Birthdays

Birthdays are an interesting subject to me...I myself have an uncommon birthday in that I was born on my Father's birthday (August 17...coming soon...). I have mostly enjoyed this, we have many photos of us blowing out the candles on shared cakes...etc. etc... HOWEVER, the older I get and the more friends I know who have lost their Dads, it makes me stop to think. What got me started, was when a friend who had lost her Dad about 8 months before; she told me she was sad that particular day as it was her Father's birthday. I had never considered spending my birthday alone. I don't like to dwell on it too much, but I do think that possibly I'll stop celebrating it all together rather than celebrate alone.

On the other end of the spectrum, my daughter will be 7 in January. Now most Moms might not even think about a January birthday until at least December...I however, have always planned her birthday (and spaced out the purchasing of all birthday party items) over the 6 months that precede her birthday. I don't go the Birthday Party Express route as you may imagine, I do it all myself. For example....

For this year's hula themed party I made papier machier "coconuts" for goodie bags...(25 of them -not all pictured here)

And we had a hula girls on an island cake....

and the year before every family got these:

Homemade hot cocoa mix (the snowmen tags even had little felt top hats that I cut out for them..) pictured with the snowman cake..fondant snowmen with party hat buttons for party hats..(oh, there were goodie bags too..)

Clearly, I enjoy throwing the party as much as she enjoys having it....our problem revealed itself this year....the kids are getting bigger.physically.larger (problem #1). I never thought I would say there isn't enough room, but they made it tight this year for all of the OTHER guests (problem #2) I generally invite the family of each child, siblings, parents, etc. and because the party is geared for ALL, and they all come.

Not a big deal, unless the guest of honor and the core guest list is now 2 or 3 times bigger and LOUDER then they were when I started these festivals. Finally the issue that can't be helped - her birthday is in January, so we are all in the house together - kids, parents (the Dads usually all come, they LOVE the food!), grandparents..siblings....each year the party average is 57 people.

Our house can handle it, we BUILT it with these type of gatherings in mind, but as we discovered last January, 6 year olds run and bump into people and generally aren't the kind of guests that would make a gathering of 57 a lovely time for anyone but OTHER 6 year olds.

SO...one of my very best friends was here the other day, and we talked about the birthday, and the lack of decision thus far as to what it will be...(I can't just pop ideas like coconut goodie bags out of my ear you know! I need time to think!) So my dear friend said she thought maybe this was the year to just have the core kids (and no siblings) and JUST the kids she really sees each day/week instead of the dear friends (like herself) who are really a part of our extended family unit. With only the core group, the number would drop significantly.

I felt that I would hurt some one's feelings, dropping them from the list "you didn't make the cut, sorry.." but as I discovered both from her and from another friend, most people are amazed each year when I pull it all off without a nervous breakdown. My friends let me know that as much as they love the party, they would like to lessen my load so to speak. I am beginning to embrace the concept....if we didn't have 2 and 3 kids from each family and just the Moms there, the number would become more like 27 people..still fun..just not as much work.

This year is going to be a walk in the park...of course, talk to me again after it's all over.