I have a real physiological problem when it comes to my children’s birthday parties. There have been years where the pressure I have put myself under has resulted in us completely missing the event in entirety. Now not everything bad has resulted from COVID, the “reset” on how we did children’s parties was a liberating event in my life. Some of my fondest memories with my own kids was attending a simpler drive thru style event where we decorated our car with things that we had and dropped off a favorite book for a friend that we truly loved- I was also able to drive thru after and get an epic coffee. To say the least it was a welcome change.
Moving forward I am determined to keep things simple so that I am not cracking under the self inflicted pressure to throw the perfect party. This year we were able to accomplish this by hosting the party at the studio. This was my daughters first party ever (having been born in 2019 right before lock down) and I want to share some ways I was able to be present and enjoy the celebration too.
Setting the Date
First we booked a date that was about a month away at the studio with the teacher my daughters is convinced is her best friend. I typically am queen of the late invite (and I will also not pretend there weren’t a few poor people who I did invite the week of because we had loosely talked about it but didn’t give official details about it. Old tendencies die hard) so many people got a text with the times or a verbal invite over coffee leading up to the date.
Here is the link I used to book the party at the studio
We were able to book a Saturday at 3-5pm time slot so we were able to sneak a nap in mid morning so we were fresh faced for the party.
Theme
My daughters is quite fond of a certain trademarked princess who has a copious amount of costume changes in her sequel movie and an icy disposition. So we headed over to PARTY CITY on the day of and grabbed a balloon bouquet . We also grabbed a couple packages of themed cups along with matching plates and we were set.
Food
Food is an important aspect of any gathering, I must admit this is the item of the to do list that makes me the most stressed usually. So we kept things simple. I cut up a large board of fresh fruit, berries and veg. I had a large craft of lemon cucumber water ready for our dancers once they were done in their class. On the way to the party I ran into the closest Tim Hortons and ordered a big “Take 12” of coffee (which them provide enough cream, milk and sugar along with the cups) and a box of 40 assorted Timbits. The Timbits were piled high in a shallow bowl with a sparkler 3 on top. No additional plates or napkins required for this sweat treat. (You can see the looks on the kids faces in the picture above, no one was disappointed to not have a “traditional cake”)
What I learned…
The theme of what I am learning with parenting in general is that there are a lot of items on the family to do list that are not put there because they are important to us as a family but more added unintentionally by societal pressure. We hear our friends excitedly talking about what they are going to do for their kids birthdays, Christmas’s, or family vacations and rather than share in their joy we instead reflect on trying to match their events. We wouldn’t want our kids to be “without”, heaven forbid they feel anything less than happiness 24/7. Now, I don’t think throwing parties is a bad thing, obviously. I would just like to challenge your motives and ask that you say a little prayer before diving into your next event that you “have” to go to. I believe that when we are able to be truly and whole heartedly aligned with Gods calling for our lives that He will be able to provide peace in situations that may otherwise have been stress giving. We need God for all things; even children’s birthday parties.
