Minecraft Inspired Birthday Snack Bags

My little man is celebrating his 10th birthday tomorrow.  His birthday happens to fall on a school day.  He's excited to spend his special day with his classmates.  As a simple way of celebrating his 10th birthday, Yohan will give snack bags to his classmates.

Yohan is such a big fan of Minecraft so his dad and I thought of making custom-made Minecraft bags. We bought green fabric bags and printed a pattern of the Minecraft Creeper.  Jules traced the pattern on an illustration board and used a cutter to define the significant parts.  With a bit of black spray paint, we managed to mark each bag with a Creeper's face. 

A snack bag won't be complete without goodies. We're going to fill each bag with chips, biscuits, pretzels, chocolates, and juice. Every bag will have a tag to mark Yohan's 10 birthday.

 

40 Random Things (Part II)

Continuation ....

21.  I believe that if you can’t say anything nice, it’s always best to keep quiet.

22.  A little kindness goes a long way.  Never underestimate the power of a kind gesture or a smile.

23.  I’m always fascinated with nature. I love watching the sunrise and the sunset. I love seeing flowers bloom, butterflies fluttering, and birds singing. The full moon never fails to catch my attention.

24.  I love capturing special moments. Taking pictures make me happy.

25.  I regret many things in life. I learned that in order to attain peace within, the first step is letting go. Once you do, moving on is easier.

26.  The people you love can sometimes break your heart too. Open your heart to forgiveness.

27.  Driving still remains a dream. May be one day, I can find the courage to go behind the wheel.

28.  I’m not a perfect mom but I’m trying my best to be a good one.

29.  I’m thankful for my writing job. I learn something new from every topic I write.

30.  Kare-kare will always be my favorite Filipino dish.

31.  I don’t want to think of myself as a middle-aged woman. I always want to feel young.

32.  I love bags. I wish I could buy as many bags as I want.

33.  I have a small closet. I wish I can have a walk-in closet in the future.  

34.  When the Internet is down, I feel down.

35.  I enjoy watching horror films even though my fear always gets the best of me. The Walking Dead is currently my favorite TV program.

36.  I’m thankful to modern gadgets.  I can easily connect with my loved ones in the States.

37.  I’m happy that Bruno, my Labrador is still going strong at the age of 13.

38.  I have my own share of flaws. I’m impatient, impulsive and I tend to worry about small things.

39.  Life is full of opportunities. Never be afraid to try something new.

40.  I don’t know what the future has in store for me. I only pray that God will continue to bless me and the people I love. 

40 Random Things (Part I)

Today I turn 40. It's another milestone in life that I'm grateful for. Let me share 40 random things I've learned, realized, and discovered in this lifetime. 

1. It’s never too late to start exercising. I’m thankful that I found the motivation to walk and run around the village. 
2. 8K is possible after all. Who knows, maybe I have the strength and endurance to run/walk up to 10K.
3. Biking is fun. I just bought a mountain bike and I’m rediscovering how fun it is to be on two wheels. 
4. It feels great to lose weight and enjoy shopping again. When I was overweight, I was always frustrated when I go shopping for clothes. I just hope I can maintain my weight now. 
5. I can finally wear dresses again.
6. Getting gray hair is not the end of the world. Thank goodness for hair coloring products. 
7. I have the best parents in the world. They are kind, understanding, generous, and selfless. I love them very much. 
8. I admire my brother for being so wise and responsible in life. I may be older than him but sometimes he’s more like my kuya. 
9.  My yaya (nanny) has taken care of me since I was a baby. I’m blessed that she chose to stay with me all these years. 
10. I'm thankful to have a loving, supportive, and kind husband.  He gives me strength and hope.
11. I have a wonderful son who inspires and motivates me to face challenges and continue dreaming. 
12. Home is where the heart is. I realized that there’s no better place than home. 
13. Life is not perfect but once you overlook at the imperfections, you’ll realize that life has so many beautiful things to be grateful for. 
14. Life is a learning process.  There's always something new worth discovering and exploring.
15. Disappointments are part of life. Learn from your mistakes. When you fail, there’s no harm in trying again. As long as there’s life, anything is possible.
16. I cannot please everybody. It’s a waste of energy to get rattled by what other people think of you. 
17. Focus on the positive things in life. 
18. I haven’t conquered my fear of heights but I gathered the courage to ride the Ferris wheel and the roller coaster. I’m still hoping to experience the zipline. 
19. I love happy endings. I will always be a romantic at heart. 
20. People come and go but real friends are there for keeps.

Photo Hunt :: Colorful

Come and join PhotoHunt

My son had a fun 7th birthday celebration in school a few weeks ago. My husband and I brought some food for the kids and gave each one a personalized birthday token. In lieu of the usual loot bags filled with candies and chocolates, we gave them these colorful miniature pots with wooden animal clips. We had the kids' names printed to give the giveaways a nice touch.

How To Make a Cupcake Tower

For our son's recent birthday celebration, hubby made a simple 3-tier cupcake tower from scratch. It was fun and relatively easy to do. Even the birthday boy helped out.

Interested to make your DIY cupcake tower? Here are the materials and simple steps.

You will need: 
2 large Styrofoam boards
2 even sized Styrofoam squares
ruler or measuring tape
marker
decorative paper (or fabric)
scissors
cutter
tape
glue
long and thin wooden stick (BBQ stick can be used)

Procedure:

1. Cut 3 Styrofoam squares measuring: *8x8, 10x10 and 12x12. Use a ruler or measuring tape to get precise measurements. Use a marker when making measurements so you can easily cut the proportions using a cutter.

2. Cover the Styrofoam boards and squares with decorative paper or fabric. For paper, you can use craft glue. For fabric, it is better to use glue gun.

3. Connect the pieces using wooden sticks. You also have the option to glue them permanently.

4. Clean the surface of the tiers. You can gently wipe the decorative paper or fabric with paper towel. Arrange the cupcakes starting from the last level going up.

Enjoy!

* You can also use round Styrofoam boards or ready made cake boards measuring: 1×8″, 1×10″, 1×12″. Replace Styrofoam squares with cylinders.

Yohan is Featured in K-Zone Magazine

Yohan loves reading K-Zone. He has a bag filled of old K-Zone magazines at home that he likes reading every now and then. I always make it a point to buy him a new one every month and I even cover each one with plastic.

Several months ago, he asked me if it was possible for him to be featured in the section Birthday Bits. I said it was possible but I told him not to have high hopes. I made it clear that the magazine can only choose one celebrant for that section each month. I didn't want him to be disappointed in case they choose another July celebrant instead of him.

I helped Yohan send an email to K-Zone with his picture and short details around 3 months ago.  We didn't get any reply or feed back.

The K-Zone July issue is now out. I grabbed a copy and I was so happy to see my little boy in the magazine. Yohan was thrilled when he saw his picture.

I'm grateful to K-Zone for featuring my son. It's a nice advance birthday gift for him. Yohan's picture appeared again in the magazine's July calendar sheet. :)

Birthday Haiku For Jules

Today is special,
Blowing wishes in the air,
Grasp, hold tight for keeps.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Happy Birthday Jules! I love you.

Weekend Snapshot #82 - Yohan's 6th Birthday

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Yohan turned six years old last July 18. It has been six meaningful and wonderful years. Jules and I are grateful to God for giving us such a fun loving and sweet son.

Below are some photos of Yohan's birthday celebration at home...

Yohan's Transformer Cake

Hubby cooked all the food for the birthday dinner ...

Birthday celebrant with a big smile

Carbonara

Chicken Fingers

Mixed Tempura (shrimp, crab stick and assorted veggies)

Kamameshi Rice

California Maki

Tamago (Japanese omelet)

Apple in Red Wine with honey and nuts

Blowing of the birthday candles ...

Yohan's Tito Norman lighting the birthday candles

May your wish(es) come true.

Dinner time

One of the highlights of the evening was the game Yohan prepared for his grandmas, aunts and uncles. The game was called "How well do you know Yohan?" I helped my son prepare simple questions about himself and numbered them accordingly. I prepared small pieces of paper with nos. 1-14 and Yohan asked each guest to draw a number.

Yohan served as the Game Master. He read the questions one at a time. Each correct answer was equivalent to one prize. The prizes consisted of small practical items like mug, foldable hamper, lotion, powder, cologne, post-it pads with pencils, hand sanitizers, cellphone holder, chamois, etc. Guests who provided wrong answers were asked to return the numbers inside the container. There was a second round of question-and-answer for those who didn't make it on the first one. At the end, everyone got a prize. It was a simple yet fun game. Everyone had a great time especially the Game Master himself.

Two possible answers: Optimus Prime and Bumblebee

Jules preparing the last dessert for the evening.

Chocolate Salami served with Kapeng Barako (Batangas coffee).

Yohan was very happy with the gifts he received that night...

Transformers and Ben 10

Kindness Goes a Long Way

This post is dedicated to Jo of Wits and Nuts. I would like her belated Happy Birthday and Happy 2nd Blog Anniversary. To celebrate these two special occasions, she is having a
blog giveaway.

Jo's challenge: Make someone you personally know AND a stranger (or not so stranger) happy (happier) or feel better.

Someone I Know

"Kind words can be short and easy to speak but their echoes are truly endless." - Mother Teresa

I'm blessed to have a kind and nurturing yaya (nanny). She has taken good care of me since I was a baby. I'm thankful that she decided to stay with our family through the years. She is like a second mom to me.

Just the other day I embraced my yaya and whispered "I love you." I'm sure she knows how much she means to me but I'm sure saying the words aloud made her feel good and vise versa.

Not So Stranger

"When you carry out acts of kindness you get a wonderful feeling inside. It is as though something inside your body responds and says, yes, this is how I ought to feel." - Harold Kushner

A few days ago while I was making a cheese sandwich for my son, I heard the distinctive sound of the grass cutter outside. I checked and saw two village maintenance personnel cutting the grass in the nearby vacant lots. I hurriedly made two more sandwiches and asked our household helper to give it to the working men outside. The men conveyed their thanks. It was a very small gesture but it felt good knowing that I was able to do something nice that day.

Wordless Wednesday #65

I'm one day behind but I hope it's still OK if I still post my WW. :)

Yohan is celebrating his 6th Birthday this coming Saturday. He will have a post birthday celebration in school next week. I've been busy looking for small birthday giveaways for my son's classmates. I found cute little little ponies and zebras (stuffed toys) for the girls. You can see a sample on my other blog. Hope you can go there to check out my Wordless Wednesday #65. For the boys I bought mini cars. I still need to buy sweet treats to put inside the loot bags.

Weekend Snapshot #79 - Bratz Party

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My family and I attended the 7th birthday party of my niece, Alex last Saturday. It was a Bratz theme party. We all had a wonderful time especially Yohan.

The host of the party did a magnificent job providing the entertainment. He was a funny comedian, a great balloon twister, a great game master and a terrific magician.



Yohan joined a lot of games and he won many prizes. Below is a fun game of "chef on the go". The kids were grouped into two. The kids took turn wearing the chef hat and holding the frying spatula with a toy egg. Each participant had to run around a chair before handing out the props to the next kid. Yohan (wearing the printed blue shirt) is on the move in this shot.


Even the adults had a great time participating in some of the games. Below you can see my cousin (wearing green) and hubby (wearing gray) participating in the "guess the title of the movie". The host played songs from random movies and the participant who hit the buzzer first got the chance to make a guess. Each correct answer gave the corresponding group 1 point. When I took this shot, the score was 2-4 (in favor of hubby's group). Hubby and his group mates won this game.


Here is Alex's lovely Bratz cake with matching Bratz cookies. For party favors, mini back packs with fun goodies inside were given away (pink for girls and blue for boys).


Yohan got one Bratz cookie and gave it to me. We brought home these chocolate giveaways too. It was a great and fun party. We gave the birthday celebrant a cute Bratz magic eight ball (unfortunately I wasn't able to take a picture of the present).

Weekend Snapshot #76

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Last Saturday, Hubby and I attended the Luau Birthday party of Yana (our friend's daughter). Sadly we weren't able to bring Yohan because it was raining really hard that day. Yohan just recovered from cough and colds so we thought it best not to bring him along. He had a Hawaiian shirt ready for the occasion but we just didn't want to risk him getting sick again. We missed Yohan the whole time we were there.

Yana's Lilo and Stitch cake and cupcakes.

The lovely 3D cake up close.

I love the cute 3D cupcakes.

Chanda (the celebrant's mom) gave me a Stitch cupcake to bring home to Yohan.

Personalized M&M's

Some of you showed interest about the Personalized M&M's I shared on my earlier post. I found out that those birthday souvenirs were ordered from the States. I think it's so cool that you can personalize M&M's with your own words, faces and colors. They are great for party favors.


You can order your own Personalized M&M's on this site. Below is a screen shot of the site where you can have your favorite M&M's custom printed as desired.