Written by: Ate Char Tan, President-External
For new parents it is a milestone when their baby turns one. First birthdays are always special as the parents feel blessed to have their babies start a new chapter in their lives. It was the birthday celebration of the adorable Kuya Kaiden as he turned one this year. We headed to Padre Pio Parish (St. Pius of Pietrelcina) in Paranaque for a fun filled morning. The children in the community welcome us as we arrived in the parish.
We divided the kids into groups and the volunteers joined the kids. The groups were Team Yey, Team Spiderman, Team Bagani, The Swimmers, and Team Talisay. The volunteers got to know the children in their groups as the kids talked about what they want to be when they grow up and what activities they were going to do this summer. Most of the kids want to be doctors, lawyers, and policemen. For the summer they all look forward to go swimming.
The first activity we did was Pass the Charades. Teams formed a straight line all facing the back. We gave an animal to the fist person of each team. That person had to pass the animal by acting it out, just like in the game charades. The next person had to pass the charades to the next person until the end of the line was reached. The last person then had to run to the front with the correct answer. The team with the most number of correct answers would win the game. It was fun watching the kids act out the animal as accurately as they could. In the end Team Bagani got the most number of points and won the game.
The next activity we did was Paint Me A Picture. We gave a scene before each round and the groups had to depict the scene. When the time was up the groups had to freeze as we captured the scene. The scenes we gave were church, school, and others. Teams could get creative as they showed us the different elements of each scene. In the end it was Team Talisay who won the game.
The next activity was the Art Workshop by Ate Amy. The theme was ocean crafts as the kids learned to make a baby shark poster. The kids were given blue colored papers that was to be the background of the poster. Ate Amy then taught the kids to cut a big triangle shape that was to be the face of the shark. Small white triangles were to be the teeth and eyes were also attached to the big triangle. The completed shark was then glued on to the blue poster paper as the final touches.
After the art workshop we got to watch a bubble show. The bubble man started out with making small bubbles then worked his way to making big bubbles. The kids watched in excitement as they kept trying to reach out and pop the bubbles. The bubble man made life sized bubbles and the kids took turns going inside. Photos were taken with the kids and volunteers inside the huge bubble.
After all the activities it was time for the kids to enjoy their lunch. We then gathered around as we sang a Happy Birthday song for Kuya Kaiden. Each of the kids received a customized birthday cupcake from Kuya Kaiden. The kids also received school supplies as gifts from the family. To share more blessings Kuya Kaiden’s family made financial donations to St Pio. To end the day we had our traditional group photo as we thank Ate Rodalyn for celebrating her son’s first birthday with the children of Padre Pio Parish.
