When did planning a birthday party get so complicated (and expensive)? Savanah turns 5 this August (wow, time really does fly) and I am up to my arse in planning the thing. Apparently, just getting everyone together to celebrate no longer counts as a birthday. Traditionally, we (my family, kathy's family, and our family of friends) have gotten together and had a cookout. Everyone brings a side dish of some sort and we all chow down and just have a good time. This year we will be doing the same, but this year savanah also completed her first year of school, well preschool, but it was a classroom setting nonetheless, and she's been invited to all of their parties, so we have to (well should at least) return the favor. I didn't think having 20 4 and 5 year olds, plus siblings, running around without some sort of organized activity was fair to anyone (Uncle Mike cause it's his house, the other parents who probably don't want their kids running wild, and everyone else). So I started looking for places to have a birthday for about 20 or so little kids. You'd be surprized at how many places there are to have a kids party. You'd also be surprized at what these places cost! One idea I had involved a farm and pony rides but at $20 per kid.............well, that was a no. All the other places I called were either too expensive or booked solid through october. Apparently you have to start making arangements for the kids birthday a year in advance if you wanna do one of the "popular" activities. Then, after thinking I had found a place, things went wrong, but we managed to salvage some of it, so, in the end at least, we have a destination and the kids can run themselves ragged on the playground.
Then of course there is the dreaded goodie bag. That's the little bag that we seem to be required to give all of the guests (well the kids at least). Not that I'm complaining that it's a bad idea or anything, but my recent visit to Party City was an eye opener about what is considered a good give away and how much the stuff costs. Plus you gotta figure that the stuff you put in em has got to be oriented to the child that recieves it. You don't want to put princess stickers in a little boy's bag. So now you have to either shop for goodie bags that are male and female oriented or you have to go unisex and not worry too much about the theme of the party. Savanah, or course, picked a Disney Princess theme (go figure) which made things for me a bit more difficult. Why don't the princes get equal representation? Hell, why don't the princes get any representaion. So princess items (compacts, mirrors, stickers, etc.)were out. I decided early on that candy was out. We aren't real big on giving Savanah sweets (we'd rather see her eat an apple or peach than candy) so why would I give candy to other kids? Sure they like it, but that doens't mean they need it. Don't get me wrong....I'm not anti-candy (those of you who know me know my weakness for chocolate) but it's my personal opinion that at 4 and 5 candy should be doled out sparingly. And I'm not saying it's wrong for others to put that in the goodie bags they give out, it's just my personal preference not to give it out to kids that age. So we ended up with some disney magic towels, some disney light spinners (thank god for kathy's employment at the Disney Store), plastic kazoo's, small bubble containers, pencils (they will be starting Kindergarden at the end of August) and some neon glowing rings, bracelets and necklaces (which are always fun). Should be a pretty nice goodie bag, but wow, ain't nothing in this world cheap anymore!
Then of course we've got to put the goodies in some sort of bag. Well, the theme of the party is the Disney Princesses and I'm sorry but I can't see giving little boys a bag with the Disney Princesses on it. No, I don't think it will corrupt them or anything. I just know if I was a 5 year old boy, I wouldn't want to get a bag with princesses on it, plain and simple. They just aren't cool to little boys at that age. If you listen to my nephew, they go way beyond not cool to icky and gross, but that's little boys for ya. So now I gotta find a container for these goodies. Do I just brown bag em, plain plastic bag.............what? On a lucky note I was able to find a lady on ebay that actually sells colored paper bags, so I can do blue and pink, stick with the theme (Cinderella's gown is blue so that counts right?) and the boys can get blue and the girls pink. Woo hoo, things are coming together! Still costing an arm and a leg, but my little one will be happy and at least there is a plan. How well I'll pull all of this off is a completely different question.
I finally broke down and got a new camera. It was definately time. My old one was a Sony Mavica 1.6 Mega Pixel Camera and it did (and does) a nice job of taking pictures, but it is also big and bulky and when I printed the images, unless I wanted to put one picture on each floppy (yes it used floppies and memory sticks) the printed image just wasn't that clear. The new one, a Sony Cybershot is 8.1 Mega Pixels and so far I've been impressed with the pictures. The flash isn't as overwhelming as the one on the Mavica so I don't end up with these really dark shadows and the images seem a bit clearer as well. I eventually want to get an SLR Camera so I can really start taking some pictures, but the new Cybershot is going to be great for family vacations and such. It fits nicely on the belt and is very compact.
