I survived another one.
No, I’m not talking about a Husker loss (although I survived
that too). I’m talking about my
daughter’s birthday party.
Rachel recently turned 11 and, as such, is getting close to
the end of her “official” birthday parties.
So I am beginning to see a light at the end of this tunnel.
But we’re not there yet.
I think part of the reason I don’t enjoy birthday parties as
much as I should is similar to why Jeff and I didn’t have a wedding. So much time, energy and money put into an
event that only lasts a short amount of time.
Logically I can’t get my head around it.
But as a parent in the 21st century it seems obligatory. So early this fall, party planning ensued.
I started going through the Oriental Trading catalog for
“theme” ideas. Over the years we’ve
thrown a number of parties, but inevitably the ones that the girls enjoy most
are the ones at our house. Lucky
me. So the option of paying someone else
to do all the preparation, implementation, clean-up, etc. was not an
option. While I realize this should be a
compliment to my party-throwing talents, I instead begin to focus on how to
out-do myself with the best-party-ever mentality. Without doing a “destination party” this all
centers on having the right “theme.”
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| Elisabeth's "Bead" Party |
I looked through the catalog and saw very little that I found
appealing. Considering that there are
entire stores dedicated solely to helping you plan and execute a theme party
this should have been the EASY part.
After struggling for awhile, Rachel came by and asked what was the
matter. I explained my dilemma to her
and she instantly replied,
“Oh, that’s easy. I
want an Egyptian themed party.”
Silly me. Why didn’t I
just think to ask her since it was HER party?
Problem number one solved.
We have a theme. (And
coincidentally, despite the millions of options in both the catalog and at the
party store, this is not one of their choices!)
Problem number two?
Pinterest.
Pinterest is a wonderful resource of ideas…….for people that
have endless amounts of free time, bottomless budgets and years to make it all
happen. Thanks to a quick search of
Pinterest by both myself and Elisabeth (assistant party-planner), and the theme
provided by Rachel, I now had more ideas
than I had time. I asked Rachel how
important it was that this party happen this year? She was only mildly amused by my
question.
Needless to say, we pulled it off and she was very happy. Despite my degree in architecture, the custom-creation
cardboard pyramid was actually more of a tent due to structural complications
with ducttape and cardboard. However, it
was big enough to hold two children at a time.
And more importantly, it was ready by party time!
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| Cardboard "pyramid" complete with Nile River |
Having thrown quite a few parties by this point, here’s what
I’ve learned:
1. Let the party girl
(or boy) serve as the planning CEO.
If I had just
consulted Rachel in the first place I could have saved myself a lot of time and
stress.
2. Keep it simple.
We’ve thrown
some big destination parties and while the girls enjoyed them, given a choice they
will always choose a party at home. This
isn’t real estate. Location is not that
important.
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| Rachel's Pony Party at the Little Red Barn |
3. For decorations,
refer to rule #2.
Despite what
the party stores would have you think, it doesn’t take a lot of effort to
impress kids. With a bunch of cardboard,
a few rolls of streamers and some balloons, you can easily transform a plain
room into a party room.
4. Clean up after the
party, not before.
Logic dictates
that if guests are coming to your home you should clean the place. Logic has no place when it comes to
children’s parties. The kids coming to
your home could care less if your house is dirty. And there will be plenty of cleaning to do
when they leave. Don’t waste the time
doing it twice. Pick up the clutter, but
save the vacuuming for after the guests go home.
5. Sugar is a required
element.
Even if you’re
a health nut, a party is not the time to try to influence others with your
nutritious stance. Serve up sugary
treats of some sort and then send the kids home. Unless they’re diabetic, a little sugar won’t
kill them. And based on my experience,
the mere excitement of a “party” is no worse than a sugar high.
6. Party favors aren’t
as important as you think.
I’m always
frustrated when either of my girls comes home from a party with what looks like
more than she took as a gift. The kids
attending the party come for fun, not stuff.
If you need bags to get them home with all their “loot” then you’re
overdoing it. For the Egypt party, each
attendee took home a bandana (that they used for two of the party games) and a
cupcake that they decorated during the party.
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| Party game with their new bandanas |
7. Gift wrap falls in
the same category as party favors.
I used to
obsess about making the gifts my girls took to parties look just perfect,
realizing the whole time that in a matter of minutes the wrapping would be
destroyed. Don’t waste your time. One girl showed up for Rachel’s party with
her gift in a Hy-vee paper sack. Not
decorated, just a plain sack. Rachel
loved the gift and that girl’s mom instantly became one of my favorite
people. Having five kids of her own she
has undoubtedly realized what it took me too long to accept----the wrapping
just doesn’t matter.
8. Don’t spend a lot of
money on the cake.
Following rule
#5, for some of the birthdays I have gotten professionally decorated
cakes. They were amazing. They were also demolished and devoured soon
after pictures were taken. (Seeing a
similarity to rule #7?) The best parties
we’ve had included letting the kids decorate their own cupcakes. You can easily make a batch of cupcakes for
about $2 and for a few dollars more you have entertainment for the party as
well. I know many people would hesitate
at the idea of letting kids do this in their house, but if you follow rule #4
it’s not a big deal.
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| Custom cupcake creations |
9. Don’t go by the
age=number of guests rule.
Invite guests
based on how many good friends your child has and wants to invite. It sounds counterintuitive, but inviting
the entire preschool class (9 other children) worked beautifully and made for
a fun time instead of restricting the guest list to 4 and making her choose
which friends would be invited. Now that
her class size is 28, inviting the entire class would be insane, but she also
does not have 11 close friends. I simply
asked her who she wanted to invite and she came up with a co-ed list of 7
friends that she knew all got along and would have fun together. Perfect.
(Ties in with Rule #1---consult the “expert”). Now with that being said, I also serve as a
consultant in this process making sure that everyone on the guest list is
someone I approve of, and also making sure she hasn’t inadvertently omitted
someone from the list.
10. Have a plan, but go
with the flow.
A surprising
discovery at this year’s party was that the attendees liked my
organization. On one of my chalkboard
cabinets in the kitchen, I had written the party agenda just so I wouldn’t
forget anything. Once we completed an
activity I simply erased it from the list and we moved on. By mid-party, kids were running in the
kitchen to check the “to-do” list to see what was next! We completed our checklist early and then the
kids agreed, as a unified group on their own, what to spend the rest of the
time doing.
This brought the most important realization of party
planning. You can plan all you want, but
the kids mainly just want to have fun together.
Everything else is just, well, icing on the cake.
