You Had a Great Time, Remember?

So for the next couple of days, I will be running around like a headless chicken. We are having Mr. Personality's birthday party on Sunday at my sisters house, even though his actual birthday isn't until next week. Various factors, including the very selfish fact that Hubba-hubba and I are attending a long-awaited concert on the 25th, helped us to move it to this weekend.

I am expecting about 25 people and the theme will be Bob the Builder. Gee, I'm sure no one saw that one coming. I did a bit of research, and so this will be medium on the "elaborate" scale. We will have orange cones and construction signs to designate the play area, which will have a sandbox with various toys ranging from the traditional shovels to dump trucks. I am thinking to put little "surprises" for them to dig for, but I am undecided as of now. There will also be various ride-on vehicles, a mini bowling game thing I picked up, and a bunch of other toys that I am just going to throw out there. Of course there are a million other things, those are just the ones that stick out in my mind at this moment. A pinata, and a Bob the Builder "stick the wrench on the toolbelt" game are also in the wings.

As I was poring over various birthday party menus and planners, I tried to remind myself that for all intents and purposes, Mr. Personality will probably not remember this party. He will be, after all, only three. I am betting that later on in his life I will show him the pictures and he will have little to no recollection of that day.

I don't know about anywhere else, but here in SoCal, parents have been known to have some serious cases of one-upmanship. Especially if they live in a neighborhood with lots of other children. Because if little Johnny down the street had a pony for his birthday, well, what kind of parent would they be if their little Mikey had anything less? Why surely that would show the whole world what horrible parents they were and how little they loved their son. So Mikey gets a petting zoo, and then the next birthday on the block has a pony, a petting zoo, and a train. And it just keeps escalating from there. By the time these kids are ten, the parents are renting out Disneyland for 500 of their closest friends. It is madness I tell you, madness.

I am trying not to get sucked into that mindset, but it is hard. I want everyone to have a good time, kids and adults. At the very least, I can start out on the low end of things and by the time Mr. Personality is ten, I will only be at the petting zoo level.