Joshua turns 1!
Almost half a year in the making, our celebration of Joshua’s milestone 1st birthday was a day of thanksgiving for the miracle that is our son.
Location, location
We started scouting for a venue in January, panicking a little after realizing how popular Memorial holiday parties were, and how most places were already booked on that particular weekend. We eventually decided to have it at the clubhouse inside our village. Incidentally, this is the same place where we had my bridal shower and both baby showers. An added bonus — it has an adjacent gameroom that was well-utilized during the actual party.
The theme is everything
Choosing a theme for someone whose main interests are putting things in his mouth and then throwing them on the floor was extremely difficult. But we did notice Joshua’s propensity towards athletic activities (basketball, golf), and he does have a great pitch. So a sports theme it is!
It’s all in the details
The save the dates, invites, tarps, stickers, sports flags, photo mosaic were all courtesy of the ever-reliable, ultra-talented, mega-patient Melisse. It is a joy to work with her, and obviously, I am very, very satisfied with how everything turned out. The quality of the magazine-type invite was just amazing, much better than I had envisioned. It garnered a lot of rave reviews from our guests.
All the (heavy) stuff were especially carried from the RP to the US by our very kind Tito Nestor.
We gave out sports bottles with goodies (kids) and gatorade (adults) as souvenirs. Melisse designed a special “Joshuade” sticker to personalize our thank you tokens.
Accumulating prizes for the games was no easy feat so we collected it all over the course of several weeks.
And to quench my thirst for D-I-Y, I created a guestboard with matching guestcards, as well as picture banderitas.
May 24, 2008
The day started early for Chris and I as we set out to decorate the clubhouse, with the assistance of Ninong Ferdie. By 1PM, we were at Party City purchasing the balloons. And while I did some finishing touches, Chris went back and forth transporting party goods and supplies from our house to the venue.
It was exhausting to say the least. But we would endure anything for our precious Joshua.
Paparazzi
Call time was 4PM and guests trickled in early. As soon as we arrived, Stacy started taking photos of the birthday boy…
…and our family.
And as always, Stacy’s work did not disappoint. Just take a peek at these photos of some of the kids — aren’t they adorable?
We are extremely pleased with all the details and emotions she was able to capture. With her pictures, we can relive that special day any day. Stacy has given us a time capsule… and it is priceless.
That is how we feel about photos — it’s all about catching those important moments and freezing them forever.
So you can just imagine our delight when our next-door neighbor Laura offered to take additional pictures. I was in her home last weekend browsing through the photos (I will post these separately), and I was in awe. Thank you Laura. We are very honored to be your first “customers”.
Of course, digicams of family and friends flickered all afternoon. And we would especially like to thank the Tamayos for tirelessly uploading their shots and sharing them with us.
The third picture in the previous set is Charlie, our very patient videographer. He created a compilation of Joshua’s 1st year photos/videos shown during the party. Watching it was a nostalgic and emotional experience. Once again… priceless.
Food fetish
The first agenda of the afternoon was to enjoy the sumptuous meal lovingly prepared by both Lolas, Ninang Coy and friends of the family. Some of the food, we ordered. But everything was superb!
Our menu consisted of yummy nachos with a cream cheese-salsa dip for starters; spaghetti, pizza, hotdogs, and chicken lollipop for the kids; pancit, lumpiang shanghai, vegetable lumpia, puto & dinuguan, chopseuy, steamed fish, sweet & sour fish, grilled salmon, embutido, beefsteak, lechon paksiw and crispy lechon for the adults; cassava cake, leche flan, fresh fruits, turon and a delectable crema de fruta cake for dessert.
As everyone relished the feast, rain poured heavily outside, quite similar to the “shower of blessings” we experienced during Joshua’s baptism. The rain eventually cleared and then Anthony arrived.
Clowning around
We met Anthony at a friend’s daughter’s birthday party and then tracked him down through here. The kids (and the adults) had a ball!
We played a “bring me” game…
…the “galabato game”, a twist to the familiar “hot potato” (this was a real riot — take a look at Topher’s smile).
…then he twisted balloons for the kids
…and led everyone to sing the birthday song.
Sweet delight
We again elicited the services of Merrielee of Cakes etc to create Joshua’s birthday cake. She is very creative and her cakes are scrumptious and moist. Joshua’s masterpiece was a basketball atop a jersey with his name and number. Ahia Topher and friend Ryan took care of blowing out the candles. Josh didn’t mind as long as he got to eat his share of cake.
And while the guests dug into their sweet treat, Lola Sally rounded up the kids for more games (pinata, pabitin, trivia challenge).
The state of being grateful
It truly was an amazing, fun-filled day. And though Joshua is still a tad young to digest all that was going on, we are pretty sure that he too had a wonderful time. We know his Kuya Topher had a blast. Our boys definitely made all the hard work worth it.
We’d like to thank everyone who took the time to celebrate with us (both in person and in spirit). Below are some posed photos of our guests.
We thank you for your prayers all through the past year, and request that you continue the same. Joshua is a happy and healthy boy, and we really couldn’t ask for more. We’d like to leave you with a few more after-party photos of the ‘Fantastic Four’ (Josh, Topher, Ben & KM) taken with our trusty Sony…
…as well as pictures of Joshua and Topher opening gifts during the party, and again at home.
At last, our chronicle of Joshua’s 1st birthday is now complete. Thank you for coming this far and ’till the next party!
~The Lim Family
