Happy Birthday, Alexis!

The Diva

Last weekend my family threw a HUGE party for my niece Alexis' 1st birthday. It was held at the Jaycee's Community Center in Oxon Hill. The party went from 4 to about 9:30pm and about 100 guests attended. We had 12 round tables with 10 seats at each table, but I don't think every single seat was used and maybe one table wasn't used at all.

Here's half the crowd watching the clown.

Here's the other half, but there was still a table or two that didn't fit in the pictures.

Arrangements for the party started back in March when it originally thought that Alexis would be baptized in Maryland and we would throw the big party for that. But full force preparations probably started a little over a month ago, shopping for decorations, steamer trays, plastic plates and cutlery, etc. etc. And food prep (chopping chopping chopping) started a week prior to the event. Food was also ordered from a Filipino restaurant.

This is what we served (* indicates cooked at home):

1 whole lechon (roast pig)
lechon sauce*
12lbs of sliced roast hanger steak*
30 cups of rice*
pancit malabon*
pancit canton/bihon mixed*
chicken and hotdogs* (chicken, hotdogs, sweet peppers, potatoes in a tomato based sauce)
2 kinds of mixed veggies
300 halves of lumpia*
100 veggie eggrolls
spaghetti in meat sauce*
macaroni and cheese* (modified america’s test kitchen recipe and freakin awesome. a kid even said it was the best macaroni he had ever had)
two bags of rolls from Sam’s
pizza rolls
pigs in a blanket

chocolate fountain filled with 5lbs of Ghiradelli double chocolate
strawberries, pineapple, marshmallows, poundcake, bananas
¾ sheet double layer strawberry shortcake from Desserts by Gerard
4 leche flan* (another 4 not eaten)
puto
sapin sapin
kalamay
cassava

soda
water
beer

The venue had a kitchen so melting the chocolate and baking the finger food was done on site.

The party started out a little rough because we didn't have enough time or hands to finish decorating on time. Thankfully some early guests and good friends helped finish. We had streamers, helium balloons, pink, purple, yellow, green, and white vinyl tablecloths with scattered confetti, and short carnation, daisy, and baby's breath centerpieces that were arranged by Rachel and me the night before.

Also, not allll of the food was there when the guests arrived, nor was my mom, who was hurriedly trying to finish cooking and get dressed. At the beginning of the party, my aunt thought there was too much food. Was she wrong! In hindsite we should have had more pancit and probably more rice. AND more plates! My dad had to run out and buy more half-way through the party. But in the end it all turned out well. There were only a few leftovers and relatively lots of left over dessert. The cake was HUGE so lots of people went home with giant chunks of cake. So I think/hope everyone had enough to eat.

An hour and a half into the party, the clown arrived. His name was Teddy from Amazing Clowns. He made balloon sculptures (including bicycles!) for half an hour and did magic for the other half hour. I guess there were 10-15 kids at the party, but everyone was entertained. Three kids were especially entertained by the clown and were volunteers in the magic show.

Alexis, me, and Teddy the Clown

After the clown left we hung up the pinata. It was shaped like a star and bought at a party supply store. I decorated it further with curly ribbon and and glitter glue. The kids had a lot of fun busting that open with my Astro's mini-bat. And nobody got hurt! The kids also got goodie bags with candy and toys as well as top hats for the boys and tiaras and feather boas for the girls.

Did I mention we also had a DJ? Nobody really danced except the kids and my mom. I wanted to dance but by then I was BEAT.

It was crazy to think that I would be totally stuffing myself with all that great food. There was WAAAAY too much to do. And by the time I ate at about 8:00 a lot of the food was GONE. Ah well, I was too tired to eat a lot anyway.

At about 8:45 I started clearing tables. We had to be out of there by 10pm. Clean up went well because we were all there to pitch in. Big thanks to the guests that helped clean up.

By the time we got home, I was SOOOO sore and tired and thirsty. It took a couple of days to recover. And now I'm achey from a cold. But it's all over now and I think it went over very well. A lot of people seemed to be pretty impressed and asked, "What in the world are you all going to do for her 16th birthday or wedding???" I dunno, maybe we'll rent an island.