Kids Birthday Parties Gone Wild....


Birthday Party


I'm sure everyone has seen this demanding email by now.  After reading it I first thought 'poor child' and then it started me thinking about birthday parties in general for little people.  I don't know about you but birthday parties when I was younger meant some cake and ice cream and opening (modest) gifts for the lucky birthday girl or boy. Times have changed, yes?  For the better?  Not really.

We've all heard about the parties for celebs kids which are over the top outrageous but how many of us have been to a party with the same outrageous-ness (new word I just made up) just on a smaller scale?  In a world where bigger is better how can we top a really BIG fest next year?  People spend hundreds and thousands (!) of dollars on their little prince or princesses parties.  There are even party planners for kids birthday parties.  Who knew?

We've done big parties here and small ones and I think the smaller ones are more memorable for the kids.  The year we did a 'field day' type of party and I believe every child we've ever met was invited (and attended) was they year I said 'enough'.  Since then I've tried to keep it smallish.

Until a party planner was born.  When my daughter turned 13 in January she wanted to go all out. Oy!  But she did everything herself and we kept the costs down (I'm good at that!) I'm wondering what next year will bring?

One thing I know is that the Dollar Tree is your best friend when planning your party budget.  It's the best place to get all the paper products for the fete.  Remember, it all gets thrown out about 5 seconds after you serve that cake so why pay an arm and leg for it?

The other thing I know is that I have never and will never send you an email with my gift demands for my precious little angel.


Comments

Arm Chair Philosopher said…
I suspect there are now birthday gift registries too...no need for the email!
May 1, 2015 at 11:04 AM
Laurie Anne said…
So completely insane. I remember the first "friend" bday party I attended with Ben. I got the birthday boy a big thing of Bubbles and some punching balloons. I was embarrassed when the gift giving started and gift after gift was big AND expensive. When the mom opened our gift she made a face and said "oh... how... nice" tried to give me smile, but it looked more like she was suffering from GI distress. Couldn't get out of there fast enough.
When Sam turned 12 I wanted to do something special, maybe a surprise party like had at 12, but she just wanted to take a girl friend to dinner and a movie. Okay, then. So many times the parties are about "isn't this mom the most awesome ever" and not so much the kid. As for that email... while I can appreciate the sentiment behind it, the delivery was not the best. Those conversations are best in person.
Great Post :0)
May 1, 2015 at 4:24 PM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

My Favorite Things....

Image
Join Melissa @ 320 Sycamore for her My Favorite Things party. Here are my favorite things: David Cook. The CD. Still lovin' it. Listen to it a lot. It's good. Very good. Philosophy Lip Gloss. I have the melon daiquiri flavor and love it. It's shiny AND stays on. Tastes good, too. About $12. Electric Pepper Mill. How did I live without this? Really. You can find one like this at Crate & Barrel for about $40 or so. Peets Coffee . I talk about Starbucks a lot because we don't have a Peets here. It's really the best in my opinion. Luckily you can find it in the grocery store for about $14/lb -or less when it's on sale. You know that's when I buy it! :) Measuring cups. I have these from Williams-Sonoma. I love them. I think it's my favorite thing in my kitchen. At least one of them. And one I use almost daily. It took a while for me to break down and buy them but I have to admit that it's the best $30 I have ever spent. When Little Miss moves us...
Read more

Monday, Monday...

Image
Monday's are usually my favorite days. Everyone is back to work and school and I have the morning to gather my thoughts and eat a leisurely breakfast before starting my day. My friend, E, who I carpool with has her husband take the kids to school since he is off on Mondays. Today, however, has been a bit odd. We had a new dishwasher delivered this morning and my husband uninstalled the old one last night. This morning I wake up to a leak in one of the dishwasher hoses - thankfully just a slow leak but still an inconvenience. My husband had to come home and semi-install the new dishwasher to stop the leak. I have been washing the dishes in the wet bar sink instead of the kitchen sink since something is turned off there and the hubby said not to use it until the new dishwasher is totally installed. I am thankful to have a wet bar sink and not have to resort to washing the dishes in the bathroom - something I am sure we've all had to do at one time. I have some things in t...
Read more

Changes...

Image
I posted some photos of my living room a while back. I realized how blah and boring it looks. I appreciate the suggestions I was given. One of them was 'paint'. We had the walls painted a couple years ago so I really didn't want to do it again just yet so I had to figure what else I could do to get some color in there. I thought about painting a canvas red to match the chair ( below). After talking to my sister she suggested dipping cool whip containers in paint to make the circles and an idea was born. I bought the 3 canvases (20" X 20") at Michaels at 50% off - the three cost $21. I got a quart of paint at Lowe's ($12 - Martha Stewart's Cranberry something or the other). The blue paint was a sample size of Olympic that someone didn't buy -$1. Cool whip container and little round container I had in the kitchen - free. Fleur de lis printed off computer, traced on canvas and painted - free. So for $34 I got this new look. Very David Bro...
Read more