Just in case you hadn't heard, Miss Dub will be turning ONE on Thursday. Feel free to send gifts, if you're so inclined. Strangely, her current shoe size is a women's size 8.5. And I loOvE shoes. I mean, she does ...
We already held a pre-birthday party last night with my parents who drove all the way from Arizona to give her a car, which they've kindly agreed to let me drive until she turns 16 and is promptly locked in a high tower. (But I'm sooo cutting her hair. That's where Rapunzel's parents went wrong!)
I'm trying not to let my enthusiasm for joining the ranks of 2-car families overshadow the excitement for her first birthday. I mean, it's a pretty big deal to turn ONE!
... except, it's kind of not.
I mean, she doesn't really get it. Last night, she alternated between excitement over her new toys and excitement about her latest trick - standing - all while opening her gifts. And while she really likes us singing the "Happy Birthday" song to her, it's no more so now than last week.
So I will probably just make a few cupcakes and invite a friend or two of ours over, if anyone, on the actual big day. And I've only purchased TWO gifts for her since the girl's toy collection is already larger than her attention span.
But does that make me a bad person?
Should I be inviting all the infants in Chicagoland to a huge soirée, complete with live animals and stunt performers? (OK, that was a slight exaggeration. The animals wouldn't be live, duh.)
I mean, when did you start having true birthday parties for your kiddies? And was the effort worth it?
Because while I do love me a good party, when we're talking cartoon-themed events with lots of screaming, sugar-stoned kids, it doesn't sound that fun.
I know some families have rules for such occasions, like limits on friends invited based on age or an every-other-year party plan. But I haven't figured yet what we'll do.
So help me out here, people. How do parties work in your family now? How did they work when you were growing up?
Of course, none of this will matter once she's locked in that tower.
10.23.2007
HTT - Birthday Edition
Posted by Mrs. Dub at 6:37 AM
32 comments Leave a witty comment hereLabels: birthday, Hot Topic Tuesday, Miss Dub, parties
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
- acte gratuit
- barefoot in the kitchen
- brooke a la mode
- coast 2 coast
- collecting crust
- flowerchain
- glamma fabulous
- good sons
- la dolce vespa
- la vida steffa
- livin' in the 'copa
- living with the lens cap on
- mrs. dub reviews
- simplehappy home
- jackson 5.0
- the devz
- the r house
- this girl's life
- welcome to haggartown
- a room somewhere
- a unique snowflake
- brookie b.
- elephant droppings
- eli love
- eriksens
- garner family
- happy life
- here kitschy kitschy
- horstmann happenings
- janni, marvin & luke
- life through our eyes
- little bit of gracie lue
- little miss sassy pants
- loco lunds
- michigan bliss
- pictures of me
- ramblings
- the devlins
- the harkers
- the kamae ohana
- the new news
- the parmas
- the real rachel ray
- the rogers
- young family
- 2 boys & a mommy
- a little sussy
- a moment in time
- a of all
- a perfect 10
- according to alice
- according to kelly
- alice's adventures
- alifinale
- best of the bunch
- blog con queso
- bougainvillea
- cjane enjoy it
- cole fam
- confessions of a rookie
- cool mom picks
- design mom
- emily anne
- funny madre
- green bean ruminations
- grow old with you
- heather bailey
- hilary's happiness
- holly rambling
- idaho laytons
- it's a wonderful life
- jack attack
- la vie est belle
- layton life
- live, love, laugh
- liz
- loudaisy
- mamablogues
- mrs. bennett
- my happy little life
- my kid rocks!
- oh happy day
- olson fam
- our family garden
- pioneer woman
- rowena's rantings
- sibling revelry
- simmons fam
- snakes, snails and tails
- the jet set
- the meegans
- the typical family
- the warehouse
- wonderland girl
32 comments:
we've started having "friend" parties when they turn 3 or 4, depending on if they have friends or not, which usually depends on if they've been to preschool. i limit the invites to 8 (that's how many are in a package), so we usually have 5-6 friends who can attend. it's always convenient if we're visiting cousins during bday time, in which case, the party is a lot cheaper and smaller.
now we're working on the "every other year friend party" rule. you wouldn't believe what people spend (at least around here) for a 4 year old's party. let's just say that when we had parker's party at our actual HOUSE, people were like, "oh! how . . . nice." cuz we didn't have it at some elaborate laser tag place or something. it's out of control.
when i was little, we had our last friend party when we turned 8. but then my mom had six of us, so the party thing probably got old REAL fast. :)
We gave Liam the best 1st birthday a little boy could asked for...if only he knew why the 80 or so people invited were there for him and that he TOTALLY got hooked up with the best gifts...and that 6' sub sandwich...he didn't even eat it...
So I really loved having the party, but it was more for my DH and me than Liam...hopefully someday he'll look at the pictures and know that he had a rockin' 1st birthday party.
It was fun and I'd do it again...maybe.
For my daughter's 1st we didn't do anything. I made a cake that I wanted to eat and got her a few presents. She had no clue what was going on. For her 2nd we had her party at a park, so it was more a playdate at the park than a party. We brought some snack food and a cake. We only invited the kids in nursery but they all brought their siblings. It was fine though because we were outside at the park. No biggie.
I'm not sure what the party future holds though.
mabel is 5 and still hasn't had an official "friend" party. (oliver hasn't had one, either, but he's only 3) she's just not the kind of kid who would be into all of that attention. it's worked well for me and our finances. i think people get a little carried away with the party thing. we keep it simple and keep it in the family. at least for now. but that will probably change someday.
I am scared about future bithday parties because people are out of control. My sister just told me of her little girl going to one (for a 6 year old) and with the invitation came a dress up for each girl as they were all invited to Cinderella's ball. Yes, each girl got a full on princess outfit. I can't handle that kind of pressure.
I say the first birthday should be low key. All you need is some cake and people to watch the 1 year old eat it. That young they are too little to care (in fact would probably be freaked out with too many people there). I haven't decided what we are going to in the future, but I don't want to start too big too early because then when I run out of steam the younger kids will feel jipped. However, I think every birthday should be special and you should definitely get the special treatment because it is your own personal holiday.
I just stumbled on your blog yesterday and I'm loving it!
Anyway, we started having parties when we were five (and then only had one every other year) and we could either invite a lot of friends and ask them not to bring presents or have three friends and have them bring presents. I think it worked out pretty well. I'm definitely a fan of doing the "every other year" thing with my future kids.
i'm all for letting them have their day... but i don't think you need to spend hundreds/thousands of dollars on it. especially at age 1. they dont even know what's going on. save your money until they do! lol. the first bday i even remember was when i was 6 and we had a handful of neighbors over for a strawberry shortcake surprise party. it was fun. or even going to the park or something. i dont think it needs to be big and flashy... just wait til they get older :P
In Hawaii, where I lived for awhile, it is tradition to hold a huge luau where people bring gifts and eat tons of food for a child's birthday. I think it dates back to when the infant mortality rate was so high. I think they felt that, if the child made it to age 1, they might make it to adulthood, and that was a real reason to celebrate.
I'm with you though, simple is good unless you like to throw a party because you have fun.
Happy birthday miss dub!!
My boys are 3 and 1 (going on 4 and 2) and so far we've just had family over for birthdays one and two. They're too young to get it. But our kids both have been invited to first birthdays complete with clowns, pony rides, and petting zoos.
We had Jackson's first real birthday party when he turned three. I invited ten of his friends and their moms. It was just two hours long, superhero themed, and one of his FAVORITE memories. But it was really simple. PBJs, cheese sticks, grapes and cupcakes for the kids. Activities included dancing to superhero songs, decorating superhero masks, finding power rings... I just couldn't justify spending the money on a party for a bunch of three year olds, but it was perfect. It was this past march and he STILL talks about it. That's how I know he was actually ready for it.
Growing up we were only allowed to do big birthday parties with friends every other year. It makes sense to me now and I'll probably implement the same rule.
I really believe less is more when it comes to decorating, accessorizing, and birthday party for kids.
Hello Mrs Dubbs I need to know where your "what the html" blog is. I need help bad!I really need ot pick you blogger brain some day becuse you are the blogger I aspire to be ;)
if i were there, i would give the bday girl piggy back rides and have her mom make balloon animals... while her dad dazzled her with magic tricks (like peeling a hard boiled egg)! her gma and aunts would sing some bday tunes and her uncles and gpa would show her how to use some highly technical toy for 1 yr olds! oh! and, each member of the fam would make an equally delicious dessert. it would be the best bday party ever! unfortunately, i'm not there... and her present is going to arrive late. but i love her all the same.
i think big bday parties are silly for kids of all ages. keep it small and inexpenisive. i always had mcdonald's bday parties with family (i only have 3 cousins)... and ronald mcdonald never came, but clowns did. i'm totally for bday parties, just not anything big -- gotta keep the 6 yr old's ego in check ;)
oh. i forgot to mention...
that photo is SOOOOOOO unbelievably cute!
Since one of my life mottos is "If it is worth doing, it is worth overdoing", parties are a life stay at our house. I think that if you are realistic about your financial and stress comfort levels, have a party! Parties are a time for families and friends to get together and I'm afraid with out a party, we are all so busy that we loose touch with one another. ALSO, this party celebrating a child's birthday concept touches on my big soapbox agenda to say that everyone needs to feel like a VIP every so often in their family. That means hanging family pictures (ok,mine are in the hall and not in the living room. Although I do have some small framed ones in there) and children need to know that they are important enough to have some sort of remembrance books around (photos in a box are just fine and are interactive,just do what you can) anyway, blah,blah,blah.
I'm for every other year friend parties, once they're old enough to have them. Noah had his first friend party at 4, Molly didn't because she didn't have many girls in her preschool or sunbeams class, so she'll have her first when she's 6. We've always had family around & invite the grandparents & cousins over OR have an occasion at my parents house when we're not doing a friend party. As for 1st & 2nd bdays, I've made the mistake of spending the whole day stressing, cleaning the house, etc, getting ready for company to arrive, while the little birthday boy or girl isn't having much fun in the process.
We don't do much for the friend parties; Noah's is in the summer so we always just have a slip n' slide, play pools, water balloons, etc. in the back yard and they love it. I don't spend much money; matching plates & cups. Except when we did Molly's Hello Kitty party & I pratically bought out the Sanrio store... couldn't resist!
And, I usually make an overly elaborate cake but that's just because I like to.
My 3 year-old had a couple of birthday parties. The one nice thing is that he has a summer birthday so you just go outside to a park and call it good. He still remembers his parties (one friend, one family) but he doesn't remember his first or second birthdays so 3 I think is a good age to start. However, I find the most annoying thing about parties are the parents. It is pretty easy to please the kids- they just want some food and a bit of entertainment. It is parents who you find needing to impress. So my goal is to have small enough parties so the parents can leave. Besides, I would LOVE it if someone had a birthday party for their kid where I could just drop Jackson off and be free for a couple of hours.
Now my baby will turn one in December. What a cruddy time for a birthday. My question is how do I get anyone to come to a december birthday party?
wow, there is a reason that glamma fabulous is my mother. i feel the same as the oh so fabulous mother that i have. why not, have a party! i just feel that there are other things to limit besides their once a year birthday.
My kids get real parties (with friends, a pinata, etc.) at ages 4, 7, and 9. We might do one at 11, and then I think it will be some sort of pre-adolescent activity (?) -- I guess we'll figure that out next year.
Now that I have four kids, I am so grateful I didn't set a precedent for every year parties for everyone. They're expensive and exhausting. We do treat our kids yearly to a dinner out of their choice, and a fun (immediate) family party with cake.
Since GlammaFab is mi madre we do share the same opinion about this one.I didnt have always have bday parties sometimes it was cash instead of a party and there were no hard and fast rules about it . My kids have had bigger parties and smaller parties the important thing (like mommmie dearest said)is to make the child feel important.Life is sressful and hard enough not to stop and enjoy the people you love and have some fun even if its just pin the tail on the donkey and some cupcakes. Besides your only little once and big for a loooong time.I love to party and like one early ejectee of Rock of Love said " Dont threaten me with a good time!"
when i was growing up i remember only having a few birthday parties with friends ... most were with just family and 1 or 2 close friends ... we got big parties at 8, 12, 16, and 18.
as the mom i have a little more 'adventure' in me than my own mother and have decided that parties are pretty fun ... but we only invite as many friends as years turning. keeps the chaos to a minimum ... and actually we just had a big birthday bash with all 4 of mine celebrating together at "pump it up" - i am working on that blog today. we also have a toy problem here and i have been working to solve that by suggesting people give $$ and consumables :) it's fun to get money! even my 3 year old liked seeing 3 $1 bills in a card! and he wants to buy a motorcycle ... he's gonna be saving for a while, and can use all the help he can get! i guess my rule of thumb is to not set myself up for failure ... i don't do anything to extravagant so that i feel like i have to do the same or better for the next birthday!
anyway ... you're miss dub is darling and i hope she has a fantastic first birthday!
YOU GOTSTA PARTYYYYYYY!!
ANYONE WHO DOESN'T IS NOT A FRIEND OF MINEEEEE!!!!!!!!
WOOOOOOO HOLLLLLLLLLLLA GET YOUR GROOOOOOVE ON!!! TWORK IT OUT!!!
ok---obviously i am in the minority here but i think the every other year birthday party thing is really weird. i have never heard of that before. a birthday is a birthday and should be celebrated big time. i still remember most of my parties growing up and i always felt so special on that day. i just can't imagine saying to my child, "sorry. this isn't your year to have a party." if birthdays were every week then sure, set limits. but once a year? that seems workable. even with a big family.
I didn't realize our little ones' b-days were so close! Elijah will be two on Friday!
Actually, so far I've used the proximity to Halloween as an excuse to throw Halloween/birthday parties. It's mostly adults and mostly for my own entertainment, I admit it. I just reallly like costume parties. As soon as he's old enough to object to my selfish whims, we'll start with the kiddie parties.
i was pregnant during gracie's first bday, in my first trimester, so i was feeling pretty lousy. i made her a cake that was hideous but one year olds don't care. and we invited stephanie and her family over. i'm the spokesperson for low-key events.
i think once gracie gets into school and makes friends her age, i might consider a friends bday party but i remember my first friend party at 6 and i think that is what we will be doing with our kids.
For me it is kind of all about the kid and how we are feeling that year! I have a 10 year old who would prefer a special date with her dad (he took her fishing this year in Arizona...we did fly her but it was free..miles you know) instead of the big party thing. But, my 7 year old had a rager with bouncy slide and 40 kids with presents (WAY too many presents) but she had not had one in several years so we figured "Why not?" For our girl's 8th we have decided to do a Mother/Daughter trip. Bailey and I went to NYC (Yes it seems big, but free miles and free lodging at my sister's...SET). Cameron turns 8 in April and we are going to North Carolina to visit her best friend (AGAIN...free). For our 3 year old, we have done the "family only" thing so far and she is great with it. Of course for my first child, she had the PARTIES of all PARTIES for #1 and #2 but of course my poor son (child #4) had just us and a chocolate cake. Will he ever know or care??? I DON'T think so!
I think we started the big b-day thing too early (our oldest was 2 and there were 26 kids and parents invited, a clown show, lotsa bbq, the whole bit). We do them big still, but my kids are pretty familiar with doing a big friend bash one year and a family bash only the other year. But we'll see how it goes. We do have a pinata for almost every celebration - I just love pinatas. Happy B-day little Ms. Dub, that is an adorable picture.
Here's my thoughts: get a cake, have a few people over to serve as extras in the background of your camera shots, make sure you take lots of pictures of her opening her two presents, and be done. Because at this point, you're just doing a party so that you can have pictures to prove to your child that you really did love her when she was a baby.
That's why I take pictures wherever we go: "See, I did care about your dental hygiene! Here's you and your dentist!" or "See, we celebrated Halloween! Here's you dressed up like a rooster!" I know it's going to save me a lot of grief in the future . . . it better because it sure is a pain now!
We LOVE giving b-day parties. I threw my son a splash-and-play party in our backyard when he was 2. Really? That party was for my husband and I.
We got such a kick out of picking out party favors, and I loved doing all he hand-made invitations and the pictures are soooo worth it. However, did my son enjoy it? Did the kids? Eh, not so much.
Our 2nd child didn't have her first "real" party until this year (she turned 4).
We like places that take over the birthday parties for you. We like places like The Little Gym or Gymboree. You show up, 2 lovely girls welcome everyone, entertain with the kids with games and fun. They serve up the cake, clean up and all you have to do is take pictures and enjoy your children's happy face. We leave with a car full of gifts and return to a CLEAN and QUIET house. Of course, it isn't exactly cheap. But totally worth it if you ask me!
(Oh, and we do the every other year rule too!)
I hate to be a bummer, but I think the every other year thing is retarded! i don't think the parties have to be huge, but there should be something to let the child know they are important enough to get a celebration of them and their age. i don't see why it has to be such a strict every other year thing. maybe one year you won't have any friends but the family will go to disneyland or even just out for a special dinner. either is fine, but why does it have to be so nazi-esque and rigid?
With our first's first we had family & friends over. With our second's first we had just family over. Since they really have no idea what is going on at their first (or second and maybe third, depending on the child) it's not a big deal to not make a big deal.
Later when the parties start happening, I think keeping number of kids kind of low is smart, because I have low tolerance for lots of children running wild without their parents to help corral them.
I totally agree with Tammy Faye's mom (love her avatar!) that it's not a bad thing to celebrate a child and make them feel special, especially if it happens only once a year.
Stepping off my soapbox now...
And happy birthday to cutie Miss Dub!
The first birthday is as low key as it gets: Cake at Nana's house.
The second birthday is pizza and balloons.
The third birthday was officially with friends (and balloons, cookies, candy canes.) The theme was "Stuff 3 Year Olds Like."
As a kid, birthdays were very important to me. That's why I am all for "friend" parties every year.
I'm not going to spend a ton of money on a party, because I'd rather spend it on me (I earned it, they were just born into money.) I don't think it takes too much effort to invite a couple kids over and throw sugar and balloons at them. If other parents want to have laser tag or Little Gym, good on them! We'll totally attend. However, most kids don't care and are happy running in a circle with a sugar-induced high.
Ilene - we have a December birthday too. I just called the moms and said, "Hey, want to get some Christmas shopping done? Free babysitting, I mean, birthday party." Worked like a charm.
Post a Comment