When you became a parent and your children are a year old or older your weekends will be consumed by birthday parties. I've had three in one weekend before. According to my experience so far there are two busy seasons, late spring and mid-summer. We have hit the summer surge and I have four parties on the calender of July and one for August, so far.
I love to throw the kids birthday parties. I enjoy creative invitations, running with whatever theme we've agreed on, all the anticipation and the resulting house full of excited children. LOVE IT.
There are things to remember when throwing a successful birthday. Please, give a reasonable amount of time between invites and the party. First, for the parents sake especially in the busy season. Also, a reminder week of (brief email, quick text) is always welcome. Second, for your kids sake. If they have a summer birthday and they want to invite friends from school you have to get in touch with them early (and then remind them). If you're not up for friends and family, just remember the brunt of entertaining will fall on you.
Consider the season! I threw a party or two in the hotter months, outside where no amount of shade or well aimed fans prevented the guests from melting Wicked Witch style. Also, if you are doing an outdoor party at a hotter time of year, please don't go buy party store balloons. They wilt and pop in the heat, it's a waste. I have no luck getting streamers to stick to those park shelters. I've tried everything from scotch tape to duck tape and they always blow down anyway.
Food is always a big issue. You want kid friendly foods they can eat independently for the most part so that they can eat without assistance after their food is plated, but also something for the parents. The smaller the guest list the easier it is to please everyone. I highly recommend multiple flavors of juice and take and toss cups with lids. For our house warming I bought 2packs (figuring people could take them when they left and we'd end up with a few extra left over). There was nary a drop spilled on my rug. The older kids ate on the back patio which had to be hosed off afterward. Please, think ahead about food/drink spillage/mess before your carpet is ruined.
On a related note buy the party table cloth and napkins skip the plates. Get good sturdy paper plates, but don't worry about them having characters on them nobody looks and they're soon covered with food. Trust me, I once bought a pack of silver plates printed 100 different robots from the internet, cut them out, glued them on and glued clear plates on top. After all that hard work no one noticed. People notice the tablecloth and the cake those should be pretty skip pretty plates.
Be mindful of nap time when picking start and end times for your party. Otherwise your little one may miss it or worse yet be cranky and uncooperative. If you have little ones make sure you have a quiet place to escape to if they get overwhelmed. Change diapers right before guests arrive. Take pictures of the birthday boy or girl looking all spiffy and then give up keeping them that way. Keep parties in the 2hr range between the excitment and the sugar that's all kids can handle.
As far as going to a party, there are a few thing too. If you don't know the child well use the invitation as a clue to finding the right gift. Sometimes however you get this and you have to wing it. Depending on the age and communicative abilities of your child they may be able to help. Watch out though ever since the age of 5 Isaac always thinks the birthday boy or girl really wants the Lego set he's had an eye on. Always buy batteries for battery operated toys. Any parent trying to explain to a excited child why they have to wait to play with a new toy will thank you. Consider carefully what you do know about the birthday kid and do your best, there's always gift receipts. I recommend them because sometimes you nail it so well they already have one. I stay away from gift cards for kids there's no instant gratification. Also, I fully admit to using Isaac's to get him socks and underwear on occasion. I always prefer to wrap kids gifts when ever possible, gift bag opening is no fun. Also, cards for the little ones are a complete waste. They can't read them and don't care about them. I did save every 1st birthday card Riley received for the baby book, but Isaac's the first one to dump his cards in the trash after a party. Unless they're interactive in some way. I prefer a brief colorful note for the under 12 set myself.
Happy Parties!
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