The 5-year-old birthday party

A deep breath and have a chuckle.

That was the first thing I did after pressing “send” on the evite page.  What I had just done was invite 10 of my son’s closest friends to his birthday party.  The deep breath was because the location of the party is our home and the chuckle was because I knew we were in for it. Did I mention our son is turning 5?!

If he is lucky, he will have eleven 5-year-olds acting just as 5-years-olds should… running around our house like wild and crazy kids.  For some reason, my husband and I chose this.  We knew it was a crazy, but in a strange way, we took it on as a cool challenge. I feel like I want to show the “birthday party business world” that I don’t need to spend a fortune to make my 5-year-old feel special on his big day.  Hopefully we still have a house when all is said and done.

Here is how we plan to pull off this feat…

1. Have plenty of adults. I plan on hiring a high school girl to help.
2.  Pray for decent weather! (It has been extremely cold in Park City lately, but we want to take the party outside for part of it. Fingers crossed.)
3. Have a schedule of events. Our plan: Arrival, outside obstacle course, inside craft, cake and ice cream, and last but not least…the wonderful chaos of opening presents.
4. Stick to the schedule…But have a back-up plan. (Which we are currently working on, and we’re totally open to suggestions)
5. Stay focused and remember “it is ONLY 2 HOURS” J

Spider age 4.

There’s one idem on this list I want to go in to further detail about: Opening of Presents. Some parents don’t open them at the party, but I have found that it is such joy for both the giver and the receiver that it cannot be overlooked.  My husband and I have experienced the incredible chaos, but have developed a fairly good protocol for present opening that I would like to share.  You have to set the BIRTHDAY KID up in a tall chair so that everyone can see them.  And, you have to kindly request that all kids remain seated.  Only the person giver can stand while their gift is being opened.

So, there you have it. This was quite cathartic, so thank you for being my sounding board.  For some reason, I don’t feel as worried as I did at the top of the page.  I mean, they are only 5-year-olds…

Happy (early) Birthday Spider. We love you!