Qing Axl turned one year old today! It's amazing how time flies. Whenever I join birthday parties, especially for the first year, I would always reminisce about Matti's first birthday too. And I rejoice together with the parents for this is indeed a blessing!
Qing Axl turns one and this is also his dedication day. Just like his sister Qwyn Amari, Qing is dedicated to the Lord as well on his first birthday. I had blogged about this before we dedicate a child because we want to honor God and this act is also recognizing that the child is God's and we commit the child to mold him and bring him in the knowledge and fear of the Lord.
Qing's birthday and dedication day were held at Lenny's Catering Services in Jagna, Bohol. The stage backdrop decoration was a Do-It-Yourself by my sister-in-law with the help of her family. I find it really nice! The center circle is a tarpaulin that I designed, it's 4 inches by 4 inches in size and was cut to a circle, I also made a guide for them to easily cut.
The event started at 10:30 AM, we were one of the first ones to arrive, I am glad that we were not late, it rained that morning and so the road was wet and we had to be extra careful, especially that we have kids and babies with us in the car.
Since this was a DIY backdrop, they really saved a lot and I am all for DIY, I told them that it's quite easy to do a balloon arc and they pulled it pretty nicely too!
Of course before the event program started, the cousins just played around and Amari, Qing's big sister is now fond of watching Spiderman for some reasons, she was so busy and her eyes were just on the phone the entire time!
While awaiting for the event to start, I took photos of the dessert corner, here they had set up the sweets like cupcakes, cake, and some souvenirs too.
After a while, the event program started with a prayer. Then Pastor Jose came up to talk about why we have to do a dedication and how it can be helpful to the parents and even to those who were just in the audience. It is an act of following God's design and indeed recognizing that the child is a blessing from God.
Then the parents and the birthday boy were asked to sit in front. Here Pastor Jose was asking the parents if they will commit themselves to raise up Qing in the way of the Lord. The parents answered yes of course.
And then the godparents were also called up and were also asked the same thing. This is to let them know that this is not just an invitation to the party but an invitation to the child's life because whatever happens to the parents, the godparents will help in raising the child too.
After that section, it was time to dedicate Qing through a prayer. We prayed over as Pastor Jose said some prayers of blessing. It was funny because while Pastor Jose was praying over him, he would pull his hand away from him.
As a tradition, the godparents were given their time as well to hold Qing and they were passing him around. The baby was quite confused what's going on and he started crying each single time another one would hold him.
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Out of all the godparents who carried Qing, it was only the last one whom he didn't cry and we found out that he's friends with that man, perhaps he's a neighbor.
It was another time for some photo opportunity! Qing was already done crying here and was looking absolutely adorable!
Now, if you look at the photo below with the parents and Qing himself, who do you think Qing is more similar to? I think Qing got my brother's head shape and the nose. As for the eyes, he got it from his uncle, mom's brother.
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Anyway, it was already time for lunch, there was no other things to be done but to fill our physical body! They had paid the place for the catering and they only had requested for 55 heads. There was lechon which they brought themselves and the rest were prepared by Lenny.
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The foods prepared were meatballs, corn soup, chopseuy, beef steak, chicken fillet, pork fillet, watermelon for the dessert while my brother also bought some other desserts which was displayed at the sweets corner.
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More time to take photos while everyone was having lunch! We took photos of Qing too who was already in a good mood after they gave him a lechon skin!
Now, it was time to get the cake candle up! Qing can't blow a candle yet so they used a different kind of candle instead. Qing was quite surprised with it and showed a shocked look while watching the candle just burning away! I believe it was a good idea to use that instead of getting someone to blow the candle instead.
Qing's cake is chocolate I like the simplicity of the design but I know that this design still costs a lot. So we made sure to do a taste test. It's the common chocolate cake though.
More family photos here below:
We went home after the said event. We had fun and we were full. All images were taken using a Sony A7iii with a Sony 85mm f/1.8 and post-processed via Capture One 22. Thanks a lot for reading!
J U N E B R I D E
Boholana | Cebu | Philippines | Travel | Photography Enthusiast | Calligraphy | Art
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