Guest blogger Lucie Amundsen takes back the backyard birthday party….

One of my favorite questions that my children ask me is “what theme was your birthday party?” And I laugh of course, because nearly every 30-something I know had the same theme: party. It had cake your mom made and if you were lucky balloons. You might have played games and might not, but all I really remember is they were fun.

And it was with this in mind that we brought birthday parties back home this year. We had gone “off-campus” previously and with great success. My daughter had a celebration at an indoor playground last year. It came with playtime in the children habitrails, a little room for us to eat the cake we bought and a god-awful gift bag of Asian imports. The cost, including my invites, cake and decorations, was a whooping $120.

My son celebrated at a fire station, which was a very good deal, but we had to bid on it at a silent auction. It truly was a fabulous event – the fire fighters came to our house to pick up the party – and it also ran around hundred bucks.

But it’s not like we’re going way beyond our peers – we’re not. My kids are going to a “Pump it Up” party to bounce happily on inflatables and eat pizza. They are sure to have a terrific time- and they should for the nearly $300 the parents are outlaying.

Gift bags are also escalating. A friend of mine child’s returned from a party last year with a Disney dress-up costume, another child came home with a skateboard – a skateboard!

So this year I challenge myself to see how cheap I could pull this off and still have a great time. First, I limited guests to the age of my child. Milo was turning 5 so he got 5 friends - his sister was a bonus guest and didn’t count. To avoid buying invites and stamps, I just sent out an email to parents.

I then honored Milo’s wish for a “Scooby Do” theme by buying plates and cups at Party City – no banner, no licensed tablecloth, no Pin-the Tail on Scooby. We downloaded the Scooby Do theme song from Itunes for a dollar and had it as background music when opening presents.

We played games with the kids like hide and seek, scavenger hunt and the best – turn Daddy into a mummy with toilet paper. When he was nearly all wrapped he “came to life” and chased the kids around the yard. Between activities, the children entertained themselves on the swing set.

Decorations included a sign painted by my 7-year-old ( it said, “Happy Milo” because she forgot to write birthday) and inflated punching balloons hung with masking tape along the fence.

The cake was homemade “cone cakes” which involved filling an ice cream cone with cupcake batter half-way, baking for 20 minutes, then frosting. I sprung for sprinkles. There was also a bowl of popcorn and then we washed it all down with homemade lemonade (so I can control the amount of sugar – yes, I’m that mom).

The last 20-minutes we had an old-fashion squirt gun fight. We bought the 8-pack small ones and they doubled as a take-home gift, along with a punching balloon and a few bags of gummy bears. One parent literally thanked me for not overdoing with sugar or plastic junk. She was probably just happy that I hadn’t raised the bar on her.

As the last child left, my little guy burst into tears – not because he hadn’t had a great time, but because it was over. Now that’s the sign of a good party and all for about $20 bucks.

Lucie B. Amundsen
www.twowordy.com

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 10:48 am and is filed under Family Life, Guest Bloggers, Rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.