My girls' birthdays are 6 days apart, and fall the week before Thanksgiving, which for us is already full of competing family and friend obligations. So, it can be pretty exhausting. We were really proud of ourselves this year, though, because we managed to do celebrations that were fun and felt meaningful, and (for the most part) avoided getting really stressed out.
For Maizy, who turned one, we just did an intimate family party, with a few balloons and minimal decorations. My mother-in-law made a big pot of veggie chili (baby looooooves beans), and I just put together a little selection of toppings and sides. My mom made cupcakes, and also brought a store-bought "smash cake." I highly recommend the smash cake for a first birthday. It was pretty amazing to watch Maizy stare at it in wonder, poke it a couple of times, squish it with her fingers, and then take her first taste of SUGAR. Her eyes lit up, she started waving her arms in the air, and then began shoveling fistfuls of frosting into her little mouth as fast as she could, surrounded by the people who love her most in the world.
For Junie, who turned four, we had her first ever friend party. We have been to some pretty spectacular kid celebrations -- with bouncy houses, professional princesses, lots of perfectly matching themed decorations, invite lists with upwards of 20 kids, etc. I'm sure we'll end up doing that at some point, but I'm holding out as long as I can. The girl is only four years old, for crying out loud. Anyway, this is what we did, and it was great:
- We didn't invite school friends. I just wasn't ready to deal with questions of whether to invite the whole preschool class, or whether to let her pick and choose. Instead we just invited a small group of our adult friends who have kids around the same age (whom Junie already knows and loves). That way, we could hang out with our friends while the kids did party stuff.
- We came up with a couple of activities that didn't require a PhD in crafting.
- The first was rice krispie monsters. This was so cute and easy. (Chris did burn some of the chocolate while trying to melt it during the party, so we ended up with three colors to choose from rather than four, but whatever...the kids didn't know that the lime green frosting was missing.) [Link to post with instructions ADD].
- We also made a Pin the Tail on the Mermaid game. I have to qualify the success of this one, because it did result in me YELLING at Chris at 1:00 in the morning, irrationally angry because he didn't understand why I was so upset about the shape and color of the mermaid's tail that I had just drawn. But it actually came out pretty cool, and it was fun for the kids.
- Food-wise, we made it easy on ourselves. We set out a bunch of kid-friendly snacks, ordered delicious pizza for dinner from Pizza Luce, got a cute store-bought cake, and, perhaps most importantly, provided plenty of alcohol for the parents.
- Finally, the one thing that really made it possible for me to enjoy this party. Instead of paying $200 to have a Disney princess come for one hour, we hired one of the assistant teachers from Junie's school to be there the ENTIRE TIME. She organized and directed activities, helped kids get food, resolved disagreements about whose turn it was to wander blindfolded through the living room to pin a construction-paper tail on the funky-tailed mermaid. And she took the kids upstairs to watch Monsters, Inc. while the parents had a final glass of wine and got ready to go. I cannot stress enough how great it was to have someone else there to shepherd the kids. So wonderful, and Junie had a ball.
On her actual birthday (a few days after the party), we went to Junie's "celebration of life" ceremony at Montessori school, took her to the movies, had a special dinner at home with just our little family, and blew out candles again.
And then, somehow, later that week we hosted Thanksgiving for both of our families. What were we thinking?
The bottom line is that we survived, I didn't have any major panic attacks, and I think the birthdays felt special and memorable to the girls. Also, we didn't have to hire princesses to pull it off. That feels like win to me.
Pin the Tail on the Mermaid (yes this was drawn by an adult)