Dirty Little Secret

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Party Pooped
4

October 5th, 2009Jerseygirl89Ironflower and Lovebug, life in Stuck-Up, parenting, preschool

There’s a business in a nearby town that is almost entirely devoted to personalized birthday favors. Well, I think it is. I’ve never actually been in there. But the kids have gotten adorable gift bags with personalized frisbees and whatnot in them. As well as candy. All from a store that I’ve never heard anyone refer to in any other context.

We’ve been to a birthday party that had a moonwalk, clown, hot dog cart and 4 cakes. And that was a first birthday party.Mostly, we’ve been to parties at indoor play places. But occasionally we’ve been to decked out yards, with visits from Dora and Diego. Once we went to a party that had a clown, a singer and a balloon maker.

I mention all this because Ironflower’s birthday is a scant 2 months away. And there are 19 kids in her class. So we’re looking at inviting 25 kids to the party, or thereabouts. That will pretty much double the exorbitant fee we’ll be paying for the party space in the first place.

When I relayed this to a Kansas City friend of mine, she was kind of horrified. Party spaces and personalized favors didn’t happen in her preschooler’s world.

And when I lamented to a New Jersey mom that I wished my kids had been born in the summer so I could have a party in my yard, she was horrified by the thought of the clean up and organizing involved.

All I can think is, isn’t celebrating a birthday supposed to be FUN? Why am I stressing about this 2 months ahead of time? Oh, right. Ironflower wants what all her friends have: her class at a party place where she will get to be the center of attention. And cute gift bags. And probably a new outfit for the event.

At least I’ll have break until Lovebug’s birthday in March. And at least his class is small. And he probably won’t care about the outfit.

What about you? What are birthday parties like in your neck of the woods?

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Tags: birthday parties, nj vs. kc

4 Responses to “Party Pooped”

Jasmin October 6th, 2009 at 9:27 am

I’m currently stressing over my little one’s bday party. She’ll be one in a month and we don’t really have a lot of friend with kids so it will pretty much be a party for adults Which for us includes food, liquor and loud music. Add to that the fact that my husband likes to invite everyone and their mother – can you see why I’m stressing??

I also wish my kids were born in the summer months but instead we do Nov and Feb. No moon bounce for us.
MJ October 7th, 2009 at 12:57 pm

Here in rural Ohio, if the birthday falls in one of the crappier months, the party tends to be held at a bowling alley, Chuck E Cheese or the Sports World. Otherwise, we <3 our parks and backyards for a low fuss party. (Very few that we have been to rent moon bounces or have characters, etc)

I am tempted to break my oldest's heart this February and host her 6th birthday party at our home. I want her to see how much fun the "old school" parties can be. There is nothing like a fun game of pin the tail and oh so many more!

MJ from dirtylilconfessions.blogspot.com
Catootes October 7th, 2009 at 4:27 pm

We did the backyard thing for a long time, made sure the adults were just as entertained as the kids, food, homemade cake. We’ve never been inclined to do the big party splash, rent tons of ridiculous crap or personalized items, just little gift bags with candy and a couple of oriental trader type crap. Despite living in NJ.

Then they got older and changed the whole landscape. Damn them.

We still do low key, but it usually only involves a couple of close friends, an outing, a sleep over, or some other activity.

Good luck!
Catootes´s last blog ..inspiration provided by mother nature
silken October 16th, 2009 at 9:19 pm

we always did parties at home, but we only invited a few people. the kids always had fun and were happy to share the day w/ their friends. We always did something the kids were in to (ie-dinosaurs, pirates, play at the park, water guns, etc) good luck!!!

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