Last year for my daughter’s birthday I really went above and
beyond. I spent an exorbitant amount of money on cake, cookies and blueberry
pies in the shape of butterflies. I had a fairy garden made, I hired Tinkerbell
to come to the party, bought balloons and even borrowed a bounce house to
inflate for the kids. My invitations were custom made and full of glitter and
Charlotte had her own look alike Tinkerbell outfit. Even with all my perfect
Pinterest party planning the inevitable happened – people cancelled last minute
and only 8 kids showed up to the celebration. I’m sure Charlotte wasn’t
devastated by I was and I vowed after eating the last of the leftovers by
myself I wouldn’t go overboard on her birthday again.
So this year I outsourced.
We hire people to clean our houses, do our dry cleaning,
teach our kids how to swim and even walk our dogs. Why shouldn’t we hire
someone to do our child’s birthday party for us? When I found out the place she
takes gymnastics at on Monday’s offered birthday parties I couldn’t get my
credit card out fast enough. I’ll take the Big Birthday Bash please – the one
that includes invites, 2 hours of fun, set-up and take-down plus goodie bags. I
wasn’t about to have another party at my house where no one showed and I was
left to do all the work.
I credit the other mother’s at Charlotte’s preschool for
giving me the ideas. The past year she’s been in school she started to get
invites to other children’s parties. Seeing these birthday bash’s hosted at
places that didn’t include a home address sparked the idea. I vowed I wouldn’t
go overboard like I did in the past and that the party would be the gift. I
only needed to bring a cake and that’s all I told myself I would buy. A
birthday party for less than $500 would make my husband and bank account happy
plus no house cleaning before and after. A win/win for all.
Of course, I didn’t exactly follow my plan. I spent $168 on
a cake and cupcakes from Valhalla Cakes in the Highlands but the princess
castle funfetti cake tasted as good as it looked:
I also had custom cookies made by CookieCoterie, a lady I
found on Etsy because, honestly, who doesn’t love a good cookie? The amazing
part was, however, I was able to drop off all the treats, decorations, light up
wands, noise makers and balloons at the site of the birthday party and they set
everything up for me. We arrived to a beautiful party room with a table set up
for the kids to eat and the cake and favors on display. I always purchase a
book for my daughter on her birthday for people to sign and they made sure it
was at the front by the waivers for the parents to fill out. Once all the kids
arrived the girls there entertained the kiddos for an hour with games,
gymnastics moves and music. We ordered pizza which arrived right on time and
the hostesses served all the little ones while the parents chatted and ate.
They then brought over the birthday cake, dimmed the light and led the birthday
song before cutting it and serving that or cupcakes. We opted not to open
presents so after the kids ate the teachers let them play in a giant castle
they had created from gym mats. At the end they corralled all the children for
a group photo, helped us carry the presents to our car and sent everyone off
with a free class and goody-bag.
Much like a wedding coordinator, these party hostesses kept
us on schedule and the momentum going throughout the evening. They made
Charlotte feel like the special girl that she was by letting her lead the
activities but treated the guests with equal kindness. We had a lot of friends
there with their second babies so, for them, it was a lifesaver to have someone
else dole out the food and beverages to their child. For me, the best part, was
not having to clean my house beforehand, getting a chance to talk to all my
guests and walking away from the party without leftovers or a destroyed living
room. We celebrated with a trip to the brewery afterwards.
My husband, who isn’t much in favor of grand birthday
gestures, was sold. He
made the comment that never again would we have a party
at our house. While it was fine for the first three years, it was nice to be
able to invite up to 20 children and not worry about the ramifications of
everyone showing up. Ironically we had 13 attend this year and I believe
there’s something less intimidating for people about showing up at a public
place rather than a private residence.
While I know I don’t have to plan anything for another year,
I’ve already been online researching where we can hold our next birthday bash.
Outsourcing our party planning was the best investment I’ve ever made in our
mental sanity and, just like hiring a house cleaner, now I can never go back to
my life prior.
Maybe I’ll even actually follow through with not going
overboard next year….
