time flies

Is it just me or have some children's birthday parties gotten way out of hand these days?

What happened to simple parties? You know, the one's where you went over to your friend's house (or maybe a park), played some games such as Pin The Tail On The Donkey or Musical Chairs (Freeze Dance -- also a classic.), opened presents, had cake and ice cream, played with friends until it was time to go,

and then leaving with a small party favor.

Being the mother of six children, birthday parties are

a common part of life.

I love it when my children are excited that they were invited to a party.

I love that they want to share in their friend's special day.

I love helping them pick out a simple, thoughtful gift for their friend.

(Some may think me cheap, and I am, but I don't think it's my job to spend the bucks

to make my children's friend's birthday wishes come true.

But that's another post for another day.)

All-in-all, I love the whole idea of birthday parties.

Over the past few years, however, I have noticed a trend in birthday parties. A lot aren't hosted by parents anymore but instead by businesses such as Chuck E. Cheese, Extreme Sports, McDonalds, etc. Or they are invited over for dinner and to watch a video.

To be honest with you, I don't understand.

I have a niece that lives in Salt Lake that attends school with many affluent people. They hold birthday parties at Build-A-Bear, Hogle Zoo, etc. that cost an arm and a leg, I'm sure. When it was my niece's birthday, my sister thought she had to keep up with the rest of them and rented out Classic Skating. My niece invited 50 of her closest friends!

I think this is ridiculous, I'm sorry!

I have thrown many a birthday party in my day and I can tell you, from experience, the best ones are the ones that are simple. If children are allowed and encouraged to interact with each other, that's when the fun exists!

I have to say, that when Cole turned 8 (I think) we fell into this trap and had a party for him at Extreme Sports. It was the worst party we ever had. Parents just dropped their kids off and I was responsible for them and it scared the crap out of me. Kids were running every which way, they didn't even care about celebrating Cole's birthday (they just wanted to play), they were onery, and some even pulled fits when I didn't buy them all the soda's they wanted. I told myself NEVER AGAIN!

And I mean it...Never again. It's just ridiculous!

I say...

keep it simple people!

Some of our favorite parties have been theme parties. Having a theme helps with the planning a great deal.

We've had a Hawaiian Party which was really fun. The girls made their own grass skirts out of streamers and paper flowers. They learned to hula (from an instructional video) and had Hawaiian Haystacks for dinner. It was a lot of fun!

We've had a Men in Black party and asked everyone to wear black. For a favor, everyone got sunglasses (just the cheapy ones you can buy in bulk) and we had a homemade alien pinata. Also, a fun one.

One year, Scott wanted a Pioneer party (when he was about 5). Everyone came dressed as pioneers and all the games were played around a campfire made out of paper.

When Max turned 6, he had an airplane themed party. The invitations were paper airplanes and all the games were airplane themed. We taught the kids how to make paper airplanes and we had contests on how far the airplanes flew and we flew them into the runway (see pictures). The kids loved this!

For Cole's 4th birthday, we had a King Cole party. We blew bubbles with our bubble "pipes", we played a beanbag toss into our "bowls" and played Freeze dance to music by our "fiddler's three". We made king hats and it was a hit also.

We've also had baseball, cowboys, Indian, tea party, princess, and pirate parties. Simple crafts are a hit as well with children. We made Indian headbands at the Indian party and decorated paper cowboy vests made from paper grocery bags at the cowboy party.

As the kids get older, I have to admit, it gets harder to plan parties. Jake's recent party was last minute so it didn't turn out the way I would have wanted but it was very simple and he loved it because his friends were there and they have fun together.

That's all that's important.

It's not hard to plan a party. It doesn't have to take tons of money or time to have a great party. The important thing to remember is that kids just want to spend time with their friends and have fun.