When Yuki turned one, we had a joint birthday party for the three of us and called it "We're 81!" because both Philip and I turned 40 that year. We invited a whole bunch of our friends, rented a space at a local community center, made some PB&J and cucumber sandwiches and had a jolly time for a couple of hours.
When Yuki turned two, we booked a party at the Seattle Children's Museum. There were about 7 or so of our friends with kids who are similar ages. We had the room for about 90 minutes then they all got to play in the museum. We bought too much food but I brought the left over to my rehearsal with a bunch of teenagers and they polished it off.
When Yuki turned three, we did an outdoor picnic at a local playground and got a pile of fried chicken and Philip baked some cup cakes. I think pretty much the same people from the previous year were invited. Weather was nice and it was low key, which was great.
When Yuki turned four, we rented a different community center room and invited the above friends, plus her preschool friends, which made it about 12 kids. I had my friend from work do a Pirate Creative Drama adventure (at Yuki's request) and my former student assisted. It was pretty labor intensive, but it was original and good times and all of her friends mixed together and played.
Then last year, Yuki wanted yet another Pirate birthday. Time got away from me and I finally got on the interweb about a month before her birthday to look around for a place with some crafty activities. I thought I was still ahead. I was wrong. They were either too expensive for the number of kids she wanted, or too late for booking. Annoyed, I resigned to do it at my theatre. The benefit there is that the room is free. Then my set designer friend got all excited and pretty much dumped his entire scene shop in the room and I roped another friend of ours in to do activities. There were probably 15 kids and their parents. Large sheet cake was ordered and Yuki was in the height of her Pirate Princess bliss.
Reading all this, you can draw some conclusions about our birthday party policy:
1. We don't want it in our house.
Reasons for that are:
a. We'd have to clean twice
b. Our house is not big enough
c. Our yard is not big enough
d. We'd have to clean twice
2. We don't want to do the actual entertaining.
Reasons for that are:
a. While I work with children, my expertise starts at age 8 and therefore I feel under qualified to plan age-appropriate activities for 7 and under.
b. Because I work with children, the last thing I want on my day off is to plan things for children.
c. Because I hire people who work with children for a living, I am blessed with many friends who are trained and great with children and are full of ideas and are willing and excited to help (or afraid to say "no").
3. We are horrible and lazy parents.
Every time we would encounter stressed out parents who are demanding and impossible about our birthday package at our theatre, I would think, "You know, when I was a kid, all I wanted to do was to play with my friends. My parents didn't hire anyone. We just invited friends and we played and played." I now realize that we don't have that capacity. And once you start getting invited to everyone else's party, you start to feel like you want to do something original, which can create a stressed out parent under pressure. There are also so many options that ranges in price and size because someone thought that it's a good business and it caught on. It can be overwhelming.
Preschool introduced us to the world of birthday parties that involve a venue that comes with activities. We've gone to so many bounce houses I am now over them. And now that Yuki is in Kindergarten, the amount of parties have multiplied (what with 24 kids in the class) and the sizes of those parties have blown up. So we had some thinking to do this year. Do we invite everyone? Or something small? Her class didn't seem to have rules around that so it was up to us. Thus far, we have been to ones with all and ones with just a couple of friends--which I kind of preferred and was glad that she got to go to some of that to know that was a choice. Yuki had said something about Lord of The Rings party, but I knew that if we presented her with some juicy choices, she wouldn't have cared about that so much.
So I got on the interweb once again, this time, over 2 months in advance. While I may be lazy, I have some standards. Pperhaps that is the worst combination of personalities. (A friend of mine once worked for a boss she called "a lazy control freak" and I was horrified for her.) I like a notion that the kids get to make something that they take home. That there is something creative in the party. And I found these three choices:
1. Invite everyone to her favorite museum that can accommodate that many kids and parents. The price is pretty reasonable and they can play all day after the party. The down side is that it's about 30 minutes away, so it would be a commitment.
2. Invite just the girls to this art studio and do their "build your own fairy house" package. We say just girls for this one because they have a limit and while you can add kids, it would be out of our budget to pay for all the kids in her class and saying "just girls" seemed like a very easy way to pick.
3. Invite just 6 of her friends and have a LEGO party at a local store. Yuki loves LEGOs. We gave up our dining room table several months ago so we have room to do LEGOs when whe felt like it. So this would be right up her alley but then she would have to pick which 6 of her friends to invite.
And then there was "invite everyone to my theatre once again and do the theme of Yuki's choice, a la last year" which didn't make the cut because it's too much work especially right after we get back from Japan (because that is a trip we are planning).
Oh, the dilemma.
After going around in circles,we decided to offer her the choice 2 and 3. Then if she was set on inviting everyone, we'd offer 1. It's like preparing for a presentation in an episode of Mad Men.
When I laid it out for her, she first jumped on 2. But when I explained that it would have to be just girls, she hesitated. So then I offered 3, at which she positively glowed. We asked in about 4 different ways if small party was OK with her and she had no problems--well, she said, "I want the small party because I don't want to have to write too many cards." (way to be lazy and practical. It's so frightening to see your DNA outside your body). I told her to take that out of the equation and she was still for the LEGO party. I was relieved. She wanted 3 girls from her class, but since the party package was for 6 guests, we decided to include 3 of her childhood friends from outside of school, which also made me happy. So I emailed the place today. Now let's hope they are available.
In the end, I know that the most important thing is that she has a good time and feels special for turning the age that she is turning any given year. I think it won't really matter where we have it as long as she has the people she wants there.
I look forward to her reaching the age of slumber parties--because that, I can totally do
This picture is from her actual birthday where she had lunch at the theater and ate cupcakes with the staff. Please don't make me find pictures of the party.
When Yuki turned two, we booked a party at the Seattle Children's Museum. There were about 7 or so of our friends with kids who are similar ages. We had the room for about 90 minutes then they all got to play in the museum. We bought too much food but I brought the left over to my rehearsal with a bunch of teenagers and they polished it off.
This picture is from the birthday party at her preschool. We had pictures of the party mentioned but they did not include this spectacular birthday crown.
When Yuki turned three, we did an outdoor picnic at a local playground and got a pile of fried chicken and Philip baked some cup cakes. I think pretty much the same people from the previous year were invited. Weather was nice and it was low key, which was great.
An actual photo from the actual party. April birthdays are a total roll of the dice in Seattle, weather wise. That day we lucked out. Which was good because we failed to book one of the park shelters so we just picked a spot on the grass.
Preschool again. Maybe we took pictures at the party. Maybe we didn't. You don't want to see our photo filing system. Some things you'll never be able to unsee.
Then last year, Yuki wanted yet another Pirate birthday. Time got away from me and I finally got on the interweb about a month before her birthday to look around for a place with some crafty activities. I thought I was still ahead. I was wrong. They were either too expensive for the number of kids she wanted, or too late for booking. Annoyed, I resigned to do it at my theatre. The benefit there is that the room is free. Then my set designer friend got all excited and pretty much dumped his entire scene shop in the room and I roped another friend of ours in to do activities. There were probably 15 kids and their parents. Large sheet cake was ordered and Yuki was in the height of her Pirate Princess bliss.
Not pictures: TOTAL CHAOS (just out of frame to the left, right, above and behind).
Reading all this, you can draw some conclusions about our birthday party policy:
1. We don't want it in our house.
Reasons for that are:
a. We'd have to clean twice
b. Our house is not big enough
c. Our yard is not big enough
d. We'd have to clean twice
2. We don't want to do the actual entertaining.
Reasons for that are:
a. While I work with children, my expertise starts at age 8 and therefore I feel under qualified to plan age-appropriate activities for 7 and under.
b. Because I work with children, the last thing I want on my day off is to plan things for children.
c. Because I hire people who work with children for a living, I am blessed with many friends who are trained and great with children and are full of ideas and are willing and excited to help (or afraid to say "no").
3. We are horrible and lazy parents.
Every time we would encounter stressed out parents who are demanding and impossible about our birthday package at our theatre, I would think, "You know, when I was a kid, all I wanted to do was to play with my friends. My parents didn't hire anyone. We just invited friends and we played and played." I now realize that we don't have that capacity. And once you start getting invited to everyone else's party, you start to feel like you want to do something original, which can create a stressed out parent under pressure. There are also so many options that ranges in price and size because someone thought that it's a good business and it caught on. It can be overwhelming.
Preschool introduced us to the world of birthday parties that involve a venue that comes with activities. We've gone to so many bounce houses I am now over them. And now that Yuki is in Kindergarten, the amount of parties have multiplied (what with 24 kids in the class) and the sizes of those parties have blown up. So we had some thinking to do this year. Do we invite everyone? Or something small? Her class didn't seem to have rules around that so it was up to us. Thus far, we have been to ones with all and ones with just a couple of friends--which I kind of preferred and was glad that she got to go to some of that to know that was a choice. Yuki had said something about Lord of The Rings party, but I knew that if we presented her with some juicy choices, she wouldn't have cared about that so much.
So I got on the interweb once again, this time, over 2 months in advance. While I may be lazy, I have some standards. Pperhaps that is the worst combination of personalities. (A friend of mine once worked for a boss she called "a lazy control freak" and I was horrified for her.) I like a notion that the kids get to make something that they take home. That there is something creative in the party. And I found these three choices:
1. Invite everyone to her favorite museum that can accommodate that many kids and parents. The price is pretty reasonable and they can play all day after the party. The down side is that it's about 30 minutes away, so it would be a commitment.
2. Invite just the girls to this art studio and do their "build your own fairy house" package. We say just girls for this one because they have a limit and while you can add kids, it would be out of our budget to pay for all the kids in her class and saying "just girls" seemed like a very easy way to pick.
3. Invite just 6 of her friends and have a LEGO party at a local store. Yuki loves LEGOs. We gave up our dining room table several months ago so we have room to do LEGOs when whe felt like it. So this would be right up her alley but then she would have to pick which 6 of her friends to invite.
And then there was "invite everyone to my theatre once again and do the theme of Yuki's choice, a la last year" which didn't make the cut because it's too much work especially right after we get back from Japan (because that is a trip we are planning).
Oh, the dilemma.
After going around in circles,we decided to offer her the choice 2 and 3. Then if she was set on inviting everyone, we'd offer 1. It's like preparing for a presentation in an episode of Mad Men.
When I laid it out for her, she first jumped on 2. But when I explained that it would have to be just girls, she hesitated. So then I offered 3, at which she positively glowed. We asked in about 4 different ways if small party was OK with her and she had no problems--well, she said, "I want the small party because I don't want to have to write too many cards." (way to be lazy and practical. It's so frightening to see your DNA outside your body). I told her to take that out of the equation and she was still for the LEGO party. I was relieved. She wanted 3 girls from her class, but since the party package was for 6 guests, we decided to include 3 of her childhood friends from outside of school, which also made me happy. So I emailed the place today. Now let's hope they are available.
In the end, I know that the most important thing is that she has a good time and feels special for turning the age that she is turning any given year. I think it won't really matter where we have it as long as she has the people she wants there.
I look forward to her reaching the age of slumber parties--because that, I can totally do
Comments
Would love to get the link/number for the Lego option - I think Finn would LOVE that this year, and 6 seems like a perfect number. :)
Happy Birthday in advance Yuki!
PS: Is the Seattle Children's Museum awesome? Should we put it on our agenda?
http://mathnificent.com/store/content/125/LEGO-Birthdays/
1. Make sure no child has their own cell phone or watch. If they do, tell them they have to give them to you for the party.
2. Unplug as many clocks as you can and put them away.
3. Slowly but steadily and very secretively, push each clock that is still operational forward by about 20 minutes at a shot. Maybe even do the first go around before any guests show up. Please do not forget the microwave or oven clock.
4. Get those clocks AT LEAST 1 hour ahead.
5. Tell them, "YES INDEED WE"LL LET YOU STAY UP LATE! BUT....everyone has to be in their jammies by 9 p.m."
6. When the clocks READ 9:00 it's really 8:00. Get them ready for bed and let them fool around.
7. Continue to push the clocks forward.
8. When the clocks read 9:30 or 10:00. Go in and start being strict.
9. Continue pushing clocks ahead.
So when it's REALLY about 9 or 9:30 your clocks should read 11 or 11:30 maybe even MIDNIGHT if you're good.
10. Go in and tell everyone that they MUST sleep for goodness sakes, it's MIDNIGHT!! Gesture toward the microwave clock, which you have sprung way ahead. Stay in room until they are asleep.
11. Watch Netflix on your computer in your bed and have a drink.
12. Get astonished accolades from parents who cannot figure out why their child is so well rested after a sleep over.