I cannot believe that my oldest just turned 7! SEVEN! How crazy is that?!
I’ve noticed that people don’t really tend to RSVP anymore, and even when they do that doesn’t mean so much. I have actually avoided the whole birthday scene since her disastrous 5th birthday party where only ONE person showed up.
Having a summer birthday means that its harder to get people together, I understand, it’s just hard to understand when you’re little and just want to hang out with your friends. Since my party’s don’t tend to work out I’ve leaned more towards family days and those have been great.
I tried to insist on a family day this year but after two years with the same friends in school all K wanted was a birthday with her friends. I thought if I did the birthday a month ahead of time it might work out and people might show up but our budget got in the way of that and we were once again doing her birthday a solid month after school was out for the summer.
I rented an amazing water slide from Flagler Bounce and I was sure that people would come because seriously, who doesn’t want to play on a water slide?!
For a week we prepped everything. I cleaned my house spotless (or as spotless as I can get it with three kids actively destroying it behind me) and we prepped everything.
My sister baked and decorated an amazing cake and we were set.
There were still few, if any RSVP’s but I was told that family would come and so I wasn’t worried too much about people being there.
The day before the party M stuck her head into the fridge and took a bite out of the top layer of the cake that my sister and her husband spent hours making… not a good start to the festivities…
The morning of the party the waterslide was dropped off early and my girls were so excited. Any prep I had left to do now needed to be juggled with watching my girls play in the water.
Yes, I’m that over protective mom who won’t let her kids play without supervision. Since they’re 7, 3 and 1 I don’t feel bad about my protectiveness.
Finally the time of the party came and it was only my family there. K and the others didn’t care because they were playing on the slide. In the end one old friend of K’s came and 2 friends from school.
It wasn’t the huge blowout parties you see all over the place, apparently I don’t throw that kind, but my kids had an absolute blast! The neighbor’s came over and stayed until the waterslide got shut down.
My parties may not have huge turn outs and maybe I’m not the best planner in the world but as long as my kids have a great time and love their birthday that’s really all that matters!
Werewolfoii is 