Simple 100th day Celebration for Baby

It's in the Korean tradition. 100 days. 벡일
I'm pretty sure many parents out there also keep track and just snap on certain days (1 week! 100 days! 6 months!) As for myself, I was excited to record this event and celebrate. I also wanted to keep it simple. I've heard horror stories about how parents (grandparents) were asked to contribute to grand parties for 100 days... really? I mean... if you really want it that big, you should pay for it yourself. A old friend of mine was huffing and puffing because her brother was asking their mom to "donate" around 500 dollars for a dessert set to decorate the table and give out to people stating dduk "Korean rice cake" was supposed to be provided by the grandparents. Anywhoo, I just wanted a picture for memories sake so we invited only immediate family for lunch. Fyi, I'm from a divorced household so we always have to do things twice (the wedding was the only exception LOL). We spent less than 30 for the photo op table.

Sat- scones and cupcakes

The 100th day print came out too lightly

Sun- Grandma brought rice cake balls and FIL brought cake

We have a small computer desk and we cleared it off to use it as a photo table. I already had the sheer blue curtain so I got a white table cover from the dollar store to place underneath it. I also already had 'Flora the Flamingo' book from when she was born. The shoes were a gift as well.

Things purchased.
Dollar store- 2 wooden squares, small picture frame, teal poof decoration
Grocery store- scones, cupcakes
Bought by others- ricecake, cake

For the flora banner: I cut some cardboard, glue-sticked white paper and painted her letters in gold.

Done! Simple.

Baby on Board! DIY Surf Baby Shower

Surf Baby Shower

Finally posting about my baby shower planning! Being a frugal?or cost effective person that enjoys entertaining guests such as myself, I've been researching and planning this baby shower for months. I've decided to post my own experience since I collected ideas from numerous sites and blogs. Just in case someone comes across it and gets inspired. Over the course of a month, I was looking at locations for the shower and realized location is one of the most expensive expenses. After emailing surrounding hotels, banquet rooms, restaurants for quotes. It made me realize I should spend that amount of money on food and gifts instead. I didn't want to spend 2 to 3 grands on a small location with mediocre food and have to resort to handing out teabags for party favors (no offense, teabags are a great idea but I just wanted to offer more). FYI, our family is of Korean heritage meaning it is possible we have to throw a 1 year party and to us, it made sense to save money on the shower in case we have to throw a 1 year party. Hence.. we have come to the decision of using our patio as the shower event location! Which was great in my opinion because there is no location fee or food & beverage minimums!!! My husband was worried about the amount of people coming  because even if we only counted close friends and family it was still well over 40. Therefore... we decided to throw the shower two days, Saturday and Sunday. We split the group based on who knows each other and who's more available on the dates.

Surf Baby Theme

Searching baby shower theme ideas, I noticed everything is pink, blue, green or animals. I wanted this to be personal and I have this weird thing about gender equality. When I searched for unique baby shower ideas (the internet is a fascinating thing), there were so many wonderful, unique, fun baby showers. I came across a surf baby shower theme and i fell in love instantly! When I first met my husband, he told me he enjoys surfing on his free time and went down to El Porto quite frequently. So we went ahead and decided for a surf themed baby shower with the colors coral and teal.

DIY Surf Baby Shower Prep and Cost

DIY Projects and Cost for the Baby Shower

The first thing I thought was surfboards!
Like I mentioned on the shower planning post, lot of the blogs said they got plywood to make the surfboards and I just didn't feel like going through all that. I bought poster boards from the craft store and cut out 2 surfboards from each poster board. Since I was going to stand them up on the food table, I just outlined the top shape. I used draft tape to make the patterns and spray paint. If I had more time, I would have painted some Hawaiian style flowers... but after cutting out the poster board with a exacto knife I got lazy.

I used spray paint from Michaels, Design master Colortool spray in Robin's Egg & Coral. I just used acrylic paint I had for the gray line. I also made little banner flags out of cardboard and hung it with twine over the surf boards.
I painted and cut out a sign to make Flora's Surf Shack with half the poster board. I just googled dolphines and looked for the easiest one to draw- not too realistic but able to tell it's a dolphin.

My friend Cassidy took home a poster board and made the Ovary chart for the game 'Pin the Sperm' . She cut out sperm from gray felt and we used double sided tape for it to stick.

Party Favors (Approximately 40 people) I really wanted something nice for the guests and loved the beach theme favors I saw. I decided to go for sunblock lip balm bags. Since the sunblock was just a mini size banana boat, I upgraded the lip balm option to Eos. For the men (only around 15) we put in a nicer trial size sunblock (banana boat cool mist) and a gag gift (condoms)... We were out of ideas.

So... I'll get to the cost break down here. I did it by store because I kept record of it by stores...

30 weeks

So I am just posting for my own personal record.
I'm not really into updating this anymore since this past year has been very hectic for me.
I'm also pretty sure I'll be occupied with the new baby that I won't see this blog for another year or so.

30 weeks at March 6th

Weight Gain:

24 LBS

Belly Bump: It constantly feels like my belly is stretching downward. I feel heavy now. It's hard to find a comfortable position in bed and turning to my other side is getting difficult. I let out an occasional groan or grunt and my husband pushes me up or helps me turn over. Flora is very active, I think I will miss her movements when she is out. Lately, the movements are throughout the day and evenings (before, they were only before bedtime). What's funny is, sometimes I forget I have a belly bump and accidentally open the fridge door and my belly blocks it from opening. 

Feelings Physically: Exhaustion but no desire for frequent naps, although it's probably needed. I think I'll start after I leave work. I cannot fall asleep early, I feel like I need to get something done while I can but I end up laying on the couch. I think I try to stay awake because the time spent with Francisco feels so short after work. If I sit still in the chair, my back starts to ache so I walk around the office every hour or so. One thing I have to write down because I keep forgetting to ask my doctor, I feel a icy sensation in my tummy. As if there is a ice cube rolling down my belly. I can't find anything online, it's not painful but it feels weird.

Feelings Emotionally: Happy, too happy that it gives me anxiety time to time. Thoughts of this pleasant time going away gets me very emotional and sad. I know Francisco tries hard to keep me in a good mood but my mood swings just happen without reason. I think I'm thinking too much that I have to do well on my own. I don't know why I feel like I shouldn't burden my friends and family. I have endless checklists, research articles and I still feel I'm not prepared for the baby.

Thoughts about the Baby: I am excited and worried. I am a worrywart. I need to stop watching the news. It needs to be consumed that bad things can happen regardless of my influence or not. I just have to hope for the very best. My brains gets a tornado of worrying about everything from bullying to accidentally getting something toxic in her mouth. I'm already brainstorming in my head how I'm going to teach her not to follow strangers or make right choices in life. It's inevitable, things are going to happen and I cannot put her in a bubble. I just have to hope she turns out right eventually. I mean, I was reckless but I feel like I turned out pretty well.. I think. 

I hope in the end, she will be a good-hearted, unselfish person.

What I am Craving: Sweets and comfort foods. Occasionally spicy, which I try to avoid due to heartburn but I crave so much. I need to cut out sugar as much as possible. I've eating more sweets than when I wasn't pregnant. Comfort food to me is traditional Korean food like jjigae or mashed potatoes. Oh, I have been eating a lot of red meat lately (it's a lot to me since I rarely ate red meat the past 5 years)

Dreams: Lot of violent dreams. Maybe I'm relieving stress through dreams?? I hope it's not bad for the baby...