Yanthy's Jungle-Themed Birthday Party

Finally, after all the preparations, the much awaited day arrived! (You may read the details on how I prepared  for my son's party here.) With all the necessary materials for the party, we headed to El Pueblo early last Sunday. We decided to have lunch at Mc Donalds and proceeded to Congo Grille right after.

Our family picture during the party.

Yanthy with his Ninang Lala.

Congo Grille’s staff were accommodating and helpful. They helped us put up the materials for the games and have everything ready. My husband picked up the cake from Goldilocks Megamall while I supervised and helped in setting up the place. Then, I helped Yanthy change into his birthday outfit. Shortly afterwards, Yanthy’s Ninang Lala arrived. She brought mini cupcakes for Yanthy which she herself made.      

 

She also asked a couple of friends to put additional balloon arch on the cake table and arranged the mini cupcakes beautifully around Yanthy's jungle-themed birthday cake from Goldilocks.
 

Mini cupcakes made by Yanthy's Ninang Lala.

We brought Yanthy's jungle hand puppets so he can play with these toys while we were setting up the place.

Yanthy's jungle hand puppets.

 

Yanthy's cousin signs his guest book.

The party was generally a success! Thanks be to God! All my efforts paid off. We just had to make adjustments in our program. Since many guests were delayed mostly due to traffic around Megamall (There was a 3-day sale.), we had the guests hit the buffet after the welcome remarks, prayer and blowing of candle on the cake instead of having the games first. We showed the Madagascar “Move It!” music video and Yanthy’s AVPs repeatedly and passed around the guestbook while waiting for more guests to arrive. Thankfully, the AVPs were nice and the music video entertaining.

That's me leading the prayer before meals.

We all sang Happy Birthday to Yanthy
before he blew the candle on his cake.

Eating time!



One of the photos scattered around
the venue that the kids need to
gather to win a prize.

We only had 3 games: All About Yanthy, Where is Yanthy and Nobody dance contest. It should have been played in that order but during the actual party, I was inspired to start with the second one – Where is Yanthy? I got inspiration from another mom when I read her blog about her child’s first birthday party also. I chose to adapt it and customize it to the theme Madagascar. So, from the DVD again, I printed 12 Madagascar characters (photo mattes). Then, my husband and I chose 12 photos of Yanthy. We chose 1 photo for every month of the past 12 months in his life. I then pasted Yanthy’s faces on the animal prints. These 12 animal prints were scattered and stuck on one of the walls of Congo Grille’s dining area. Kids, 5 years old and up, were divided into 2 groups. Their goal is to get as many animal pictures as possible. The group with the most number of pictures is the winner. I used the loot bags from Congo Grille as game prizes wherein I added Jungle Bites biscuits.

The next game I introduced was All About Yanthy. It’s like the Pera o Bayong game. Each child should be accompanied by a parent or relative to join the game. There are 3 choices for every question asked about Yanthy. They stand in front of the letter of their choice – A, B or C. The emcee continues to ask questions until only 1 parent and child team is left in the game. We prepared 5 questions but we already had a winner after the third question. The winning child received a Congo Grille loot bag and a jungle-designed coin bank.



During the All About Yanthy Game.

 

After the second game, since most of the guests have already arrived, I announced that we have special seat prizes. Round stickers of Madagscar characters were stuck on chair backrests before guests arrived. There was 1 sticker for every table of 10. So I told them to look at their chairs to see if there’s a sticker and to bring them to me so I could give them a prize. We gave out Rubik's cubes as special seat prizes.

The lucky winners presenting their stickers to me.

 

I called Yanthy’s cousins from my side of the family in front to perform their special dance number. They danced to the tune of the latest dance craze Nobody which Yanthy likes a lot incidentally. Yanthy even clapped and danced with them as they performed. 

My nieces and nephews dancing while wearing animal masks.

Then, I called the younger kids to join the Nobody dance contest. Only 2 brave little girls joined. They both knew the choreography very well so I declared both of them as winners. They got the same prize that the kid in the first game won.

 

We had our pictures taken per guest table after the games and I distributed the giveaways and loot bags to the kids. We also opened a couple of gifts for the photo ops. We had more photos taken with family members and friends before we called it a day.
 

Our family with my brother-in-law's family.

Yanthy and his Dad and the male kids in his party.

Yanthy and me and the female kids in his party.

Going around tables for photo ops.

 

We helped Yanthy open some of his gifts.

And what a day it has been! Everything didn’t happen according to our original plan but it was still fun and memorable. God saw us through. He provided for all that we needed and wanted. The food was good. The decors and cake were beautiful. The guests especially the kids enjoyed. Yanthy enjoyed his party. Many family members and friends came. We didn’t have technical problems. And best of all, we were able to stick to our budget.

 

As a bonus treat from God, Yanthy received very nice gifts. Since Yanthy was still up and about when we got home from the party venue, we opened all of his gifts. He was excited to play with all of his new toys. He received new clothes and cash gifts, too. God really loves to go beyond our expectations. What a gracious and generous God we have! 

Yanthy and his birthday gifts!