Here in the Philippines there is a practice of throwing big blow out parties for your kid’s 1st, 5th and 7th birthday. We’ve never followed this. In fact I’ve never thrown Diplo Baby a big party. It’s always been just a few family and friends at home with reused and DIY Decor by yours truly, or once it was in his favorite restaurant. Below is how we simply celebrated DiploBaby’s first 3 birthdays here in Manila.
DIY Scandi Mint Themed 1st Birthday at Home
For DiploBaby’s First birthday party, I reused decor from my baby shower and his baptism and had a classy mint green-themed party. To make it more special I created a shadow box with fairy lights and pictures of him from each month of his life.
I ordered the most delicious cake and spiked cupcakes (for the adults) from HIC Cupcakes – unfortunately they no longer operate in Manila. I called her them exactly 2 weeks before the party and showed them a peg from Pinterest, and she personally delivered the beautiful cake on the day of the event! It was so easy to transact with them! I was really sad that they moved!
I also found amazing food that we could just cook or reheat from Arlene’s Cuisine. It was a hit! Everybody kept asking if I made the food! Thankfully I didn’t have to because I had Tita Arlene to thank! So for my son’s big 4th birthday party (my next post!), we got her as our caterer for our merienda (snack time) food and also for the tables and chairs to fill out the function room in our venue.
DiploBaby’s 2nd Birthday in Cibo
For his 2nd birthday, TD was in charged and he kept it super simple – no decor whatsoever. He booked a table in DiploBaby’s favorite place to eat, CIBO in Greenbelt. One of the reasons it’s his favorite is because we can bring DiploDog with us when we eat in Cibo, as long as we are in the exterior part of the restaurant, which is still airconditioned. He was super happy that our neigbors and his best friends Lucy and Andy could make it. Here is a cute video from their dad of them singing together after eating:
DiploBaby loves the Spaghettini Tartufatta & the Quattro Formaggi Pizza there. At that time Baskin Robbins ice cream store was just next door so we ordered a custom racecar-themed ice cream cake and it really made his day. He loved that he could play with the toy car toppers afterwards!
What I learned from this experience is that babies don’t really need all the decor, and they are happy with good food, a good cake or ice cream cake and their best friends!
DiploBaby’s 3rd Birthday at Home
On his Third Birthday, we were struggling with TD doing chemo and still learning how to walk with crutches after his Bone Cancer operation – where they had to cut a part of his left leg to do a bone graft on his right leg after they removed the cancerous portion. Those were some tough times for our family, in all senses including financially. So we only had TD’s family over for lunch at home.
Again, I reused decor that I already had and we ordered 2pcs of DiploBaby’s favorite Chocolate mousse cake from Top of The Citi by Chef Jessie which is just near us. We got 2 cakes so that DiploBaby could also blow a candle with his playschool classmates.
For his playschool it was very easy – we just ordered a lot of French Fries from McDonalds and repacked it. The toddlers looked pretty happy having a Cake and Fries Party. The sturdy whale themed paper plates and red and white striped wax paper for fries were both from from Crate and Barrel, while the gold and white napkins were from H&M Home.
Look how grateful my beloved only son is for such a simple treat. You’ll notice the same reused decor!
This year, his 4th Birthday, we wanted to throw a slightly bigger party because it may be his last birthday in Manila before we get posted. And after so many sad life events this year…
- TD getting diagnosed with a 2nd primary cancer – colon cancer – a mere 12months after he was diagnosed with bone cancer last February 2019
- Then my grandma (who was my mother figure my whole life) died last April 2019 exactly on TD’s birthday
We feel that we want to create some happy and positive memories for our son on his 4th birthday.
We decided on a Scandinavian LEGO themed party. Here you can read about how I mostly-DIYed DiploBaby’s LEGO Party!
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