Today our eldest daughter, Kite, turns 11.  Her birthday party was held last Sunday which coincided with the baptism of her baby sister, Laya.

(photo by Oly Ruiz of MetroPhoto)

It ain’t a wedding but the event also involved preps in the hotel (courtesy of the GCs we received from Mandarin Oriental), a church ceremony, and a reception.  The staff of Mandarin even brought a cot to our room especially for the baby. Since we booked the party at Blue Leaf (thanks to Eugene & Michelle Sandejas for accommodating us), we decided that the Christening of our four month-old baby be held at the Sanctuario de San Antonio for proximity and convenience of the godparents and other guests.

Benz & I usually plan big events in our family together, but this time, she planned it with Kite. I was mostly pleased with this arrangement except when I asked approximately how much they spent so far.  But with the discounts and freebies we got from our suppliers, I shouldn’t really be complaining.

Joel Bautista did Laya’s baptismal gown in piña, while the candles were custom-made for us by Ernest Pascual –  dubbed as the ‘Details Diva’ by his brides.

After the short ceremony at the Baptistry, we proceed to the party venue.  Upon arrival, what greeted us were the myriad of colorful balloons dropping from the ceiling by Polkadot Events, which also served as our party planner.  There were also a gallery of large backlit portraits of our family especially setup for us by Ronald of 4th Wall (the selected photographs were taken by The Stork Studio during Benz’ pregnancy up to Laya’s 3rd month).  The photobooth of Studio on Wheels was already clicking away for the early birds by then.

Since the party’s theme was Arts & Crafts, there were stations for origami, cake decorating, ceramic & sun-catcher painting, nameplate designing, sand art, and bead making.  Most of these were provided by Rekindled Moments.  The personalized aprons provided to the kids were customized by Loot Fairy.  Standing in as the party host was Jiggles - the balloon lady whose balloon show was a big hit with the kids and ’stage parents’.

When I learned that Joy San Gabriel would be doing the birthday cake, I requested that it be a tower of mini-cakes so guests could take them home.  Aside from the various food carts, Josiah’s Catering provided the buffet of our guests.

Highlights and sidelights of the event were captured in the onsite video below done for us by Threelogy.

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Related links:

• Kite’s 11th Bday & Laya’s Baptism Party - by Fol Rana, Jr.
• Kite’s 11th Bday & Laya’s Baptism METROFIED - by Oly Ruiz of MetroPhoto
• Kite & Laya’s Double Celebration photobooth prints - Studio on Wheels
• Laya (3rd month) - The Stork Studio
• Laya (newborn) - The Stork Studio
• Laya (in the womb) - The Stork Studio

It been quiet here the past couple of weeks and, unless you’re a contact in our personal FB accounts, you might be wondering the lack of updates this side of the blogosphere.

Well we have added a new member to our family!

Welcome Laya Rana!  She was born the afternoon of March 29.  Her name was inspired by the last word from the song “Bayan Ko.”

Our family picture above was taken during our li’l bundle of joy’s newborn pictorial.  She was just 12 days old at that time.  Kudos to Sofia Genato & Stan Ong of The Stork Studio for their talent and patience.  Some of the ‘poses’ required our baby to be in deep slumber and there isn’t any on/off button when it comes to that. But the wait paid off, and the shots came out great!

As for now, like any doting parents, we eagerly share with you the other shots from this session.

Last summer, we had a family portrait session scheduled one afternoon during Boracay trip, with Oly Ruiz of Metro Photo behind the camera.

This year, Benz asked him the same favor, this time for a street pictorial for our 10-year old daughter Kite with her two teenage cousins, Pao (13) & Justine (16).

Since the shoot involved the girls to be glammed up, wifey also asked Jesy Alto if she could do the makeup of the girls. She gladly agreed, even tagging Raymond Ko along to do the girls’ hair. When Benz learned that Jesy will be brought to the shoot by her fiance, Erron Ocampo who also happens to be a wedding photographer, wifey asked if he would want to shoot as well. And he did!

Erron has been one of the senior photographer in ImagineNation’s pool of young & talented wedding photographers for several years. Late last year, he has gone solo to make a name for himself in the industry.

So there we were at Bonifacio High Street last Sunday, with the intense El Niño bearing down on us.   But didn’t stop the artists from getting the shots they wanted from their ‘models’.  Here’s one ‘Gingersnap-ish’ shot by Erron of our daughter in a gown made for her by Veluz.

The rest of Erron’s shots are posted in his FB album.

(image courtesy of Jayson & Jo Anne Arquiza)

1. Have an ex-politician for a dad who seriously thinks you could follow his footsteps.

2. Discuss this during a family vacation with your siblings and in-laws throwing in their support.

3. When talks get serious, have your wife and mom ask you not to trade a peaceful family life by running for public office.

4. Discuss the situation with your barkada who’ll eventually egg you to run just as well, but for all the wrong reasons.

5. Hear one of them actually suggest a catchy campaign slogan that you would eventually use for the occasion.

6. Have your wife make you promise you’re not running, before she proceeds with any plans for the party.

7. Tell family of your decision. Say something along these lines:

“Hindi ako tatakbo, pero wala na akong magagawa kapag ginusto na ng taongbayan.”

8. In lieu, tell them you’re planning a election-themed birthday party; also tell them about the campaign slogan which will be the central theme.

9. Introduce yourself to people. Have no qualms changing your ‘generic-sounding’ name in facebook with the nickname you’ve always hated as the slogan made good use of it.

10. Announce in your FB stat that the reason you’re changing your name is to make it masa-sounding which the voting public can easily relate to. Include the mandatory *rolleyes* remark at the end.

11. Send feelers to preferred suppliers whom you like to work on the party to already book the date.

12. Get wife pregnant and have her OB-Gyn tell her she’s on house arrest at the start of pregnancy (translation: CALL-OFF THE PARTY).

13. Announce to siblings and in-laws the change in plans but have them say — its worse and more tiring for preggy wife to host lunch or dinner at home, than to scheme a party with reliable suppliers around to help us put things together — afterwards.

14. Bring out the party blueprint yet again.

15. Tell suppliers that the party will push through with only 2 weeks to plan and execute.

16. Book a historic/political venue for the party to go with the election theme.

17. Decide for an after-dinner affair to lessen cost.

18. Choose local street food for the menu to go with the very Pinoy theme.

19. Schedule a studio pictorial for the campaign materials.

20. Grab this photo opportunity to have your picture taken with your favorite ride.

21. Ask friends in FB what would be a good campaign hand sign and actually get very good suggestions.

22. Shoot a video for the campaign ads by simply riding around the neighborhood.

23. Have your videographer ask you to do your mandatory hand sign.

24. Actually bungle up the simple task above; it makes a funny blooper video afterwards.

25. Dub your voiceover narration and try your darnest to sound serious and convincing.

26. Have the wife make an FB event page to invite your friends.

27. Be vague about the event by posting a video teaser that actually looks like a campaign ad.

28. Design a campaign materials with slogans and catchphrases.

29. Make them nice and personalized so your wife and bestfriend would want to use it as profile pic/campaign badge in their respective FB accounts.

30. Have your friends ask for the same campaign badges for themselves to be posted on their own FB walls or as profile pics.

31. Flood your friends’ FB Highlights with all these people posting the same campaign badges.

32. Have friends of friends ask who’s the guy they seem to be supporting.

33. Always reply with “Ordinaryong Pilipino lang po.” whenever you encounter such comments even if the person asking doesn’t know who the heck are you.

34. Have your wife surprise you with a blog entry for your birthday with yet another video teaser and various links to other people’s blogs posting the same clip.

35. Have real politicians hold an important press conference in your chosen venue. Something that would hog the headlines the following day. The renewed hype on the venue would somehow lend credence to your mock campaign.

36. Have personalized button pins ready for all your guests as campaign t-shirts are just too expensive.

37. For added suspense and unpredictability, ask your dad to deliver a speech in the party.

Those are the ingredients for a fun and meaningful birthday party. Here’s proof:

• some pictures taken during the ‘campaign launch’
  
• full video ad shown during the event is posted here.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

Of course, my heartfelt gratitude to all the wonderful suppliers who assisted us in mounting this event:

Events by Clarice for handling the event | 4th Wall for the venue setup and props  | Threelogy for the campaign ads and coverage | MetroPhoto for the studio pictorial on such short notice |  Josiah’s Catering and Toddler’s Inc. for providing some of the foodcarts | Flaming Olives for the mobile bar | Joy San Gabriel for the cake and personalized topper that resembled me on my scooter doing the ‘Angkas na!’ sign | PhotoLoco for the (photo)booth wisely souvenirs | John Mateos Ong and his ImagineNation team for the covering the event and providing the projector | Sensitivity for providing the needed audio reinforcement

Special mention to a couple of N@Wies/FB friends who gave us some vital campaign ideas: Joanne Figueroa-Yap for suggested the hitchhiker’s thumb for my hand sign which tied in very well with the ‘Angkas na!’ campaign battlecry; and Mylene Ramos-Lado for posting that *rolleyes* smiley on my wall which eventually landed on the ‘official’ seal as displayed in the picture above.

Best of all, thanks to my pregnant wife for spearheading this ‘campaign’.   I think she’d make a very fine First Lady. Don’t you guys agree?

Muling nagpapasalamat,
~ Abet Rana
(the blogger formerly known as John)

Few people know him well. But those who do know that aside from being funny he is very deep, he is very sensitive and he is very nationalistic. He even had his Vespa repainted like our Philippine Flag.

Here’s his birthday wish video by Threelogy.
Happy Birthday, Mr. John Rana aka Abet Rana! *rolleyes*

Ikaw, sasama ka ba?

• Sasama Ako! (Threelogy | video)
• Angkas Kayo? (Jason Magbanua | video)
• Abet is my bet! (Maeline Rocas | fbff )
• ABET IS OUR BET! (Paul Vincent | photo)
• Sasama din kami! (Jayson and Jo Anne Arquiza | photo)
• Driving You Crazy (Queen | coordinator)
• Abet is my only bet! (Clarice | coordinator)
• Abet (Veluz | designer)
• AANGKAS AKO! Kasya pa ba? (Erron Ocampo | photo)
• Kaangkas ang Metrophoto (Oly Ruiz | photo)
• Abet is my bet! (Nelwin Uy | photo)
• Kaangkas Ako! (Chug Cadiogan | video)
• On Abet Rana’s birthday… (Mimi and Karl | photo)
• sama ako jan!!! (Phoeben & Gen | video)
• ABET IS MY BET!!! (Fol Rana | photo)
• Tara na sa makahulugang biyahe. (Dino Lara | photo)