Little Mao celebrates his 1st year of LIFE!

I had 15 days to come up with the best FIRST birthday party for my Little Mao. Although at 6 months of age, I already knew what kinda party to throw. My Mikko loves Sesame Street to my delight because I grew up with the characters so I already envisioned the kind of birthday event we will be having. I didn’t want to splurge so much and stay practical so I made a 10K budget to make my SESAME STREET party happen. 

Now I have this idea that in order to get things done I must make invitations first and give them early on for my motivation. To save $, I made, designed and printed the invitations myself. 

Then I got T-shirts for *ALL* of us…

Everybody happy? That’s right!

Along with other printed materials like the party banners and banderitas, I also made the goodie bag tags, play money for use to buy food (just for fun!), gift certificates as prizes for the party games (such as the classic Filipino “pabitin" and break the pot), and props for the photobooth.

And to add more color to the party, we set up a NAIL COLOR “booth" so everyone else can get colorful nails like I did. Kikayness. A sure treat for the yayas and the moms.

Along with the super fun photobooth by SALA Lounge + Café (ahem!) and nail color areas, we rented a local cotton candy machine maker, put up a hotdog/marshmallow table, and bought 6 gallons of delicious local Batangueño (dirty) ice cream. It’s not dirty per se but that’s what it’s called and we kids here in Ormoc City grew up eating this awesome cheap local treat.

The cake & cupcakes were given as a gift from Ninang Ishshah Franco-Kangleon of Buttercup Boutique & Novelty Shop, my pretty sis-in-law and made by Julina Larrazabal-Algarra. The balloons and tables were from This & That, the premier gift shop here in town. Paid for as a gift from Mikko’s great grandparents. :P Aren’t we lucky? Hehe. We were also blessed by generous sponsors for the food prepared. Also we are fortunate to have people working and volunteering to get the party going. Shout outs to Yaya Mila, Tatay Bobby, Mianne, Liny, Melinda, Diday, Dorothy, Diane, Anrie, Yaya Maricel, Yayo Marjun as well as our cousins, friends, and neighbors Cecil, Rae Ann, Tita Agnes, Celsa, Tita Baday for all your help.

We thanked the Lord above for the gift of life before celebrating Mikko’s birthday even though he kept crying and screaming at church either because he got hungry or it was too hot. (Better than a rainy day, right?)

Okay, I think the rest of these photos below should speak for themselves.

It was indeed a truly remarkable and unforgettable birthday party that I hope Mikko will appreciate when he’s older and sees the photos we’ve taken to remind us all of the fun we had celebrating his FIRST birthday party. It was tiring really but it was all worth it. Anything for our baby boy.

We love you, Little Mao. Wishing you many more happy years ahead!

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mikKOMIKs #1: Mikko & Mackenzie "Together Again"

So I’ve decided to create a series of comics for Little Mao. I’m calling it "mikKOMIKs" and it will be featuring Mikko and his friends. I do enjoy creating stories and what better way to tell it than comics! Hopefully a few years from now when Little Mao knows how to read, he’s gonna love viewing them. 

But first let me introduce Mackenzie. Cathy gave birth to him a month before Mikko was born. We had almost the same due date but poor Mackenzie was born premature due to some complications in Cathy’s pregnancy. Nevertheless, he’s also quite the bouncing baby boy. Photo below was taken after Mikko’s Christening in September 2011.

Starring Mikko and Mackenzie… 9 months later. Mikko is now 10 months old and Mackenzie is 11 months old.

Bromance? Nahhh… hopefully these boys will also have each other’s backs like us (The Barks) and become really good friends like Cathy, PM (the dad), NoodleBoy, and me. 

Til the next comic! Stay tuned…

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Sinulog Over the Years: One step forward, two steps backward.

Sorry for not updating so much over the past weeks. You know how it goes as your child demands more of your time. Balancing time for work has been really challenging as well. Though, I have videos posted every now and then on Youtube, in case you want to see more of Mikko’s progress and milestones. It’s pretty fun watching this adorable little boy grow up and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. You can also see some of Little Mao’s intagram photos in my Tumblr photoblog.

Anyways, for this post I’m going to blog about Mikko Vincenzo’s first Sinulog experience. Though we didn’t go to Cebu (again!) this year because this time I didn’t want to travel with a little kid with me just yet. Perhaps when Mikko’s older and he can walk, stand, or at least sit by himself then we’ll take him some place for his first travel experience. For now, we celebrated Sinulog right here in good ol’ Ormoc City.

When I was smaller as you can see, my grandma always took me to Sinulog and dance with the Sto. Niño. As I grew older, I would still do it. This is is probably the ONLY time you will ever see me “dance". One step forward, two steps backward. How hard can it be? :D

 

But this year was even more special. Because Mikko was with me! 

I was taught to celebrate Sinulog the way I think it should be. Dancing with the Sto. Niño and celebrating the innocence of childhood. Not partying and getting drunk as heck like what is happening now. Some people forget the real celebration of Sinulog and the devotion to the Sr. Sto. Niño.

The carnival and the festival are just highlights. The real show is the reenactment of how the Sto. Niño came to Cebu and the presentation of the image to Queen Juana and the other various interpretation of the story. I’m not really a big fan of religion, but there are some traditions I do observe and put my faith into. The Sr. Sto. Niño being one of them.

I look forward to more Sinulog stories as Mikko grows up. I might even dress him up as one in the coming years and join a parade. Tee hee.

Pit Senyor, kang Mikko kini!!!

Until then!

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He's got a name... and the name's MIKKO VINCENZO.

And so officially, my baby boy finally got his birth certificate registered (after a couple of issues regarding misspellings which had to be corrected ASAP) and last weekend, we got him baptized.

No big celebration here, just the godparents and some close family friends and relatives to join us. 

Check out photos below:

Boy, time does fly so fast not just when you’re having fun… but when you’re growing up! Can’t believe it’s just this year when I got married, got pregnant, and now got an extremely adorable lil fellow that I can call my own! ;)

How did the first 3/4 of 2011 treat you so far?

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