One cool thing about being parents is having an excuse to throw parties all the time - parties celebrating our children's milestones. I know for a fact that Von and I have thrown more parties in the last four years than during the first thirty years of our lives combined. As for me, I live for the planning. I love choosing a menu, I love picking out a theme, I love doing DIYs. If money were not an issue, I would probably throw Elise a party just because. (Now the stress on the other hand… that's something else.) For Elise's fourth birthday, we weren't initially planning to hold a party for her since she just had a Jollibee party last year. A month before her birthday, we decided to hold one anyway seeing that this was our first year in Riyadh, our first time to gather our friends here. We chose to have a party at home for three reasons: 1) because we thought we had a big enough place (and while we have not that many furniture yet); 2) also as a housewarming party; and 3) frankly, I have no idea what venue to book if we were to hold it outside. Now considering we chose to have the party at home, I didn't think I would get stressed. But I did. In Pinas, I had a set list of trustworthy suppliers I could have easily booked. Booking a caterer, photographer, photo booth supplier, easy. I have a super talented sorority sister who makes amazing custom cakes. I knew where to go to have invites printed, where to buy loot bags and small toys for giveaways, where to look for little pails for the table centerpiece. Here, nada. I had to start from scratch. I had to research A LOT, ask some mommy friends from the Embassy for recommended suppliers, message suppliers who never bothered replying back. It stressed me a bit. Our theme, Super Mario, was also not very popular here and so we had a hard time shopping for decorations - I had to ask my sister living in the US to buy Elise's Princess Peach costume and send it here via postal service. She was super kind enough to also buy wall decals and hangings which I used for the decors. And to think we didn't even throw a full-scale birthday party. (Note: start planning Mira's first birthday party this early!!!) (Sorry, if you haven't noticed by now, I become a momzilla whenever I plan my kids' parties. Hehe.) In the end, everything worked out well. We had the best time entertaining our friends from the Embassy and also the few friends we've made outside. The best part was seeing Elise so happy. When we moved here, it really broke my heart to see her say goodbye to the friends she had made at Gymboree, and to her cousins from Bulacan and Cavite. Seeing her here having a good time with her new friends, really uplifted my spirits. I will try in a few days to come up with a review of our suppliers: Riyadh Marriott Hotel for our caterer, and Bueno Cakes for the custom cake. For now, let me just say that they were simply superb and we couldn't be any happier.
I will also try to post some of my Super Mario DIYs for some ideas when throwing your own Super Mario-themed birthday party. 'Til the next party! Photos by our talented photographer Norman Cunanan of Nhorms 143.
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