Ballerina Berry's Birthday Bash

With Xavi about to come out, Dada suggested that we throw Berry a small party for her 3rd birthday. While she is still the one and only center of attention, heehee! 

But since we are back home, small is really subjective. With immediate family and Berry's playmates alone, we ended up throwing some kind of a birthday bash, haha. Our official family party expert, Tita Nanette, my mom's cousin who I love to consult when it comes to parties, suggested that we make it a ballerina themed party since Berry loves ballet. And she volunteered to sponsor Berry's ballerina fairy princess costume (see above), and brought pink paper lanterns to jazz things up. She also took charge of buying pink accessories and making tutus for Berry's little girl guests, so they can also dress up fancy:

My friend Rochelle's twins Mikaela & Solana

If that sounded like a lot of work, wait, there's more!

I enlisted the help of The Red Chef, and chose kiddie party food for all. After all, who doesn't love eating kiddie spaghetti, mini burgers, chicken fingers, and french fries? I also bought Red Ribbon empanada and ordered Yellow Cab pizzas. Because my mom was afraid there might not be enough food daw. My mom is a believer that food has to be overflowing in parties, hahaha.

We prepared a loot bag filled with: Hello Panda, NIPS in colorful containers, Oreos, Marie biscuits (for Berry's baby guests), miniature Play Doh (thanks to Tita Dianne!) and a few more little things to make the goodie bag really a goodie bag:

Auntie Lorr baked these cute brownie pops, which along with cupcakes, chocolate balls, marshmallows and all sorts of treats, constituted the table centerpiece:

Of course, we had to prepare prizes for games! I found these cute tin cans at Gourdo's:

And filled it with Berry themed treats:

Then we prepared more party prizes, novelties like notebooks, water containers, notepads, pencil and eraser sets, drawing books with crayons and coin purses. I prefer giving these instead of plastic toys from China that will just turn up as house clutter, hehehe:

One of the highlights of Berry's party would have to be this pretty confection of a cake made by Tita Aisa Atilano (check out her site here: http://aisaatilano.com/) who makes the prettiest cakes and cupcakes! We just showed her Berry's invite (designed by Tita Richelle Macapagal) and she came up with this cake and cupcake extravaganza:

Of course, Berry loved it. She couldn't wait to eat her cake, which was not only pretty, but super yummy too. The cupcakes came in chocolate and red velvet. Both were really moist and not too sweet! If you'd like to get in touch with Aisa, just email her at inquiry@aisaatilano.com and she'll be happy to make something equally adorable for you!

After we sang Berry her birthday song, she distributed the goodie bags, she even went to Tita Alessa for the microphone and thanked everyone for coming! The consummate hostess!

Then, she invited Tita Nicole (wearing Tita Thea's tutu) to step outside the lawn so they can do an impromptu dance routine:

Tadaaaa! Happy 3rd Birthday to our dearest Ballerina Berry! We hope you grow up believing in the beauty of your dreams! Bow!

P.S.

I wrote a post for Manila Social Diary - Party Tips: How to Throw a Kiddie Party in Manila, and as you will see, my style is totally DIY! Hope you enjoy reading it! Meanwhile, just to make this post more informative, here's a checklist that you might want to go through for when you plan your child's kiddie party:

__ Budget: Personally we don't do extravagant parties, hence strictly sticking to budget = DIY

__ Theme

__ Venue

__ Decorations: enlist help of a printer or party planner if you want to go full blast on these

__ Balloons

__ Caterer: they also usually take care of tables, chairs & center pieces

__ Food booth

__ Cake

__ Giveaways & Souvenirs: loot bags, photo booths, etc.

__ Games & Party Prizes

__ Entertainment: magicians, clowns, balloon artists, paint tattoo artists, party booth

__ Sound system

__ The birthday celebrant's outfit!

You may also want to consider serving coffee & tea with dessert. I thought it would have been perfect if we had coffee & tea machines ala Nespresso or the CBTL Single Serve Beverage machine, thankfully, I was able to ask my caterer to bring along a hot water dispenser and I just served instant coffee & tea to guests. Which turned out to be a hit amongst the parents, who were feeling drowsy after a very filling lunch.

Reminiscing + A Visit to Repetto in Greenbelt 3

The shopping landscape of Manila surely has changed since I last left it in 2006. I remember starting this blog because I wanted to document the things I wanted to buy, because it was so frustrating not finding anything here. Remember, this was before online shopping really hit mainstream and Johnny Air's main income streams were balikbayan boxes and remittances, and not air shipping of online purchases, heehee.

Repettos were high on my wishlist then, that I would often seek it out when I was traveling abroad. I finally found them in Gravity Pope in Vancouver, but they were so expensive there, that Dada dissuaded me from buying a pair. I ended up buying my first pair at Bird in Brooklyn in 2007. They had these patent BBs on sale, so I made the trek to their store in Brooklyn as a side trip while visiting my friend Tet in Park Slope!

Yes, this pair above is still very much alive and still looks good. So, worth it. My next pair of Repettos were these Repetto Jacksons. I saw Kate Moss wearing a pair with black, cropped trousers and I was like, "OMG! I have to have that!". Then Michael Jackson died, and my first thought was, "Now these shoes are gonna be classics". So I went online and bought a pair at La Garconne. Heehee.

My third, and certainly not the last pair, are these sparkly, crackly BBs in Carbone that Dada bought for me. See how times have changed? Before, he would stop me from buying Repettos, and now he himself buys me a pair. Ahhh true love. Heehee!

So when Cecile aka Chuvaness told me about Repetto opening in Manila a few months ago, it was like a dream come true. I couldn't wait! A Repetto store right here in Manila, that's the ultimate! Especially for somebody who practically lives in flats day in and day out (especially these preggy days).

Once it opened, Lawrence of Suyen Corp. made arrangements for me to visit the store so I can take photos to share here in the blog. Berry Ballerina, Nana & I came by after Holy Week so we can take a peek. Berry was thrilled to bits.  As soon as she saw the pretty tutus behind the shop window, she was practically squealing. Then she saw these dance leotards and tutus and she didn't know where to start looking...

plus there was an enticing brass barre where she did her own version of barre exercises:

True to tradition, since Rose Repetto started out of her desire to create the best dance footwear for her dancer son, the Repetto boutique carries pointe shoes and ballet slippers...

As well as totes, backpacks and duffel bags for stashing your dance essentials in:

Then of course, for frustrated prima ballerinas like toi et moi, there are these BBs, Zizis and Bolchois to prance around in for daily use:

All in all, the Repetto boutique has something for both serious dancers as well as stylish girls about town, who want comfortable and classic pairs of ballet inspired footwear. But oh, let me remind you that Repetto has French sizing, so you would need to go a full size up on Repettos. Take for instance, I am a US 6.5 and my Repettos are FR37.5 - so when you go there, make sure to ask for a size bigger than what you normally wear. Don't think your feet suddenly ballooned or something.

Shoes start at about Php11,000 and go up to about Php14,000. They also had these smooshy leather bags that are as soft and supple as their footwear. I wasn't able to check the price though. 

The Repetto boutique is worth a visit - if only to indulge your ballerina dreams. It's my slice of heaven on earth, or a slice of Paris in Manila - for my feet at least.

Repetto Manila
G/F Greenbelt 3
Makati