Thrills, action and adventure!
Time flies when you’re having fun! And having a son surely made it go even faster. Paulo turned a year old this month, and to celebrate his first year, we had a little safari adventure. It wasn’t too difficult to pull together, just some coordinating. First of all, Paulo already had the perfect outfit to wear: Hip Hop Grasshopper from le•top’s 2010 Spring/Summer collection. All I had to do was to dress my family to match his attire. I bought pith helmets and bandanas to accessorize our khaki gear. We had a custom cake decorated with tiny snakes, handed out 3-ft. stuffed snakes as our party giveaways, and invited our dear friend, Jungle James, to bring his corn snake and other critters to entertain our guests. Oh, did the children have a wild time!
The party only lasted 3 hours, but at the end of the day my husband and I were exhausted. I realize now (after almost six years of party planning for my kids), it doesn’t matter how long the party is or how many guests are invited, the amount of work is still the same:
- planning
- writing out invitations
- shopping (food, drinks, party supplies, etc.)
- order the cake
- cleaning the house
- setting up the food
- mingling with the guests
- replenishing the empty food trays and drink cups
- serving the cake
- opening the presents
- cleaning up – BIGGEST JOB OF ALL!
- writing thank you cards
What I’ve learned is Children’s Birthday Parties = Work. THEMED BIRTHDAY PARTIES = EXTRA WORK!!! But it’s worth every moment when I see how much fun everyone* is having. So now that I’ve got one child’s birthday party under my belt, it’s off to plan my daughter’s birthday party. She’s going to be 6 years old, so I know it’s going to be a sassy one. I’ve get less than three months, so I better get to it.
(* That includes the parents!)
Le Top blog 
This looks sooooo fun! You give me something to aspire to.
I always have a problem with the last item on the list, writing thank you cards. It’s still on my list from xmas. I’ve thanked people in person or sent quick email but the final step of writing a thank you card and mailing it has not been in the cards.