Andrew celebrated his eighth birthday today, which means between my two children, I’ve planned thirteen birthday parties. I admit that most of these parties have been on the outlandish side.
For his fourth birthday, I took a can of white spray paint and painted a race track in my backyard. I made card board replicas of the cars from the movie Cars, and the children raced around the track.
Once, I even set up an entire circus in my yard complete with tent, carnival games, and a cotton candy machine (yum…that was a big hit). We had clown costumes, and I made my daughter the perfect circus dress to wear. Of course, she was two and only remembers it from the pictures.
Through the thirteen parties, we’ve had water slides and jump houses, treasure hunts, mystery games, tea parties, and we even slayed a dragon once (I created an elaborate story for the birthday guests where they were all Princes and Princesses and needed to slay the dragon- complete with take home story books, of course). All of these ideas have worked out great but were in the exhausting, I need a year’s break, sort of way. But here are a few pointers for anyone looking to go further than that prepackaged box of birthday supplies you could order online and be done with it.
First, not all children like the birthday song. For my son’s second birthday, as we broke into the familiar chorus, he broke into screaming tears. I’d seen it once before with a cousin and thought it funny; I did not think it funny with my own child. So the next year, we took baby steps. I made a small cake, and we had two cousins sing to him, and by the time we go to the real party, he put his head down, but there was no tears. Of course, I noticed as the children sang to him for this birthday, he zoned out. I can’t make him like it, but at least there are no more tears.
Secondly, don’t play competition games for prizes if your child cannot take losing. For my son’s fifth birthday, he spent a good deal of the party pouting and upset after he didn’t win any of the games. My daughter will cry and whine if she doesn’t get a prize at any birthday party. I had to stop at a Wal-Mart once on the way home from a birthday party just to get her to stop. (Some would say this is bad parenting, but they’ve never seen how long she can hold out. She is my daughter after all.)
If you’re considering doing it once and being done with it, consider this. Children get used to it- and want more. My children start requesting as I’m cleaning up the mess of the current party. They’ve requested fashion shows and costume parties and any activity imaginable. This brings me to my last lesson…
Keep it simple. The year of the circus fiasco, I didn’t have time to speak to any of my guests. For the cars party, I ran around and fell over exhausted at the end of it. For some of the most outlandish parties, I can’t tell you who actually came to the party because I was too busy trying to get it to come together.
For my son’s birthday party this year, I kept it simple. Of course, I didn’t know what to do with myself after I’d prepared in under two hours. I’d almost forgotten how to greet guests since usually I’m running around with only time for a quick nod. I even sat down and talked with good friends and family.
There were no requests put in for next year yet, but at the end of the day, he’d had a great birthday. Now as far as his present of a Rip Stick, I have a feeling he’ll be providing me with story material in the future.
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