Sprinkle Party (Part 2)

Today I…wanted to share with you pictures of some of the details from my daughter’s 1st SPRINKLE THEMED birthday party. Just a little background…my husband originally told me that if we had a big baptism party than her first birthday will be small. BUT…I couldn’t do it! He was SO mad! He gave me (somewhat jokingly) a budget of $200 for her 1st birthday party. I was like… $200? !! I can’t even buy food with that. So..nonetheless, I had to be creative! DIY party for sure!

I decided to make it a SPRINKLE party/breakfast theme…it was a little cheaper bc breakfast foods are typically cheaper..and I already had a bunch of colorful paper and such so I could just reuse all of that. It was held in my parents backyard which we cleaned the weekend before. (so much work!) I love it though because it’s spacious and has an amazing view! Thank you mom and dad for allowing us to host her party at the house!

Okay, first the food… since that was the highlight to me!!

We had a waffle/pancake station where guests could “sprinkle” whatever toppings they wanted (berries, bananas, whipped cream, etc.) We also had a scrambled egg station with various toppings such as bacon, sausage, spinach, cheese, etc.

Also, thank you Sylvie for the amazing egg quiches! People actually came up to me asking if there was anymore!

Then…for the diabetics..we had a “SWEETS” table with..well, more sweets than I could even handle!

Special thanks to my cousin Lauren, Risha, Yvette, and Johanna for making all the goodies! (Thank God for the bakers in my life!)

Then, my husband approved a mimosa bar (per a special request from my friend Jenelee). I know..I know.. a mimosa bar at a 1st birthday party!?! Don’t judge! It only costed $6/bottle at Sam’s club so it’s hard to pass up!
Are you tired of all the polka dots yet??

We also threw together a quick “Kids Zone” bc I didn’t want to be in charge of any games so just decided to have some stuff for kids to do. In my opinion, it was a success!

Oh! And I totes almost forgot about the cereal bar we had! Duh! Who doesn’t love cereal!

And..last minute idea..we threw in a Headband making station so the older kids and adults could have something to do! Such a success! So glad we decided to have it. (Thank you Holly for setting this one up..literally at the same time the party was starting!)
And…the cake (Thank you to my cousin Yvette!), party hats, and the goodie bags!

Oh..and by the way..the budget didn’t actually stay within the one my husband gave me! (impossible!) However, I was able to keep a lot of costs down by asking people to make things. Thank goodness for the amazing people in my life!!!

My Daughter’s First Birthday (Part 1)

Today I…compiled all of my pictures (finally) to share with you my lovely readers. It was an amazing birthday party, so much fun to plan and I had so much fun throwing it!

First..a couple pictures from her ACTUAL birthday. We celebrated with just us 3, an intimate family dinner and some macarons. (Mmm!) We were really adamant on keeping her away from any desserts until her 1st birthday. I was pretty shocked how disciplined we were. Nonetheless, she was IN LOVE with the macaron (vanilla flavored) we gave her.

Check out her cutsie outfit her DAD picked out! Good job babe! (And, he even combed her hair for the photos!)

We sang Happy Birthday and tried to teach her how to blow out her candles..haha..that was unsuccessful. She likes blowing fake candles though!

And then…it got messy!

Then we let her crawl around outside while we set up for her party.

 

 

My Birthday Antics!

Today I… Thought I’d reminisce on an amazing birthday weekend I just had! First, let me give a special special thanks to my wonderful husband who spoiled me with lots of fun activities and good food this weekend, my kind of way to celebrate turning 27! (Whoa!)

It started off with dinner at The Back Abbey in downtown Claremont. Even though Eddie and I already ate… We met up my sister and her fiancé just to join in on the good eats and good company. I loved sitting outside in the patio even though it started to rain. I don’t know, there was just something about it. The atmosphere and the ambiance of the restaurant was exactly what I’d been looking for. My sister invited a friend from high school named Vince. He is such a nice guy who is super smart and graduated from Berkeley. He also invited 2 of his girlfriends from college and we ended up getting along with them very well. So, I recommended we go get Sangria from this Spanish restaurant called Viva Madrid (one of my favorite restaurants of all time). It was walking distance so we all walked there together. I was a little nervous bc one of the girls, named Jesi, had just come back from the REAL Madrid, Spain and her expectations were naturally pretty high. Nevertheless, it was a hit!! Everyone loved the drinks, dessert, and coziness of the restaurant. And I was happy bc everyone approved of my recommendation! (Doesn’t really happen very often! Ha!)

So, we stayed until closing just talking and playing ice breakers (I love getting to know people this way, I’m so weird!). After Viva Madrid, we thought the night was going to end. It would’ve been a perfect closing, but our adventure-hungry selves couldn’t resist! (Especially bc we had babysitters!) Thus, in an effort to keep the night going, we ended up driving down to the old neighborhood where I grew up (West Covina/Covina) and exploring downtown with our new friends who were from the area. By this time, it was already passed 1am but we didn’t care! We kept saying to ourselves “the night is young!” hoping not to be the first to call it a night (even though I was honestly tired already! I’m pretty lame.)

Anyway, we ended up in this trashy, dive bar called Chatterbox. All of us were like, “Where are we? How did we end up here?” That pretty much defined our entire attitudes the rest of the night. It started drizzling as we left the bar and headed home. I was so grateful for a night to feel young again! It was as if we were in college again reliving our bar-hopping days, except by the end of the night we had to sober up and pick up our child. Good times!

That was just Friday. I don’t have any pictures from that night, but maybe it’s better as a memory just in my head.

To be continued…

Playmates for Life…

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Ever since I was younger, my little sister was my playmate. We used to play house, dress up in my mom’s funky clothes, ride down the stairs on a blanket, watch Wizard of Oz in fear, eat a lot of Top Ramen and spam, and play hide-and-seek in the dark.

Well, when we got older, our games turned into shopping adventures. We”d go thrifting, to the mall, to TJMaxx with our grandma, and always (no matter where we were) meet up our Mom when she was in her shopping mood (which came once a year). Now, more recently, since she working with the big leagues and we live a little far from each other, we can only play on the weekends. Our play dates usually consist of crafting, or she showing me what she bought at her recent thrift adventures, hanging out with the guys, watching HIMYM and catching up on episodes to all of our shows, playing Sequence or Banagrams on our occasional game night adventures, and dancing. We’ve always managed to stay close and overcome any conflicts/fights/bad moods that every sibling goes through which thankfully makes me proud to not only have her as my sister, but as one of my best friends.

Did I mention she inspires me?? She is so talented and creative that I just want to be..not just like her..but be her sometimes! She was the maid of honor at my wedding. She was the design/creative mind behind my wedding planning, bridal showers, and baby showers. She’s such a pro at everything!

Well, today…is her birthday! And, I don’t know when she’ll read this post, but I wanted to surprise her and wish her the best birthday ever! I recently was reminded of how much she really meant to me when she vacationed in Tahiti for 2 weeks and I had no ability to communicate with her. I would literally dial her number or try to face time her knowing she wouldn’t pick up…and check my email a couple times a day to see if she wrote me. Oh man..i’m so lame, aren’t I?

Anyway, Happy Birthday sis! This post will have to do until we can play again…soon, I promise!

May God bless you today on your special day as I send you my prayers and a lot of smiles  your way.