Nia’s 8th birthday party taught me a few things about party planning and celebrating:
- When my daughter tells me she only wants to invite five of her school friends, plan for that instead of something bigger and guiding her into inviting more so that so-and-so’s feelings aren’t hurt. Which also translates to: save stress, energy and money.
- Next time, I’m going to mail invites to people’s homes instead of hoping the invited kids will then give it to their parents. That way, at least I’ll know an adult is failing to RSVP instead of wondering if that adult even saw the invite.
- A child doesn’t need a huge party, just their party. Nia had a great time with her two special BFFs, friends Jamie and Aaron and her brother. I think the adults helped some too. (See next lesson learned.)
- Those burns the kids get from bouncies dang hurt. (My 10 minutes of jumping graced me with two – one on my forearm and one on my knee. I’m actually proud of them – I laughed the whole time they happened.) Andrew also notes that if we were to by our own jumpy, it would be the basketball one. (You likely know how he loves researching things. He and Nate had a blast in there.)
- Kids have fun spinning in circles. In other words, why do we (parents) feel the need to go all out for parties? My friend, Allison, and I were talking about how it used to be (yes, back in my day) that going over each others’ houses to play with toys and have cake was party enough (and a ton of fun). Now, we rent jumpies, petting zoos, face painters, Santa and Mrs. Claus… It’s like constantly having to out-do or meet the special-level of the last party. Where do you draw the line? Now that I’ve gone there, when/how can I tame it down?
- When it’s all said and done though, my beautiful Bean is “almost 9” as Nate pointed out during the party. Time flies when you’re a child in a hurry to have another birthday party. I’m glad we have a few months of a break.
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