I will be the first to admit we rank among the worst in planning children’s birthday parties.
Our first child’s first birthday was precedent setting. A summer open house with hundreds of our closest friends and family members, I’m embarrassed to say we invited our mail carriers mother-in-law but her invitation was delivered to the wrong address.
We had jugglers, fire throwers, psychics, face painters and time travellers.
Our second child was born in the winter. We celebrated her first birthday with a slice of store bought cake, a single (gently used) candle and may or may not have had functioning batteries for the camera. We had broken a friend’s arm in the bouncy castle at her older sister’s last party, the warm summer air was replaced with bitter wintery winds and the novelty of the first birthday party had simply been enjoyed to the fullest already.
The parties in general became worse every year regardless of birth order. For Hanna’s fourth birthday, we hired someone to sing karaoke with the kids, which was a fabulous plan in theory. The problem was only two of the kids in attendance (one older cousin and one genius child prodigy) could read the words on the screen so there was a lot of guffawing of lyrics and a lot more confused, embarrassed and unhappy microphone lickers.
This year, for Ellie’s fifth, she is expecting great things. She has flip-flopped between taking everyone in her class to Disney Land, still calling it Disney Land despite visiting Disney World and only Disney World. She wants Cinderella, the real Cinderella, the one she met at Disney Land to attend. She would like mac ‘n cheese, not pizza like so many other fifth birthday parties. She would like cakes with tiers, pudding with gummy worms and Oreo crumbs the same kind we had for Hanna’s seventh birthday party, hot air balloon rides since bouncy castles have been banned after the arm breaking, karaoke where lyric migration is not only acceptable but encouraged and if possible, Cinderella’s coach to parade her down the street with the real Cinderella from Disney Land sitting next to her.
We convinced Ellie if Cinderella, the real Cinderella, the one she met at Disney World were to attend her party and all of the girls in her class arrived in costume, the boys might not be as excited about the theme. The new plan was obvious. Girls dress as Cinderella, the real Cinderella, the one she met at Disney Land, boys dress in pyjamas.
