Day 222 – Birthday party stress.

Kids birthday parties always cause me some stress.  The actual event is not too bad, but the preps kill me.  It started this year with who do we invite.  We have made the mistake in the past of inviting everyone in Samson’s class and then inviting all friends in the neighborhood who are not in his class and of course then kids of family friends who don’t even live nearby.  This has resulted in 20+ children in our living room or paying serious $$ to have the event somewhere else (since both boys have Jan/Feb birthdays it is rare we can do the parties outside as the boys would prefer).  So this year we were determined to have a smaller event, but I major stressed about how to do that without hurting feelings or leaving anyone out.  

I thought, we would just let Samson pick 4-5 friends.  Then his first list ended up with 12 people (some who I did not even know and some that I thought he certainly accidentally had left off).  So, I offered just to let him have all the boys in his class.  He agreed, but said “except Frank (not real name) because he cheats at football during recess.”  OK, I will not invite the entire class of boys and leave one poor kid  out.  So I suggested he invite the group of boys he hung out with last year.  Apparently that is old school because he doesn’t get along with half of them now and even said of one particular friend “he is really out of control now”.  What does that even mean for a first grade boy?  The are all out of control from what I can see.  

So, we settled on…boys within walking distance of the house. This resulted in 6 boys plus Samson and Lukas.  Samson seems cool with this.  Invitees seem cool with this.  I’m the only one that is worried.  How will parents feel if their kid is friends with Samson, but didn’t get to come?  How will the kids feel?  I know I actually am kind of relieved when Samson doesn’t have 10 million parties to go to, but I just hate hurting feelings.  Maybe I have some big, deep elementary school birthday party scar I don’t remember.  Some slumber party I was not invited to or something the cool girls were doing that I was not included in. Who knows, but I’ll be happy when birthday party stress is over.  

Still going to stress about cake (make it or buy it), snacks (do we have enough, does anyone have food allergies), games (how are we going to keep them busy), crafts (burn some time, but fun and with something cool to take home), and our family boycotting of traditional goodie bags (last year kids actually came up and asked me where their goodie bag was).  Sorry, last I checked this is Samson's birthday and the last thing your parents actually want is a bunch of little plastic toys that will eventually end up at the bottom of a toy box and/or a choking hazard for younger siblings.  

Oh and next is Lukie.  He wants to have a Star Wars theme costume party with all his old class and all his new class (25 kids total), at our house and did I mention he wants me to make all the costumes?  I love you, but not a chance Lukie!