Feb 07 2008
Praise the LAWRD!
EVERYONE is at WORK and/or SCHOOL today!
However, Jocelyn clung on to me like a barnacle and cried when I finally pried her off and scooted out the door. That hasn’t happened in probably a year or more. Very sad 🙁
NOW I HAVE THE MOMMY GUILT!
Ethan tried to insist that he was sick, but he had no fever all day yesterday and methinks he was working it a bit.
NO MOMMY GUILT THERE!
Hopefully by the weekend, everyone will be back on the “healthy” side of the spectrum.
I’ve decided I’ve got to figure out what we’re going to do for Jocelyn’s birthday this weekend. Her birthday is March 10th, so we’re getting close. We originally thought we’d do a party at home, maybe rent an big inflatable bouncer, and eschew all the different party venues that our kids keep getting invited to (chuck e cheese, pump it up (warehouse full of inflatables), etc.) But now the thought of the party at our house is making me tired. The cost of these venue parties is what gets me, but then I started thinking about how much we would spend even if it was at home and then add on the stress of cleaning before and after… I don’t know, maybe I’m just stressed out in general but the thought not having to worry about all the party at home particulars is starting to sound good. I need to look into bowling alley parties, as I think they’d be a lot cheaper than the other alternatives.
Also, in the past, we’ve always specified “presents not required” on the invitations, as we wanted to keep the present expectation low. I’m starting to waffle on that too – if new stuff comes in, then that gives us a good reason to clear out some older unused things, right? Plus, they’ve now seen the presents that other kids get at their parties – Jocelyn probably won’t notice quite yet, but I know that Ethan will be grilling us on this point. My thought is maybe we should let them get presents from friends, but I don’t think James has changed his mind, so we’ll have to discuss.
What are your thoughts on parties and/or presents?
-amy
2 Responses to “Praise the LAWRD!”
Somewhere I read that parents in the DC area can go way overboard on birthday parties. I’m sure this is the case in other places as well, but have heard that parents can be pretty judgmental about it there. Is this true?
Since they all have birthdays in warmer weathered months, we try to keep most of the activities outside. We almost always have the parties at our house or at a local park. They are never huge (no more that 8 children usually make it), so the mess is minimal.
Skating parties and bowling parties are always excellent ideas. Not too expensive but still fun.
We have never specified whether or not people should bring a gift. Some people will bring one no matter what you tell them. We do try to not make a big deal of who brought what present when it is time to open gifts. Most of the time the guests are just as excited about what the present is as the birthday boy/girl.
anna’s last blog post..Excuse the mess
Paul has never had a non family birthday party. Between being a Christmas Day birthday and the only great grandchild on both sides of my family… I have a really hard time getting family not to overcompensate. If Paul has a “presents” party, I’ll probably try and limit it to 4-8 kids. At his age, birthdays are more about how much sugar you can inhale in 3 hours :P.
I was thinking that for Paul’s first friends party, we’d celebrate around the halfway mark, maybe have it at Frying Pan Farm Park. The thought of a horde of 3 years old in my house is a little terrifying. We used to do friends’ parties at my parents’ house, and my mom would randomly find pieces of food wedged odd places for a couple of weeks after the party until we all hit school age.
The moon bounce would go over really well, I bet. One of our neighbors had one for their kid’s birthday awhile back for their 5 year old. They ended up boxing cake slices up because the kids stayed on the moon bounce for 3 hours :P.
Caitlin’s last blog post..What’s With the First Weekend of March?