There is a week in March that is just full of birthdays for my family. First my husband's, which I wrote about in SHMILY and German Chocolate Cupcakes w/Choc. Caramel Filling. Then 3 days later is my oldest son's birthday and then four days after that is my birthday. It can get pretty crazy around here but at least our house is full of yummy goodies for awhile.
In this world of so much media and social media it is easy to want to go overboard with birthday celebrations. I mean have you seen some of those kids parties on Pinterest?! We try to not go too crazy around here but have fun and make the birthday kid feel special.
This year I really wanted to throw my son DP a Magic Tree House themed party. I came up with the idea while writing the blog post for his last birthday (A Very Buggy Birthday). My son loves the Magic Tree House books!
I was thinking a multi-layer cake in the shape of a tree house (I figured this was still in my cake skill level because it would just be square cakes) and a scavenger hunt featuring some of the eras the characters in the book had visited. I was envisioning an awesome party definitely Pinterest-worthy until my husband burst my bubble.
He reminded me that we had no free Saturdays around my son's birthday. He suggested we go bowling until he remembered how many young children we have. So we (my husband, son and I) decided that my son would have some friends spend the night and just have cake. It turned out he had his cousin spend the night the day before the "party" and a couple of friends come over after church with their younger brothers. And one of those friends spent the night that night.
And you know what? They had a blast! They ran around outside, helped us move the chickens, built birthday presents, and didn't miss my fancy cake or games at all. We might have been able to squeeze in the Magic Tree House party I was envisioning that afternoon but I am so glad we didn't.
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| My mom saved the day and make this Magic Tree House Cake Sorry about my poor picture taking, we were in a hurry to eat cake! |
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| Love his reaction to Aunt Kerry and Uncle Lance's gift |
We kept my birthday pretty simple too. I asked my husband to rent "Wreck-It Ralph" and bring home pizza. He bought the movie instead, which is awesome since we loved it, and we had a great time chilling, eating pizza and watching the movie.
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| My cutie Jet |
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| Made from magazine pages |
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| The Party Board |
Do you prefer simple parties or all-out ones for your kids? or for you?
Check out our link parties here.
Since I have always disliked the attention focused on me for my birthday, I try to skip it and wish everyone else would also. Luckily when my son was born six days after my birthday, it gave me the excuse to skip mine and focus on his. When he was real young we had large parties, which thinking back is nutty because he doesn't even remember them. As he got older, doing sleepovers became the norm and were great with cooking of footlongs, hamburgers and then pancakes for breakfast they were thrilled. As a teenager he would pick two or three close friends and go to Dave and Buster's (gaming facility) . Then return and hangout all night. You have to adjust as they age and really ask them what they want because you might be surprised by their answer, it might just show you how they are growing with age and maturity.
ReplyDeleteI really like your point of really asking your kids what they want. It's easy to throw a party that you like or want or you think they would want. My son is so easy going that as long as his friends were there he didn't really care what the cake looked like or if there was planned games. Actually when I first asked him, he said he wanted a Bug party just like last year. I guess he really enjoyed that party!
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