Party Planner

There are two 9 inch round chocolate cakes on the stereo in the computer room.  Four more on the piano.  3 yellow on the fridge.  3 a top the bookshelf.  All told, there are 17 in all, scattered around the main floor of our house.

Thinking one of the adults in the house has hoarding issues?

In fact, this is party preparation.  It's Merryn's birthday celebration, and a few days ago she sent mailed invitations to each of her guests.  She created a guest list, filled out the invitation information, addressed envelopes, sealed them, stamped them, and mailed them immediately before her parents changed their minds.

While we always observe a birthday, we don't do annual birthday blow-outs for each of the kids.  It gets to be, well, a little excessive.  So, if they turn double digits, or sweet sixteen, or leave classmates for a new school, or observe a golden birthday, then we might acquiesce and have friends join us.

Quite a few years ago, we quickly realized that if we kept giving our kids stuff (and invite other people to parties in which they too would do so), we would suffocate from what was amassed.  Plus, we didn't want our kids to get attatched to material things, especially if it made the children less grateful. 

So, we started focusing on giving them "experiences".  Some of our best parties have been at public parks with water features, or hikes in Starved Rock State Park.  We've had a surprise "Come as You Are" breakfast bash in which even the guests didn't know they were coming!  (Boy, did all the parents have fun with that one!).  The focus has always been spending time together, and creating good memories.

So, tomorrow we are going to work on another memorable one... and it just might get a little messy.  That's what we're planning on!