I lied when I told you that December is my favorite month. The truth is that January is my first ever favorite one because it is my birth month; I know you will forgive me, everyone has their own birth month and that I suppose they consider it as their favorite month too.

Today marks the first month of February of the year 2013, and that I just bid goodbye to January 2013 last night, yes I was awake before the first minute of February stroke. Today, I would like to recall what happened the whole month.

I almost had my first zip-line experience, it was supposed to be the best place and the best people to be with yet because of the bad weather, but I never realized it. Anyways, there’s luxury of time to do it one of these days.

To a photographer and a traveler, celebrating the date of birth in the clear blue waters of Barili's Sayaw Sayaw beach and in the rushing waters of Mantayupan falls with a quick side track at Milk Station and ending the day at the pool of Ramos' rest house is indeed the best and the most unforgettable birthday ever.

I would rather spend my big day as such but it was not my birthday nor my anniversary day but Carlo's. I on the other hand was very lucky to be a part of this event because I got to add another place in my travelling experience. An addition to my monthly goal: to go to a place I never been before.

Last week was Tanya's impromptu birthday celebration, impromptu because we never planned it compared to Carlo's yet it was Tanya's unforgettable birthday. According to her thank you message, we made her special day extra special and that her memory won't ever forget it. While it was an unplanned event, Carlo's birthday was planned since Monday, the 13th. We first thought of going to my ever longed Kawasan Falls but since it was still closed; we need to find another place out. Then by Wednesday, we considered Tera Mana which most of the group had disagreed of and the next day we agreed to go to Moalboal but Darwn wouldn't agree. We were hopeless as to the success of the birthday plan but by Saturday, the night before the said day; we made up our mind and decided to go to Barili specifically in Sayaw sayaw beach.

My niece turned two last February 10 yet we postponed her celebration because her daddy's arrival was on the 11th. So last Sunday, February 12, 2012 at three o'clock in the afternoon, the kids party had begun. Compared before, there were more children this time. Aiesha's a year older now, she had enjoyed her day specially the cake eating time.

Remembering last year, we invited Jollibee along, this time we decided not to invite any mascots anymore instead, we just let the prepared games rule the party. The children seemed to have enjoyed it as well as the guardians.

Here are the photos during the party:

Memorable - I considered my 24th birthday as a memorable one aside from it being special because of the people who had made me very happy that day. First off, I am grateful for those who had greeted me before until the end of that beautiful day. I turned 24 last January 31, 2012. To my parents and brothers who sent me some messages and greetings, to my Manoy Steven who called straight from UAE just to ask me how old I am, he was really silly! To James, who had cooked me my favorite Adobo, aside from that, he treated me to Greenich, for my favorite pizza, pasta and lasagna. Thank you is not enough to thank him with the efforts.

Next are my colleagues and friends at work. They had made a super touching thing the night of my birthday. See, they bought me an Angelica chocolate cake. Though I was not able to blow the candle because we were at work and we were afraid the smoke detector might alarm the people inside the vicinity, I was still very happy because of the great surprise. Aside from that, they had agreed to wear red that night as a sign of my birthday! It was a coincidence that I brought with me my red jacket too! Woah! Here are the photos from the event:

So my niece is turning two this February, I should be excited too because I am turning 24 by the end of the month but for some strange reasons, I am actually ignoring my own birthday and is very excited with my niece's. Teehee so silly of me but this is true though. I had fun preparing for her 1st birthday before. And yet, this birthday celebration will indeed be more wonderful because her daddy, my big bro will be coming home a day after her actual birthday, reason why we need to postpone the celebration to the 12th of the said month.

And because of that, I am again making her invitation cards and her tarpaulin, though I am not yet done with the tarpaulin, I am just excited on letting you get a sneak peak of how her 2nd birthday invitation card looks like. I am just excited so here it is:

And yet another year has cometh for my younger brother, Jay-R. As a way of celebrating this bless-full event, we planned to go to the beach. Though we were already aware of the typhoon Chedeng, we still persisted to go. As a matter of fact, it rained before we went on our way. We still don't know which beach are we gonna be going to, Anda has a lot of beach resorts to offer though so we just went on our way and started picking which is which.


First option was Bugnaw Se-i, mom said it's kinda dirty so we went for Bituon Beach but one of our house mates said it would be hard for us to go there because of the waves. One said we can go to Anda Global but my kuya said it is far and will take some time to go there, considering we were all hungry. So another suggested that we go to Basdacu, unfortunately the resort has been closed for private use only. Tsk tsk tsk. And so I suggested Bituon White Beach and everyone agreed.


Upon arriving Anda, a guy asked for a Php 50 Environmental Fee, said it was a new law implemented by the municipality for four wheeled vehicles coming to the town which obviously carries people who are coming for a swim at some resorts. We said OK! On our way to the resort, another guy asked for Php 20 for the entrance fee. We said alright! But before reaching Bituon White Beach, we saw a new posting of a newly opened resort:




Instead of going to Bituon White Beach, we changed our minds and tried this new one. We found out later on they had started their operations a month ago. It can be seen obviously that the place was still under development. Here are my favorite spots at the resort:

My only little niece, baby Aiesha turned one last Thursday, February 10, 2011 but the celebration took place last Saturday, February 12, 2011. We still had a simple celebration on her day but on Saturday was the grand one because she had a special guest that day. I made her a special cake as well which can be downloaded on my scrapbook site.

 

Everyone in the family were really excited that all of us woke up early to start the decoration and preparation, we were thinking that Baby Aiesha might be afraid of her guest later but still hopeful that she would enjoy the celebration. As you have known with my older post, Preparations for Baby Aiesha's First Birthday, I was assigned for her invitation cards and her tarpaulin. Everyone says it's really nice and pinky. Well, all the best for my niece!

Here are some of the preparation photos: 

 
So the party started at three in the afternoon and almost everyone were present, the invited kids and their parents were there and our relatives were present too. Some not invited kids were at the gate, waiting for someone to open the doors for them.

I did mention that there was a special guest in the party. He was someone with big dark eyes, chubby tummies, yellow shoes, eight fingers , you are wrong if you're thinking it was Kokey, he has two cute white wings too. I bet you already know who I am referring to, yes! It was Jollibee with some burger yums. He appeared later on the event though. Baby Aiesha was scared of him at first but later on kissed him on his cheek and I guess that was a sign that they are already friends. We were relieved by then.

Baby Aiesha and the young ones seemed to enjoy the kids party with Jollibee that afternoon, actually, not just them but the once young too! Including us, everyone was like a kid when Jollibee came in dancing.

Check out how Jollibee entertained all of us in this video:

After the afternoon party, came the thanksgiving part. It has been our clan's culture that when someone celebrates another year, a pastor with all the brethren will bless the celebrant. So after the small bible talk with Pastor Rosete, everyone stretched out their hands and the blessing started. We were thankful for my 23rd birthday, Baby Aiesha's first birthday and James' 23rd birthday too on this coming 18th. And then the much awaited part came in, dinner was served! 

Main dish was placed on the center, Lechon Baboy which was skinless and headless after a few minutes. Poor piggy! There were a lot of deserts too. We had cotchinta, macaroni salad, gulaman and Renefx mixed with pineapple chunks. Everyone burped all acids out! Lols...

Baby Aiesha also had opened her gifts that night. Here are some of her photos:







 
Thank you to everyone who had attended the celebration and to those who had given some gifts as well. Above all, thank you to the Father above who had given the most precious gift of life.

My first niece is turning one next month and we are already preparing for that big day. I am assigned for the tarpaulin and the invitations so I started designing and came up with Walt Disney's Princesses theme. I added up Snow White, Belle of the Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella (my favorite character), Ariel, Aurora of Sleeping Beauty and Jasmine of Aladdin.

I made Cinderella's Castle as the background, why Cinderella's? Simply because she is my favorite. Teehee. Anyways, this is how the tarpaulin looks like, just ignore Baby Aiesha's picture, it is just a sample photo, that will be replaced once her mom and dad have already chosen one for the tarpaulin. 

One thing that I love about it is the fonts. Hehe, if you have noticed, the Happy 1st Birthday is Walt Disney Font. Her name's font is very nice, I really like it because of the sparkling stars on it.

Here is the invitation also, I decided to make it simple since this will be printed in 3R sizes and placed inside envelopes for the invites.

I am quite excited since it's our first niece's birthday and that I am also thinking of a very good gift for her. I guess I need to go to Toy Kingdom for it.

For now, I will try to make some other designs and let them choose their choice (I am referring to the family members).


UPDATE:


Some modifications: 





But just lately, I decided to design a new tarpaulin since Mom decided to hire Jollibee and that includes some invitation cards already. And I also thought the theme that I made doesn't suit, here is my newly created tarpaulin:

It was Barangay Election and SK Election and if you could remember, I posted Barangay Elections Day that same day thinking that was the end of my long and sleepless day but I was totally wrong. It was not the end of my sleepless day after all because when I reached home, I checked my suncellular phone and wow.. I was amazed! I had like 20 received textmessages and 4 missed calls. I immediately opened them and tadaah! it was an invitation by one of our Uplines. His girlfriend was celebrating her birthday and we were invited. The meet up time was actually 5:30 in the afternoon and that was past 7:00pm. 

To sum things up, I hurriedly changed clothes and called them that I am still coming, good thing they were still in Mcdo - Basak and still waiting for the others. I was able to catch up and we straightly went to Joy's residence.

The guests were already eating when we arrived but we catch up immediately. Joy then blew her candles after we sang the "Happy Birthday song". The candle was the most amazing thing during that time because after she blew the candles, it lit up again and again. It was like magic, after a couple of attempts, Richard, Joy's boyfriend decided to just throw it away since it won't stop lighting up again and again. The cake was from Goldilocks which Richard had bought for his "only one", aside from the Goldilocks cake, the White Tigers had also bought two chocolate cakes from Red Ribbon. 

It was almost eleven in the evening when we were decided to go home from Joy's birth day celebration. But instead of going home, we decided to go to Anguay's residence. We actually have no reasons why but we just thought it was the best thing. Wew... I just knew that Mark, his first name, has his own house already which was given by his parents. I had also learned that he has a child already who is staying with his parents. His house was fully furnished, it was a two story building. I had also found a lot of good stuffs inside which are not that common. I found collections of dolls from Thailand, China and etc. Take a look: