure time. So, we had to wait for another 3 more hours before we were allowed to check-in. We all tried to catch some sleep by sleeping on the chairs at the departure area Terminal 1.

Finally, at 8am, we checked-in and we quickly went up to the passenger area. We found an empty spot with many couches. All of us were able to nap there until the boarding time. 

On our first day in Jakarta, all we could do just to catch our lost sleep. We tried our best to rest our body as much as possible. It was highly important for me to keep the children in tip top condition. I definitely didn't want last year bad experience to happen again (read here). 

Renewing my driving license and IC was my top priority. So on the 2nd day in Jakarta, I did just that. My dad accompanied me to go everywhere by motorbike. It was a good day for me because I could complete everything on that day. Jakarta is a lot better now in processing these things. Everything is computerized now and quite transparent. I'm very proud of the positive changes.

The rest of the days in Jakarta we spent with my beloved mom and dad, our family and friends, my nice  neighbors who cooked special dishes for me. All I did everyday was just eat and eat and eat all kinds of food that I always miss when I'm not in Indonesia. As the result, my body ballooned so fast and I gained 5kg in 12 days! 

From Jakarta, we booked Air Asia Indonesia again to fly to Singapore because this time I wanted to enter Malaysia from Ipoh, Perak. My parents joined me and the kids to continue our journey to replace my husband who had to fly back to Manila. I didn't choose Kuala Lumpur as our entry point this time because now there is Firefly plane (subsidiary of Malaysia Airlines) that serves the route from Singapore to Ipoh directly. Since Firefly only has 2 flights a day from Singapore to Ipoh, I had to book a room in Singapore so that we could catch the first flight to Ipoh the next day. I booked a deluxe room at Costa Sands Resort Downtown East. I chose this place because I wanted to take my parents to walk down the memory lane. 

Everything went smoothly when we landed in Singapore. We checked-in to the resorts and got shocked with the changes my parents and I saw there. This was our 2nd time staying in this resorts. The last time we stayed in this place was 11 years ago on my wedding day... :-)

I was super excited to walk down the memory lane with my parents. I explained to my kids everything about my life before I met their father. They got so excited as well. They love Singapore. Too bad we only stayed in this country for a night. We couldn't do much of sight seeing. For my parents, they slept most of the time. Oh well, I couldn't force them. They are aging and not as strong as 11 years ago.

The next day we had to check out at 5am. I booked a van taxi to fit all our luggages. The van took us to budget terminal Changi Airport because Firefly will depart from there.

Since this story is already very long. I have to end it here. 

Please continue reading my very exciting vacation in Ipoh, Malaysia, on the part 2 of this story.

Happy Halloween 2010

Halloween is very famous in The Philippines. It is a yearly tradition that children are looking forward to because they get a chance to collect candies/treats as many as they can during the trick or treat.

Our house subdivision always holds the Halloween party once a year. This year's theme is "Villains in the Village". We had to dress up like villains in Disney movies/Batman/Superman.

Before the party began, the children from the subdivision would go around the complex for trick or treat, then we would continue with the Halloween party. There were many competitions held during the Halloween Party; such as the best costume, the most original design, and the scariest. There was also a competition for the best decorated house.

I like to make and design everything by myself. I always try to minimize the cost as much as possible. I really enjoyed making the Halloween decoration and costumes with any recycled materials. I halfway made the trick or treat loot basket from the old newspaper, but my son preferred to have the big green pumpkin basket he saw at the mall. That pumpkin basket was the only expensive thing in my budget. It cost me 99 Pesos (= USD2.2). All other materials cost me nothing to less than 90 Pesos (= USD2). 

Since at this time in Philippines is the typhoon season, I decorated my house with Halloween decorations that can stand the rain and the wind. Although my house decoration didn't win, I'm quite happy with it. I have a witch made of garbage bag guarding my gate..:)

As for the costumes, I made my son's Chernabog (from Disney movie Fantasia) costume from garbage bag, leftover wire, and old newspapers. For my daughter's Queen of heart (from Disney movie Alice in Wonderland) costume, I made the skirt from plastic string and from what ever I have in my storage room. 

As for me, I chose to dress up as the evil Queen from Snow White Disney movie. I made my cloak from garbage bag combined with what ever I have in my closet...:)

And for my husband, since he refused to wear anything weird and scary, I asked him to dress up as Lex Luthor from Superman which required him to dress up like what he normally wears to go to work. My husband is balding, by the way, which was another reason why I chose Lex Luthor character for him... :)

The Halloween party started at 5PM but the trick or treat started at 3PM. It was raining so heavily just before 3PM. I was in doubt if I should send my children out for trick or treating. But then the rain stopped. So, I accompanied my daughter first joining all other children to walk around the subdivision collecting the treats. My son was still taking a nap. We went from one house to another house. Candies were not the only thing to be given as the treats. There were many different kinds of treats my daughter got. There was a cotton candy (with the cotton candy guy made it in front of the kids) given out by one of the house in our subdivision. There was a barbecue sausage, a cup cake, and some juice that were also given out by a different house. There was also a cup of nice lemon tea and a balloon for the children given out by another house.

After an hour and a half going around the subdivision, my daughter and I were exhausted. My left hand was aching so much because I had to carry her all the time. She refused to walk when she was afraid to see any scary figure she met on the street. It was our first time to join this kind of activity so I didn't know that we were allowed to drive around the subdivision instead of walking. I saw many parents drove their kids around subdivision. Lesson learnt...:) Next time I will just drive my kids around for trick or treating...:)

When I entered the house, my son just woke up. I quickly asked him to catch up with other kids to collect his treats, but unfortunately, the rain came back. So, he only managed to collect some candies from my neighbors. I was ready to drive him around to catch up with other kids when I realized that we already had to get ready for the Halloween party in the clubhouse. 

So, every one took shower and quickly wore our villain costumes.Within half an hour, we were already in the clubhouse. There were so many people attending the Halloween party. It was full house at the clubhouse.

When we arrived, I saw every head turned to see me. Their facial expressions were so stunned as if they just saw a ghost! They said I looked exactly like the wicked Queen in Snow White, beautiful but evil...whahaha... :-D Many people took an opportunity to take picture with me. Everyone also asked me to join the Parent-child Best costume competition. They were so sure that I would win the competition.

So, when the Parent-child competition was announced, I went up to the stage with my son. He was all black just like Chernabog from the movie Fantasia in 1940. Every one cheered and took many photographs of us. Honestly, for a moment, I felt like a movie star... :-D

After dinner was distributed, came the announcement for the best costume. I was so surprised when my son's costume won the Most Original design costume for his age category. I never expected that his costume was going to win. But every one told me that his costume was very unique because it was the only one that was hand made and was made out of recycled materials. He won a bookstore voucher worth 200 Pesos...:)

Then, I had another reason to smile, as every one had told me before, my costume won the best costume for parent-child category.... :-D My son and I won a dining voucher worth 250 Pesos from a very nice restaurant. So, total winning prize I received was 450 Pesos. I got back all the money I spent for the costume and decorations... :-D

I felt so grateful that every one was so supportive of me. They acknowledged my creativity and design. I was very happy that night. Wow! I really could not stop praising the Lord for helping me to make all these happened. I always believe in Him even on Halloween. My son and I were already quite sick during the process of making the costume and decoration. We recovered just in time for all of these.

Everyone was very happy. We all had a blast, especially my children who managed to collect 2 big pumpkin basket of candies and toys during trick or treat and during the party. We certainly look forward to attend the same party next year with a different theme... :)