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| Third birthday. |
If I
ever suffer a bout of temporary insanity and decide to have another child, I
will plan for a late spring/summer baby. My sole reason for this? Birthday
parties. I can’t just set up a piñata and a clown in my backyard and let the
kids run off their birthday cake sugar high. I don’t have a backyard, and there’s
no way I’m squeezing 10-15 kids and their various escorts into my apartment.
Some people are lucky enough to live in apartment complexes with party/play
rooms. For the rest of us, your options are a) no party, b) set up in a public
park or c) rent a venue. So far, I’ve always gone with option a. We obviously
did a dinner/cake/presents celebration with family, but never an actual party
with her friends. Option b is really only an option if your kid’s birthday
falls during the warmer months (hence my statement about any highly unlikely
future children).
Which brings us to option c
for Audrey’s 4th birthday this year. With a mid-November birthday,
outdoors isn’t an option, so I knew if I wanted to do a party for her this year
it wasn’t going to be cheap. I looked into various venues (there are several
options in our neighborhood or nearby) but ended up booking a party at Chelsea
Piers. Price-wise, it was in line with most of the other places, and they had
various packages. I chose the ‘Ultimate Tykes Challenge’ party in which the
kids do various races, games etc. and get to play in a bouncy castle.
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| Last year's cake and presents celebration with family |
But the details. Ugh. The
party is at 3:30. I don’t need to serve lunch. Or do I? I either ruin their
dinner appetites by serving pizza, or look cheap by opting to just do snacks
and cake (well, I AM cheap but …). Are chips, pretzels and a fruit tray classy
enough for these little Chelsea kids? Or should I serve organic hummus on whole
wheat pita bread? Goody bags are dumb, it’s a bag of cheap toys the kids will
lose within a couple days. I can skip them right? No, kids look forward to
them? Great. Let me order $75 worth of crap from Oriental Trading. Can I pad
the bag with cheap candy or am I a jerk for sending your kid home with sugar?
The base price for the party includes 15 kids. Is it rude to politely imply on
the invitation that your kids’ siblings aren’t invited because I’m paying $30/head
for each additional kid? I personally LOVE the invitations that say “No
presents please” but I know my kid would be disappointed so I’ll leave it off
ours.
In the grand scheme of
things, these are obviously not truly grave matters. No matter what I do,
Audrey will be happy as long as she has kids to play with, cake to eat and
people to sing Happy Birthday to her. With that said, I’m still looking forward
to the age where a birthday celebration involves a few friends joining her for
a movie and a sleepover …
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