Saturday, June 26, 2010

Celebration Success

Once again, our house feels oddly quiet, the quiet that happens after a huge crowd has been there and now left.

We had Bug's home birthday party today.


In many ways, it was a total success. And in many ways, it was a fantastic learning opportunity for Hubster and me.

Bug's newest interest is magic. Each library trip yields a new magic book. So we did a magic theme. We had magic wands and top hats for the guests.


Hubster performed a few magic tricks. Then the kids took turns learning and performing some of their own.

I made Bug a magic 8 ball cake (my little play on the magic theme and him turning 8.)



We had lemon-lime soda with red ice cubes, which fascinated all the kids. We handed out Pop-Rocks, playing cards, and glow sticks.

It was a lot of fun.


It was also very loud and boisterous. We had a few issues with "crowd control." (I'm actually surprised how many times I had a tell a few of the kids to stop screaming at the top of their lungs or to stop stabbing each other with magic wands.) There were some difficulties getting some children to stop wrestling with each other and participate in games. It wasn't quite the smoothly organized, picturesque party I had created in my head.

But I had anticipated the craziness. And I surprised myself by not stressing out at all, which is very uncharacteristic of me. The kids were all laughing and playing nicely in the yard when they were picked up by their parents. Bug had a fantastic time, which is what matters.

Now tell me, doesn't that look like a kid having a great time?

On a side note, thank you all for all your support and encouragement as I attempted to host a "simple" home birthday party. We are trying to create reasonable expectations in our children and to avoid extravagance. But we love our kids and we want to celebrate with them.


I think we pulled off a successful home birthday. I bought wooden dowels from Walmart and painted them to look like magic wands. Hubster and I made top hats out of black poster board.
Between the decorations (streamers, balloons), favors (wands, top hats that doubles as favor bags, playing cards, Pop-Cards, glow bracelets, small puzzles), and food (watermelon, cheese, crackers, mini hot-dogs, cake, ice cream) we spent about $35 total for this party. (Not including gifts for Bug.) Making the hats involved more effort than I had anticipated (and after all the work, they were just slightly too small to fit on the kids' heads! Urg!) But I'm proud of us. And all your encouragement made me realize how great all of you are!

So yes, it was successful. But I think next year, we'll have a much smaller affair.

10 comments:

  1. Wow, I'm so impressed. You are very creative and that cake...wow! Can you please come and organize my daughter's 3rd birthday party? Your son looks like he had a blast! Congratulations!

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  2. WOW... you did a fabulous job! Looks like a grand time! .... Next year, I expect an invite! :)

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  3. You did an amazing job. My L would have loved that party!

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  4. A Magic Theme is Awesome! Looks like such a fun party and you did an awesome job on the cake!! I love that Bug has so many friends to invite! 1 year ago would you have expected that you would say you needed Bug to have less friends at a party?? Happy Birthday Bug!

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  5. Happy, Happy Birthday Bug! I love this theme idea and Mini #1 would have loved the party as well. I am so proud of you and enjoyed seeing the pictures. That cake is fantastic. You all should be very proud of yourselves and I'm Bug was very appreciative. Parties that involve children, especially children that do not belong to us never quite go as planned. :) Hats off to you!

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  6. That sounds like it was an awesome party! I totally agree with your take on expectations (more so than MacGyver . . .). I loved the decorations, and ESP the cake! Also, I love the clock.

    Congrats on a successful party.

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  7. Happy Birthday to you both. Bug's day is also your birthday into motherhood and how intensely loved you are -- he is. Eight years! Years of intertwined hearts, timeless hopes and dreams, celebrations over the discovery that is him. Awakenings as you notice how he has grown you into more that you could ever be without him.
    I'm proud that you are wise enough to realize that the mile marker of a birthday is about the child, that love is not complicated or expensive, only expansive in it reach. Happy day to you, Hubster and Bug!

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  8. wow. I wanna come to the next birthday party. Looks like a fun time.

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  9. The cake turned out awesome! Wow!

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