My husband's niece (Zoe) celebrated her 13th birthday at the Somerset, Salcedo Makati...inviting only family and a few select friends. The overall "feel" of the party was intimate, yet relaxed. The room was decorated with purple balloons just scattered on the living room floor, a "Happy Birthday, Zoe" banner showing pixary cartoon characters the birthday gal created herself (see her website here) was mounted on the dining area wall, and pictures of other Zoe pixary characters were pasted on the bedroom doors.
Food selection consisted of homemade cupcakes (still with edible Zoe pixaries as toppings), pizzas from Sbarro, a Zoe pixary-cake from Goldilocks, bags of Cheetos, chocolates, sodas and bottled water. In the living room cum entertainment area, one can see DVDs that were carefully chosen with the female teenager in mind such as "17 Again" and "Twilight." I'm sure it was part of the itinerary for the slumber party they were to have later that evening. Oh, to be young and so carefree!
For my Maia, the best part of Ate-Ninang Zoe's birthday was when everybody went down to the swimming pool. It was her very first time to be in one, so I wasn't sure exactly how she would react to it. I, for one, am pool-and-beach-phobic...so is Maia's yaya.
So my husband was responsible for carrying our baby in the pool and for making sure that her first swimming experience won't be a traumatic one.
As I hoped, it was indeed a success! Pretty soon, with her father never letting go of her, Maia was walking around the kiddie pool, making splashing motions, and enjoying everything! I was taking videos and photos left and right...I forgot how near I was to the edge of the pool! Good thing I didn't fall into it.
It was a very simple yet fun party, I would say. It also helped a lot that we were in such nice surroundings. Somerset, Salcedo Makati is a residential-type hotel. You know, where you get the kind of service and facilities of a hotel, yet still have the feel of a residential life, such as doing your own cooking, having privacy and the like. The room that the Gomezes got was a 4-bedroom suite. As expected from a serviced hotel, it was fully-furnished...complete with kitchen, the usual kitchen appliances, entertainment area, dining area, maid's quarters, laundry area, etc. It was really nice. So nice, in fact, that I had my husband take pictures of the whole place and made him promise to build me a house just like it! I've posted some pictures here so you'll know what I mean. But, of course, their not as enjoyable as seeing the real thing and actually being there :)
