The Imperfect Community

mammaX3_MOD · Posted: Mon Nov 20, 2006 9:00 pm Post subject: I must be outta my mind!

Whew! I just barely survived my daughter's 3rd Birthday party. Sign me up for the cuckoo's nest! What was I thinking!? I thought a party for just 8 kids (my 3 plus only 5 more) would be, well, a piece of cake (no pun intended). No. I had kids all over my house, running like wild animals. 2 Kids didn't want to play any games. 1 girl wanted mommy, NOW! Only half of the kids ate only half the lunch I made. And my daughter cried while we sang Happy Birthday. Plus the skies opened up and it POURED rain all day, bringing water and mud into the newly carpet-cleaned house. And the Seahawks were playing, so my hubby, although helpful, was only half conscious.
Now, my son, who turns 6 in May is desperately jealous and wanting a party for himself. I figure 6 months is just enough time to diplomatically bow out, or muster up enough courage to do it again. Maybe I might get wiser and just have a party at Chuck E. Cheese or just have a McParty....
occasion4

DietCokeHead · Queen of Imperfection Joined: 29 Apr 2002 Posts: 3805

Sounds exhausting! I have vowed to never have a home birthday party again. I dont have it in me to entertain a mass of children in my home! All our parties will be at some kind of place where they do all the work for you. We only do them every other year, this year is an "on" year so my two oldest will have a party in May.

Jessica · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 6:47 am Post subject:

My advice? Take 'em bowling.

I will never do a home birthday party again. NEVER! tongue2

Scout · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 8:04 am Post subject:

We don't do any non-family parties until the 5th birthday. I have to say, though, that the Chuck E Cheese party I had for Calvin when he turned 5 was heinous and I will never do that again! Bowling was a good one, but we did I think Cal's 6th or 7th at home, and it went fine. We only had about 7 kids. I had a few games, then I just let them go play. This past summer we had Joshua's 5th at home, but had a moonbounce in the yard, so that helped a lot. And it was just mostly my friends' kids, so they hung out and it was very casual.

mammaX3_MOD · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 12:11 pm Post subject:

Well I'm thinking I might go the McDonald's party route next time, or I'll do what my neighbor and mother to my kids' best friends did. She had her son's 5th at the park. All of the mess and spills were outside. We piled all of the trash onto the table cloth, bundled it up and put it in the park garbage can. And she hung a pull-string pinata (I HATE the whacking kind) from the monkey bars. Then any kid who got bored early, could just play on the playgroungd equipment. Plus, the park was really tiny and fenced so none of the kids would run out into the street.
The only unforseen problem we had was that some teenagers drew some pretty graphic pictures in permanent marker on the picnic table and bench, so at the last minute she ran to the store for one more table cloth that we draped over the bench part of the table so the kiddos didn't see.

Anthromomma · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 1:11 pm Post subject:

This year we got a party box at a minor league baseball game for S's fourth birthday. All inclusive (including beer for the big kids) for $225. Best money I ever spent.

Erika

And, the promotional freebie that day were those Lysol cleaning wipes-- the events manager hooked us up with four cases of them as we were leaving. Score!

Petulant Pixie · Posted: Tue Nov 21, 2006 2:06 pm Post subject:

I've never had a home party. We've never had a house, lol, so there ya go. We've done Chuck E Cheese numerous times when the kids were real little. We did bowling (nice for the 5+ range) and roller skating (ditto). The past three years, Alex has chosen a friend or two to go to the amusement park (we have one at "the mall", it's huge--rollercoasters, log rides, everything). And we have this indoor playground (since all of my kids' birthdays fall in "winter" since winter is six months out of the year here), where you pay like $15 a kid, and it covers the two hours of play, the cake, the plates, napkins, forks and beverages and the clean up. We've done that two years in a row for Katie. I am totally into parties...AWAY.

Although this year, I am contemplating letting Katie have some friends over for a sleepover party. She's turning 8 though, so that's a lot different than 3 or 6.

snuffles · Posted: Sun Nov 26, 2006 12:13 pm Post subject:

This past summer we had had aparty for both of my boys. (Their B-Days are a month apart.) I did all the research and found lots games to play. Hubby and I spent 3 days filling water balloons (500) and I bought 20 cans of silly string. We had 12 kids, from 3-12 yrs, including my 2 and 7 adults. The kids went crazy in the house and with all the age differences, the older ones didn't want to play the games and the younger ones didn't want to look like babies. So we just quickly did cake, went to the park with the water balloons and silly string and let them play at the park while the ADULTS chased the kids around with everything. I think we had more fun than THEY did! It was finally the parents' revenge! HA HA! The kids loved it too and I think next year, we're just going to do the water balloons and silly string again and forget the rest of the games. I think the best idea for kids' parties is K.I.S.S. - KEEP IT SIMPLE SILLY!