Happy 4th Birthday

It was Eli's 4th birthday last week.

Leading up to his birthday we asked him how he wanted to spend his special day? And of course what he wanted as a present. He wanted an Iron Man costume and he wanted to go to the aquarium. We were surprised by his request to go to the aquarium because last time we went, he was scared of everything. You can see some pictorial evidence here.

On the day of his birthday he put on his new Iron Man costume and off we went to the aquarium. One of his God Parents and his son joined us. Us parents were pleasantly surprised how well the kids took to the aquarium. They were entertained, they were interested, they were curious and wanted to explore and the best part no tantrums.

That evening we celebrate over dinner and cake with the rest of the family. Here are few of my favourite snaps of the day.

Happy birthday my sweet Eli. You're always surprising me with your personality, what you can do, what comes out of your mouth and the stuff you remember. I'm so lucky to be your Mum, and I'm so so proud of you. You're one of my greatest accomplishments in life. I love you so much. You're my inspiration and you give me the courage to do things I didn't think I could do, like function on less than five hours of sleep. I pray God is always watching over you, especially when love one's aren't. May he protect you, continue to keep you in good health and keep any harm away form you. I can't wait to see what you have in store for us this new year of your life, and no you can't have your 6th birthday next week.

Happy birthday my son. I love you. 

Linking up with Jess

Jake & The Never Land Themed Party

Anne from Domesblissity shares her children's joint party. Both of Anne's children are born in November so instead of planning two separate parties, she asked her children what we their thoughts on a combined party. They both agreed and Jake & The Never Land theme was decided on. There was a girl pirate and a boy pirate, so it was perfect.

Anne made many of the party's elements including the invitation, party loot bags, and the treasure map and chest which she filled with "treasure" for the kids to find.

Various food items were made in theme with the party theme and Anne baked the vanilla flavoured pirate ship cake.

The home's play fort was decorated with skulls and crossbones and transformed into a pirate ship, and her sister dressed as a pirate hosted the games.

You can read more about Jake & The Never Land themed party here.

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your party on here. 

Spa Party Themed Party

Miss L knew exactly how she wanted to celebrate her 8th birthday. A Spa Party was fitting because she wanted to share her special day with her closest friends, doing fun girly things girls love to do. 

Each little girl got a robe to wear once they arrived. Pink lemonade in lit up cocktail glasses, strawberries, watermelon and fairy bread were served while waiting for all Miss L's little guests to arrive.

Once they were all there the girls were pampered with a spa pedicures, chocolate facials and a bit of makeup on each of them. Treatments were given by Miss L's mum and a friend helped with applying make up on the girls.

For the menu chicken nuggets, sausage rolls, party pies, french fries and mini burgers were served. 

At the end of the day each girl's got a bag to take home which included their robe, headband, towels, lip smackers, their cocktail glass and a cupcake.

Vendor and party details:

• Foot spas: borrowed from various family and friends
• Ikea: plastic bowls, mirrors, face towels, hand towels and bath towels  
• Abcoe: cutlery, napkins, plates and light up cocktail glasses 
• Local party novelty shop: milk bottles, straws, pom poms and other decorations
• Girl's robes: made by a family member of Miss L's 
• Cake: made by a family member
• Alaroch: glitter number 8

If you would like to share and submit a past party you've hosted get in contact! Email me on gen.y.mum@gmail.com would love to feature your event on here! 

Kai's 1st Birthday

I thoroughly enjoyed planning Kai's birthday party. Coming up with original ideas and executing them ... that's what I like doing.

Being a first birthday we wanted to capture this milestone and hired a photographer named Freddy Morales. I first met him when he was taking photos of a friend's daughter's first birthday. I saw his style of photography and I knew he would capture this special day beautifully ... and I was right.

Freddy took some amazing photographs of the day. You can sense the emotions in the candid shots he took of our guests, the beauty in the simplest objects and captured stunning portraits of my family. Here are some of my favourite shots. 

For more information on hiring Freddy feel free to contact him on his email address below. Or to see more of his amazing work please check out his website.

webite: http://freddymorales.com.au

instagram: http://instagram.com/fredmmorales

email: fredmoralesphotography@gmail.com

I almost forgot but also a big thank you to my brother in law's bro who pretty much ran the kitchen that day. He came up with recipes for my food requirements and made everything. He even took control of the kids food situation allowing me to focus on entertaining. You were an angel that day (and everyday) and everything was delicious!

Also another big thank you to my fellow crossfitting mama who was constantly helpful leading up to the big day and made chocolate dip strawberries. I think I requested these bad boys just for me and she delivered. 

To my sister in law who made the kiddie bags. You went above and beyond! I got lots of praise for these bags all thanks to you. 

To my extra helping hands that morning and that afternoon who helped set up and pack up. Thank you for always offering your time and agreeing to help out and take in my bossy orders. You know who you are .. love you all. 

Bowtie Themed 1st Birthday Party

Eli had a theme for his first birthday so it was only fair we did the same for Kai's. We joked about doing another Superhero's theme so we could reuse the costumes we had purchased but again that wouldn't be fair.

For Kai's we decided on a Bowtie theme where guests were encouraged to wear a bow tie either in their hair or around their neck. From there the ideas for decorations and food were pretty endless and I actually struggled to pin point one idea and stick to it. If you really want to see where my head space was during the planning process have a look at my pinterest board to see the various things I had pinned.

I found an invite on pinterest and we pretty much copied the design word for word. That is why we didn't pick up the spelling error on our invites for the word neighbourhood which was spelt the American way - Neighborhood. We printed these off and I made some bowties which I stuck onto the invites. 

Originally I wanted to cook as much of the food as possible .. cause I'm over confident like that, but I soon realised it wasn't going to happen especially with two small children to watch over. Plus I didn't know what kind of food I wanted to serve the adults whether I wanted traditional Filipino food or something more western or a combination of both. Kids food I knew I had to cover separately as this was something I learnt hosting Eli's first birthday party. I had a few older kids at his and a few moms asked me if there were any kids food ... of course you need kids food for kids parties!?!

I was driving around one day and was waiting at an intersection when this food truck did this massive 360 spin around a round about that caught my attention. Then it hit me .. "Why don't we have a food truck at Kai's party?" Genus!! No one's done it before and it'll be fun. So I started contacting the various food truck vendors in Sydney to inquire about hiring them for a private function. I think I contacted about five, got responses from three, narrowed down my decision to two and decided on the one based on value and ease of communication. 

We ended up going with Street Sliders. You can go to their page for more information on their menu and catering packages. Pat from Street Sliders was so easy to deal with and worked with us to ensure we were happy and that they met all our catering needs. 

I knew I didn't want to do a candy dessert table anymore but of course wanted to serve desserts. I remember I ordered from a vendor called Looma's a few years back and recall seeing they do mini cakes and pastries so decided to order through them again. What was perfect about their service is they deliver food directly to you, food is always fresh and can take orders 24 hours prior to the day they're required. 

I was stuck on a cake idea for Kai's for ages. As I mentioned I knew ideas for the party were pretty limitless but I knew I didn't want a massive bowtie cake cause to me that would seem a little tacky. I wanted something again, that hasn't been done before, and then I stumbled across an image on Pinterest of this long rainbow cake, and I knew that was what I  wanted. Even though it was really plain I liked the concept and it was long so I could spell Kai's full name on top of it. I had all intentions of making it myself, I even made an attempt at baking a small rainbow cake but again realised I wouldn't be able to do it all. So I asked a family friend who bakes if she could make the cake for me, she agreed.  

For weeks I was researching online where I could find alphabet candles and surprisingly not many Aussie vendors sell them. I found a few but they were not the style I was after, and I found styles I did like but from overseas suppliers who, if they did ship to Australia was charging ridiculous prices. I thought about making my own candles using crayons and even practiced a few times at home but they didn't look as pretty as I'd hope they would turn out. I had to come up with another option. 

Originally I wanted to create a feature wall with using balloons. This was the image I wanted to try and replicate. I thought I could just create the wall on the day. I know it was going to take a lot of effort but thought if I just concentrated on creating this feature wall during the two hours prior to when the party starts it would be achievable .... wrong! Again I soon realised this wasn't going to take an hour or two, these particular balloons were expensive and I learnt we're not suppose to stick anything onto the walls of the hall. So I decided to scraped that idea and not to bother with any decorations. But a few days prior to the party I was second guessing my decision not to have any decorations, so again started sourcing balloons. During my research I found a vendor (Fun Time Party Solutions) who made miniature mega balloons and thought why not have them on top of the cake instead of the candles. So I ordered each letter and a number "1" mega balloon for the day. 

I then found another image and a tutorial on how to create a honeycomb pom pom bunting. I remember seeing these kind of pom poms from party shops and they weren't too expensive so I decided to try and replicate this look. I purchased 40 $1 honeycomb pom pom's from Kmart to create my bunting. 

About a year ago I attended a 1st birthday party and the host had set up a kids table for all the kids to sit at. It was really cute cause they had their own little space to sit and enjoy their food on. I remember thinking it was a great idea so I asked my friend for the vendor's details so I could do the same. Not only did I hire kids tables and chairs from Tiny Tots but also some play equipment for the kids on the day. There was a playground next door to the hall but was suited for older children and many of the kids invited to Kai's party were younger than two.

In my next post I'll share photos from Kai's actual party and how I executed my ideas. 

Party Planning Step 1 - Planning

I've mentioned previously I wanted to do a little series on Planning a Party. The concept of throwing a party isn't that hard, it's the organisation and follow through process which put people off. You don't know how many times I've asked friends who were in the middle of planning their party, and hearing how original ideas have been scaled down or even thrown out of the window. 

Purpose of these posts is to share the thought process of a serial organiser and maybe help you with your next party planning process. In these series of posts I will be using Kai's 1st birthday party as a reference point in my examples. 

1. Type of Celebration

Firstly you need to decide what type of party or celebration you're prepared to throw. Do you want to just have a small gathering at home, lunch at a favourite restaurant, hire a hall, BBQ at a park, host it in a children's play centre? Are you prepared to do most of the preparation and cooking; or do you want to outsource most of the work with say a caterer; or go somewhere where everything is all done for you and you just have to turn up?

There are so many options these days its really up to you as the host, how and where you want to throw your party at. Usually your budget dictates this decision and something you should take into consideration straight up. Do you want to splurge or stick to a particular budget? Regardless of where you host your party you need to give your budget a small buffer for other party costs like decorations, cake, invitations ... I'll talk about identifying your party costs later. 

2. Guest List

Start writing down names of who you want to invite to your party. This will allow you to gauge your guest numbers. I usually start a spreadsheet at this point, writing down each potential guest's name so I can determine how many adults, children and infants could potentially be coming. Knowing this rough information is important for requesting quotes with vendors.  

It's really hard to keep guest numbers down. For some people who to invite to a party is a no brainer others struggle to cull names. You can always change invitees at a later stage. 

3. Venue Research

Given you have decided not to throw party in your own home, start researching the type of venues you want to host your party at. For Kai's I decided to host it at a community hall so I started looking at ones around new residential estates because those halls would be newer, therefore have more modern fixtures equipped for parties. Most community halls are managed by the council's they belong in so check the councils website for more information and to make inquires. Other things to consider:

• Halls are like wedding reception venues now. The popular halls do get booked out months in advance. So if you have a hall in mind start making inquiries if it is available.
• Obtain, read and understand all the terms and conditions relating to hire. For example some halls have a no alcohol policy. You usually have to sign some form anyways stating you have read and accept the terms and conditions relating to hall hire. Read them.  
• Most halls have a booking fee and a bond amount which, should be refunded given hall is returned to original state you got it and nothing was damaged. The hiring price may play a factor in your decision as to where to host party at. For example a new community hall was available at The Ponds for the date I wanted however, it was $100 more than the hall we actually went with. 

Other tips when deciding on a venue:

• When you have decided where you want to have your party at, you probably have a venue in mind. However also start thinking of second, third options or brain storming similar venues just in case your first option isn't available or not within your budget range.  
• Cost of having party at venue. Regardless of where the party venue will be, there's usually a cost. Some parks charge a fee to reserve an area, play centres charge at a per head cost etc. Once you have identified a few venues you would consider hosting your party start contacting them to find out the cost to have your party there.

The process of deciding on venue may take you a few days or  weeks depending on how quickly the venue replies to your function request. Bare minimum you need to ask venue:

• Date you want is available.
• Cost of hiring hall; or cost per child at play centre; or group booking at restaurant etc.
• What is included with costs. 
• Send you their terms and conditions of booking. Is there a deposit you need to make to secure your function, any cancellation fees etc.

Some tips to minimise costs:

• Ask for a discount for your group booking. At restaurants and child play centres even though they have stated they have a per head / per child fee, there's no harm in asking for a further discount, especially if you have a large number of guests. Any party of 20 plus people is considered a large group in my opinion, so I would ask for a discount if my party is larger than this number. Venue may say no but at least I asked, and you might be surprised by their response.
• Ensure kids aren't being charged adult prices.

Planning a 1st Birthday ... Cam Style

It's no secret I love planning stuff. I use to have two motto's attached to my old My Space profile and one of them was

"Failure to plan is planning for failure."

I love researching, sourcing, organising and seeing ideas come together. I'm actually a bit of a nazi when it comes to "planning". I have been known to not be fun to plan with because I'm so .... detailed and become a "micro manager" during the process. I don't really care if people make fun of my attention to detail cause it's usually the people who are opposite to me who do. Don't hate me cause I care about details. Some people are like me some people aren't - I accept that so let me be me. 

If you follow me on Insta you may see I'm in the process of planning Kai's 1st birthday. Party planning isn't rocket science but surprisingly people can feel a sense of "I don't know where to start" feeling and can ultimately be a very stressful process. Also first time parents may feel lost as they are new to the whole "kids party" planning scene. 

So in the next couple of days I will share some of my tips and actual process in planning a kids (or any kind) party, from someone who loves planning. My aim isn't to show off how I do parties but to maybe help others to better plan theirs. 

Parties are like a project there's research that needs to be done, decisions that need to be made, people to coordinate, communication, vendors to select, working through the night so the kids aren't in the way to do tasks, budgets to stick to .... have I scared you yet?? ... Told you I was crazy!!

But stick with me I'll hopefully give you some pointers, suggestions and ideas with your next party planning.  

Birthday Week Recap

It was my birthday last Wednesday, 14 November.

Obviously I didn’t go to work. Anyone who works on their birthday must have an awesome team who celebrates your day with morning tea birthday cake, long lunch at the pub and gives you an awesome gift that everyone pitched in to fund. So because I don’t wok in a team like that I took the (sickie) day off to be with my family.

Originally the plan was to go to the beach pending the weather was still going to be warm like it was on Monday and Tuesday, however the clouds and rain came and the trip to the beach was canned. We had a long late brunch and went out to let Eli run muck at one of those children play areas.

That evening Ian and I went to the famous Tetsuya’s and had the 10 course degustation. Admittedly each course was full of flavour ad very tasty, we left feeling satisfied - not stuffed but not hungry. The following day however we both felt very nauseous. I think we’re not use to eating that much raw food any more and upset our tummies.

Chilled pea soup with dark chocolate mousse

Savory custard with avruga

Salad of the sea

New Zealand scampi with chicken liver parfait walnut vinaigrette 

 Confit of petuna ocean trout with fennel unpasturised ocean trout caviar 

Veal tenderloin with shitake mushrooms and veal jus

Poached spatchcock with asparagus and morels

 De bone rack of lamb with sheep's yoghurt and kale

 Green apples and mint ice cream with basil jelly

 Floating island with praline and cream anglase 

 

Chocolate fondant with hazelnut and praline

On Friday was my Hubby Birthday Part 2 celebrations. I had secretly planned a few friends to join us for dinner at Ms. G’s at Potts Point. Dinner wasn’t until 9pm as the place was already booked out for the early time slots (plus they don’t take bookings for groups under 6 people), so we had pre dinner drinks at The Village. Unfortunately everyone arrived later than the birthday boy so the “surprise” component was a miss however the night was still a lot of fun. Can’t go wrong with a group of your closest friends gossiping about other friends, making fun of each other, reminiscing about how cool we were in our twenties and singing along to real old school rnb.

The food at Ms. G’s does live up to its hype. We opted not to get the set menu cause we figured we’d probably get more food if we just ordered what we wanted and boy were we right. Our party of 8 ordered 1 entrée and maybe 7 mains and there was so much food to go around. The servings weren’t massive the food marrying just satisfied the taste buds. I think also they would bring out the mains as they were ready so you would eat, eat, eat only to discover a new dish has arrived on the table. They also had these cocktails in a mild slushy form with sago style gum balls … so dangerously delicious. I want to go back there to try more!

Saturday morning was M hens breakfast. It was done at the Sofitel in Sydney. The breakfast area was so pretty, the décor reminded me of the Ivy. Saturday buffet breakfast with your girl friends should be like a monthly thing. I love catch up on what’s been happening since we last saw each other.

That evening was Twilight- Breaking Dawn P2 night. I watched it with my fellow read-the-Twilight-books-in-2-weeks-team-Edward friends. The final episode was … not that bad. It was tweaked a bit I think to satisfy the fans and critics but it wasn’t as disappointing as the second movie. Without giving it away, the “tweaked” component added some action to the movie and triggered emotions from the audience but from an author or screen writers perspective it’s the one way you don’t end a story, think of “it was all a dream” kinda scenario.

Sunday was a combined birthday celebration for me, Y and a welcome home for N. Was glad to see N who now lives in Chicago doing her thang and making her mark in US retail space. Always exciting and motivating to hear friends taking their humble ideas and turning them to reality.

We all met up at a café near Y for high tea. There was cucumber fingers, mini ham croissants and quiches, scones, salted caramel macarons, sweet pastries and canolie  … just to name a few. Great way to end the weekend.

So that’s my birthday week wrap up – family, food, friends …I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate my birthday.

Hubby's Birthday

Unfortunately Ian had to work on his birthday. They’re so busy at work at the moment and under staffed that his leave to take his own birthday off was denied.

I knew what he wanted for his birthday but unfortunately the product Ian wants isn't actually available until end of the month. So to be creative (and funny) I came up with a place holder in the mean time. He opened his card to find this in it.

Being a Friday though I had it off so we agreed Eli and I would join him for lunch in town. I invited E and my sis K to join us at Suminoya, a Japanese BBQ restaurant.

That evening he still was “on call” so dinner plans was out of the question, if anything we had left over’s that night as we were still full from lunch that afternoon.

Saturday I took him to where I originally wanted to have lunch (if he had the day off), Jazz City Diner. This place has been highly recommended by lots of people claiming it servers really great American style food.

The restaurant is this tiny diner on the side of the road. It can only accommodate 10 parties with a maximum of 4 people as it had 4 booth style seats. The waitress wore a traditional American diner costume and there were a few American memorabilia around the room. What spun us out was seeing a friend’s name parked on the wall. When asked why these people have their names on the wall the waitress just said they were friends of the owner.

I ordered the chill fries, jerky chicken with onion rings. Ian had the macaroni and cheese and the chicken with waffles. We also both ordered milk shakes as people raved how yummy there were. My overall review … over rated. Admittedly I should have tried one of the burgers as they had about 6 different types.

The jerky chicken was 5 small drumsticks serving covered in this brown powder and did not taste nice at all. The coating must have contained chill in it cause it was also very hot, I only had 1 piece. The chill fries tasted like it had spaghetti bolognaise sauce and cheese poured on top. I had enough of the macaroni and cheese after 3 bites, the chicken waffles were edible but again nothing memorable.

The prices was also on the pricey end so I was expecting this place to serve delicious, generous serving food.

Would I eat here again? Only if the owner invited me to a free meal. There are far better restaurants / diners out there in Sydney. 

Have you eaten at Jazz City Diner? What was your experience?

Eli's 1st Birthday

It's been over a month since I last posted on here. 

As I have mentioned previously I'm really bad at committing to write in a blog. I forget all about it and when I do want to blog its nothing blog worthy (in my opinion) just some random thoughts I want to take note of, because when/if I re read those comments later on I know what I'm referring to. Surely there must be an app where I can take notes of my random thoughts especially when I'm on the go.

So since my last post my little man turn into a bigger little man and had his first birthday. I can't believe he's 1! I can't believe its been a year since I popped him out ... naturally and in 25mins.

His superheroes themed birthday party was really cute with most children guests rocking up in costume. We hired a ball pit and a jumping castle which was smart idea as it allowed parents to put their kids in a gated area leaving their arms free to at least ate. My sisters decorated the venue to match the theme and sister I was the hostess with the mostess in charge of the games. Food wise it was a filo style menu with filo spaghetti, spring rolls, fried chicken, sweet bread and letchon. He received so many gift and people once again were so generous in their giving. He really is loved and we are so grateful for such wonderful people in his life.

And he can walk now too ... He started walking a month prior to his birthday

Our super little man ... 

Happy 1st Birthday Elijah, you changed our world and also the center of it. Mummy and Daddy love you so much