and use what you

I don’t need to compare then to now. However, I have a confession: I love what we do today. It might seem that I really set this up to get preachy about how we parents are going ballistic on the parties — how we are only renting the giant jump houses, reserving the pottery paint place, hiring the photographer and live petting zoo to get more social media likes. That’s not the point of this article. We may be guilty of that to a degree, but I have a different direction to go today.

up in a wig, makeup and dress so that she could surprise her seven-year-old granddaughter in the middle of her fancy birthday tea party. I’m doing my best to really paint a picture here. Other examples would include sewing stuffed animals, because they fit the theme; making the piñatas with crepe paper; hauling a vintage dresser to a pavilion because that was the cake stand I had envisioned. I have done all these things and more. I’ll spare you the dirty details for a never-to-be-published book.

CHILDREN'S BIRTHDAY PARTIES.

They are now bigger, better, more expensive and elaborate than ever before. I am a mama of four ranging from 13 to 3. By the time you read this article I will have hosted approximately 30 children’s birthday parties. Hi, my name is Cori and I’m a party-aholic. I am admitting to being part of the monster we’ve all created. I have fallen hook, line and sinker into the wonderful racket that is children’s birthday parties.

Remember what the scene was like when we were kids? It was a sheet cake and Kool-Aid, a house full of cousins, and a friend from school. You invited them by calling and telling them to write it down and set it next to the phone book. Decorations were streamers, a few latex balloons taped to a chair, and, if you were lucky, a Mylar balloon that said “Happy Birthday” that you begged your mom for and ransomed your allowance for while in line at the grocery store. You probably played tag, rode bikes, used squirt guns, played on a swing set and maybe played duck, duck, goose. (I’m a South Dakota girl. It’s duck, duck, goose.) You sang “Happy Birthday” and the birthday kid opened their hand-wrapped gifts because gift bags were expensive. Nobody else got a gift and nobody left with a favor bag. You may even have “a” picture documenting the event. Mom would remind you that film was expensive and to use an entire roll of 24 shots for a birthday party was a waste. I’m assuming that if your childhood parties went like that you feel incredibly fortunate. I know I do. Why? Because it was your birthday. And that, in and of itself, was terrific. It was “theme” enough.

I readily admit that I am part of the overdoing-it-ness of today. Since my first child’s first birthday I enjoyed the more, more, more of today’s party culture. It’s all in that elusive effort to give them more then what we had. Ami’right? Personally I can pinpoint the beginning of the “over the top” at the very beginning. My eldest’s first birthday: We rented a hotel party room and hosted a pool party complete with painting crafts, matching expensive decorations with helium balloons, and fancy printed invitations. The party snowball avalanche began.

I love it. I love planning a theme. I love using the smidge of creative talent I’ve been blessed with to create an experience for my kids. Sounds cliche, but I really am doing it for the kids. I may be a sucker for social media likes just like the next gal, but in my defense, my number one reasoning is selfless. How often can we say that we are able to give our children an experience that will likely remain with them for their entire lives? I may be justifying a bit, but regardless I find joy in these parties and the only real “problem” that I want to fix is to manage the stress and expenses. When I asked my mom recently if she could have spent, designed, created and executed the parties we do for our kids, would she have for us? It was a resounding yes. This grandma was also all too willing to travel eight hours, purchase an expensive queen of hearts costume in order to dress

For the sake of balancing my time, bank account and my marriage (turns out, planning all these parties stresses my husband out), I decided not to do what I typically do for the next party. I challenged myself to host the next birthday party using what I had. You heard that right. Using what I had. *gulp*

The caveat was to use what I had in my party storage and to keep my expenditures as low as possible.

HOW I HOSTED A SUPERHERO KIDS’ BIRTHDAY PARTY:

“Using what you have” starts by keeping it at home. Using our own large backyard to save on the rental room/ venue and since we have a Rainbow Play System and trampoline, the entertainment had a great foundation. Each guest was costumed with a cape and mask that doubled as their takehome party favor. I included a cityscape backdrop as a decoration and for use in a “photo booth.” Do one small art craft that goes with the theme. But the big event, aside from the cake, was a superhero obstacle course. Ours included a tunnel, a spiderweb ball toss, a fire plank walk, a Hulk smash wall, a capture the villain, and a prize smash. Pinterest for the win on game ideas!

TAKE STOCK of what you have

We had many dress-up capes and fun props that helped fit the theme. I used all existing cake stands, serving platters, etc. I also had a very large arsenal