a doggy cake. for months, she wanted a doggy cake for her belated third birthday to be celebrated here in cebu. but then she changed her mind. she wanted a butterfly cake instead. a pink and purple butterfly cake. and some cupcakes too.

when cecille (of chedz) asked her what cake she wanted, she suddenly started acting so shy and wouldn’t speak. teasingly, i told cecille that aeva wanted a witchy cake. with sobbing eyes that could melt any aunt’s heart, she cried, “but i don’t want a witchy cake!”

gawd, i miss my niece.

it was a DIY kiddie party — from the props right down to the invites. i appointed myself in charge of the balloons. armed with a solitary balloon pump, i exercised muscles in my arms i never knew existed. it was no easy feat. every balloon burst by accident or by some unknown natural prank broke my heart each and every time. i guess balloons, like hearts, are fragile little things that need to be handled with care and best kept away from the debilitating heat of the mid-afternoon february sun.

i just have to say this: my two sisters were amazing party planners! with both having the experience of teaching preschoolers, they came up with really interesting activities for the kids to do, like decorating a brown paper bag with colorful glitter glue, markers, and stickers. the finished product also happened to be the loot bag at the end of the party so aside from bringing out the kids’ (and the guardians’) creativity, it was a very earth-friendly activity too.

(like i said, i was just a balloon girl.)

the animal bingo was especially fun. i enjoyed it probably much more than aeva did. just as gayle enjoyed decorating her paper bag waaay so much more than her nieces and nephew ever did. lol. but really, though, it was a departure from the usual kiddie games we are used to seeing. i love the educational aspect of it, with kids learning what the animals’ names are and identifying what they look like. (my niece taught me the difference between an alligator and a dinosaur. but really, you can’t blame me. it was an alligatorey-looking dino. you’d have made the same mistake too.)

i was glad gayle made it on this day as she had to fly from manila to join us on this weekend. (well, not exactly but it was the perfect coincidence.) she brought along minami, fujito, fiona, and aj. roma brought ram2 and jelvin along. =)

it was a double belated birthday celebration, by the way — my dad’s and aeva’s. thus, the two cakes. here are the rest of the photos that are making me nostalgic tonight: