The tricky thing about being a mom (unless I am doing it wrong, which is entirely possible) is how that tried and true economic principle of specialization flies right out the window. For example, if event planning is not your thing, you still find yourself putting on events. Ditto with cleaning house, home improvements, teaching jump rope skills (most of my afternoon today . . . I'm still the only jump-roper in the house, despite some really impressive efforts from the kidlets), and coming up with cool science experiments (yesterday afternoon). This is also the reason I think I know so many amazing moms -- they are inspired by their kids to learn new skills. In any case, Gigi's birthday party is right around the corner and I have got to figure this thing out. Please help. It's her first one and she has high hopes. I love me a shindig, I just prefer to bring the food, rather than be in charge of the whole durn thing.
My ideas so far, which I researched painstakingly through the googling-while-watching-The-Office method, include:
Princess and Knights Party -- sort of boring and 'done', but this option includes tiaras, which I'm pretty sure she would be all over. She is as girly as they come, but has mostly boy friends, hence the knights. I could even make it Fairy Princess and Knights, which would incorporate her two great loves: crowns and wings.
Ladybug Party -- she came up with this idea because her aunt once made her a ladybug cake which she would like to have again. But will I really get boys excited about ladybugs?
Art Party -- fun, but sort of generic, I would get each kid a beret and have different art stations and they could let all their creative juices flow. I think I like this one the best because for party favors I would get to melt down crayons and put them in candy molds to make cute new crayons. Not sure why I want to do this so much, but I might just do it no matter what. Here are the instructions.
Little Chefs Party -- another unisex option. But I can't really get excited about it. I love to cook, but cooking with kids is not what it's cracked up to be.
So, what do you say? Can any of you supermoms help a sister out? Ideas, suggestions, helpful websites would be appreciated.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Birthday Conundrum
Posted by Naomi at 10:38 PM
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6 comments:
I've done both the elaborate and the simple and EVERYONE loves the simple more than the elaborate. The kids stress out when there are too many games and really what they want to do is free play. So my suggestions, keep it easy.
Cooking party...let the kids top their own mini pizza's made out of frozen roll dough.
Instead of a knights and princess party because it's been 'done' already, have a tea party. little sandwiches, little food, fancy dress & teddy bears.
In my opinion, 3 is too young to worry about gender specific/neutral. Kids are generally easy to please.
Now on to me....do you think the featherpull bread recipe is dense enough to hold together if I turn it into an apple cinnamon swirl bread? If no, which recipe do you think would work best?
Gwen
I agree that simple is the best. My girls always just want to run around, eat some sugar, open their presents and then play with said presents. But tiaras usually are a huge plus.
My favorite is "birthday party" theme where you get tons of balloons and cake and call it good.
Tessa has had some fun ones. Last year was "movie" theme where we played games to get tickets to purchase the concessions and then watched a (short) flick. The year prior to that was veterinarian which was harder to pull off than I thought but the kids liked it. She's also done the art party and it was fun as well as a beach/hula party. None of them are spectacular as I am not a party planner either (but the kids don't care). Sylvie's only party of mention was "Backyardigans" which is a variation on "birthday party" theme except with Backyardigans favors.
Amen to the specialization thing. When did I go to school for all this?
Thanks for the help, girls! Gwen, I think Featherpuff would be perfect for that. In fact, I have done a similar thing . . . I made cinnamon raisin swirl bread with it and it was delish. However, don't let it rise too long in the final rise, and don't spread butter on it in the final shaping. The first time, I rolled it out, spread the butter, sprinkled the raisins, nuts, cinnamon and sugar, and it was tasty, but fell completely apart on slicing. I got better results when I skipped the butter (I am sure I have never uttered such blasphemy) and just put brown sugar and other toppings, rolled it up and called it good. The sugar sort of oozes and caramelizes pleasantly, and the bread holds together well enough to make cinnamon roll french toast out of it. YUM! I have also had excellent results, maybe even better results, doing everything above, but using her Oatmeal Bread recipe, which uses cooked oatmeal for the liquid. It is denser and a little chewier (in a good way). Oh, don't get me started!
I'm with you about putting on shindigs. Tanner (turning 6) is having his first bday party on Saturday-and b/c we don't do them every year for our kids, I am splurging and renting a bounce house...
I did a 5 yr bday princess party for Maya. One activity that was a great hit was that I got a big bag of those craft jewels(? I forget what they're called, but they are flat on one side so you can glue them to things) and we hid them in the backyard so they could have a treasure hunt. Then when they had their treasure, they used it to make their own crowns/tiaras that I had pre-cut out of posterboard. I also had some glitter glue and markers. The girls loved it. Boys can do crowns too or they could do swords??
Good luck with your party!! :)
Good Luck Naomi! I just had Ben's 5 year old party and we did pirates...complete with cardboard ship: http://www.mrmcgroovys.com/ they also have instructions on doing a castle if you end up with knights/princesses. You can do a backwards party - dress backwards, eat backwards, play games backwards....or maybe a circus? pirates were very easy - treasure hunt, pin the x on the treasure, play in the pirate ship, etc.
If you do a ladybug party you can include other bugs for the boys. I went to a party with Charlie where the mom had the kids decorate pillowcases and have a race with them when they were done. She also did an obstacle course and had a bounce house. If you do a princess party you could still do the pillowcases and have the girls decorate them princess like and the boys could do dragons and such. Just an idea. I'm sure you will come up with some cool stuff. You could also do a pinata that's always fun.
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