This year like others for our middle children we planned a family birthday party. We had asked them like we do each year if they wanted their party together or on their own and like years past they choose together. I picked a date and having no relatives close here we invited just their god mother. The kids had been happy with this plan as long as they got their string gifts. Meaning the tradition we have for years we don’t do parties with friends. We run yarn all over the house and even outside and the kids follow their own color to find their hidden gifts. They loves this so much and talk about it often. Running the string and moving between them is like some kind of extreme yoga though and it is chaos! So that was the plan.
Only a week ago the kids had gone to a friends Birthday party and in the middle of the week the friend dropped off gifts for them. My son told me he felt bad that his friend could not come to his party when she invited him to hers and she dropped off gifts. So things changed quickly. We pushed the party back a day, the kids ran invitations out with only a days notice to those parents and we got ready to have a bigger party than planned.
Nothing about this party was eco-friendly or crunchy I have to warn you. No organic food, most everything came from a big box store, and it was one of those days I was reminded that we are just A LITTLE CRUNCHY. Our kids joy was the goal of the day and making their friends feel included!
So it started at 3, friends came, we saw a few parents, we where good little social geeks! We ran the string and thankfully my dear Brina (God Mother) did her best to keep us on track as she knows well the birthday traditions we have and husband and I kept getting side tracked by being social! (This is a bit ironic if you have read our struggle with our overly social teen! LOL)
String went up and moving about the house became an act or torture for me. I got to do a lot of it but eventually I had to give in to the Fibro pain and sit. Kids came and went, tripping through through the strings. I was reminded why this tradition was for none – party years, because it is a lot of work and really focuses on the birthday kids and other guests just end up trapped!
After the string we did a pinata of sorts, we recycled (ok so this is a little crunchy right?) the minecraft creeper head from Halloween. Our 6 year old daughter didn’t want to see it destroyed so we used strings on the bottom of it, if you pulled the right string it would all bust open, all other strings would just fall off. We didn’t even get to go around a full time before it fell open and the candy and toys rained down. The kids did great grabbing them up and filling their bags. I didn’t get any photos though, my Nikon was dead and I forget to use my cell phone much. My kind husband though after the party rehung it though and our teen filled it with confetti that we then had all over the house from poppers.
By the time I got a photo of the cupcakes, many had already been eaten! Not my best photo day ever! LOL
But we have two very happy birthday kids and that is what matters!
