For some reason October through the end of the year always feel extra crazy. This is the fourth time we have had a birthday party for Jack (though a first time to do it with friends) and we were still scrambling to put it together in a timely manner.
How do birthdays always sneak up on us? Are we alone in this mad scramble?
Anyways, this year we decided to invite a few friends over to celebrate with Jack. He had one specific request: he wanted a pinata. We went to a party earlier this year with a pinata (he called it a piranha) and he was enamored.
Daniel and I quickly decided on a woodsy-outdoors theme and sent out an invite via Facebook (I'm falling down on the job, there were no printed invitations this year).
I then said a little prayer that the weather (in November no less) would cooperate and then started perusing Pinterest for party ideas.
Besides the plan for S'mores, I thought an outdoor nature scavenger hunt would be fun, and then of course, we had the pinata.
While Friday was sunny and warm, Saturday we experienced a huge drop in temperature, along with rain. Boo.
This basically meant I had to scrap the S'mores and scavenger hunt idea. At the last minute, I found some animal silhouettes that I printed off and set out on the table, along with kraft paper, glue, markers and leaf stickers. I figured I couldn't go wrong with stickers. We also moved Jack's tent from our screened in porch to the living room.
The kids arrived and had a blast. They weren't bothered by what we didn't get a chance to do. And when they started to fight over who got to play with what, I directed them all to the dining room table for my last-minute craft. The kids decided they were making treasure maps – sure, whatever you want to make is fine by me!
After our craft, we celebrated with Owl Cupcakes that Jack helped to make (thank you Pinterest!, though mine were not nearly as pretty as the online photos I found). But they were delicious!
And finally we let the kids hit the pinata. Jack had a blast, and I'm pretty sure his friends had fun too. I am working on relaxing a bit and enjoying the party and going with the flow.
I will probably always do a bit of decorating and making things (nothing wrong with that), but I'm trying to find balance and not go overboard.
We still have all of the ingredients for S'mores with the Moores...
I guess we just have to save that for another day!
Birthday Parties from Years Past:
Trucks Go, Age 1 | Frogs, Snails and Puppy Dog Tails, Age 2 | Curious George, Age 3
No comments:
Post a Comment