Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Birthday Celebrations

Our youngest two have birthdays that are not even two weeks apart. Birthdays are still very exciting when you are turning 7 and 8. Frankly I was torn about about how to celebrate their birthdays. I naturally love planning and attending any and every kind of event yet I am dedicated to raising my children with a proper sense of humility which honestly I find lacking in this increasingly child centered world. Do we celebrate with a family gathering or bring out the boas? Trying to find a way to do both, I compromised as best I could to give them a wonderful birthday without going over the top.

Spending plenty of time with groups of little boys and groups of little girls, I opted to take my son and one friend to Chuck E. Cheese(Las Vegas for the elementary set) to celebrate his birhday, and give my daughter and her friends a tea party at our house.


 

My son chose his best friend, Noah to take to Chuck E. Cheese along with his younger best sister. He and his sister are so close in age, 11 months apart that they almost have a symbiotic relationship. He is happiest when she is around. This has its pros and cons, but mostly it is adorable. Since this was to be a casual affair I allowed him to go dressed in whatever he had on which was jeans and a not very attractive t-shirt. He was also having a bad hair day. Let's just say he wasn't looking his best, but it was his birthday after all. We drove up to his friend's house to find him waiting in the yard with his sitter where he told us he had been waiting an hour! I couldn't believe it, he had on an identical tacky outfit complete with shaggy hair! My son said on the way that I would probably always see him with his friend because where ever his friend went, he would go,cute! Truer words were never spoken. They were inseperable from the moment they arrived as they scurried around with giant smiles on their faces playing games like there was a buzzer they were trying to beat. They amassed lots of tickets that they traded in for some now forgotten plastic toys. The time spent together however will always be remembered!


My daughter's affair took a little more planning, but was worth every moment. I was only planning to invite at the most 4 classmates, but was guilted into inviting all the little girls in her class less one be left out! Oh the pressure of it all! An angel sent from heaven took care of the invitations for me. This same angel gave me the most adorable idea to make tea party hats from brown paper sacks, brilliant! Until I couldn't find the right size bag, Duro bag 8003. Searched craft stores,grocery stores,liquor stores (yes,I took my 6 year old daughter into a liquor store!)and warehouse stores and found some in packs of 500! Never one to give up, I remembered seeing my favorite BBQ to go bags to be roughly the same size. It only took asking and purchasing some BBQ for dinner that night!

 


The girls arrived all dressed in their finery,ready to party. One of the advantages of having a wide span of ages in one's children is the help the older ones can be! I enlisted the three older girls to help our guests craft their hats,photograph the party and help serve the food. The girls crafted their hats on arrival and I then presented each of them with a boa to put on before they sat down to tea. I set the appropriate mood with Beethoven playing in the background. One of our guests offered that Beethoven was someone who played the violin. They lunched on finger sandwiches,frozen fruit salad,mini muffins and tea(aka apple juice which looks just like it!)and delicious strawberry cake. Just to make sure they had ample sugar, I went around and put a sugar cube in each of their cups which prompted them to start speaking with an English accent! They loved being served and treated like ladies and I was especially happy that they didn't break my grandmother's fine china tea set! The smile on my daughter's face says it all!