The Birthday Party Frenzy

My 1st grader has already had countless invitations to birthday parties this year, and its just October! Bowling, rock climbing, Zooz (jungle-theme play gym), gymnastics gym, the public pool... you name it! Birthdays seem to go way overboard these days... there's the family party, the school friends party, the neighbourhood friends party... cupcakes for school... add the pile of gifts they accumulate at these parties where the entire class is invited, and it gets to be ridiculous!

Growing up, I don't remember us ever having birthday parties. In fact, I actually only remember one friend, Stephanie, ever having a party for our entire class at her house. We ate mini-pizzas on english muffins (or were they bagels?) and played some party games. I haven't forgotten because it was the only one I can remember attending as a kid! Okay, maybe we had the odd sleepover with a couple of girlfriends... but that was about it. The tradition in our home (of 5 kids) was that on our birthday, we got to pick our favourite meal which mom would prepare (mine being spaghetti), then we had cake (we usually all wanted the store-bought chocolate McCain Deep 'n Delicious cakes - two stacked one on top of the other - though my sister liked the marbled chocolate/vanilla cake - and I can remember requesting angel cake a few times - one year it had sticky marshmellow icing - yum!). We could also usually invite one or two of our friends to join us around the dinner table... and that was about it! And it was enough to make us feel special. (I don't remember the friends bringing gifts either... it wasn't about that!) That was OUR special day. I love the simplicity of it all...

Now that I have my own kids, I'm trying to resist the unreasonably overboard birthday party craze which seems to have settled in as "normal" these days... My 3 year-old and I both celebrated our birthdays together last month with a quiet family dinner and cake, joined by grandma. In the past, we've usually kept our family birthdays low key, inviting a few neighbourhood friends over for a BBQ maybe, or just for cake and to play (usually with a homemade chocolate cake decorated with flowers made out of smarties). Last year, for the first time, we actually had a little party for my eldest. She was allowed 5 school friends for her 5th birthday. We played games, had pizza and cake and had one of her friends stay longer for a special birthday play-date (because I knew she'd freak out once they all left and the day wasn't over yet!)...

So this year, as her 6th birthday approaches next week, she's allowed 6 friends and has been planning for weeks! My girls have moments when they struggle with it being "NOT FAIR" when it's one's birthday and not the other's... I'm trying to teach them that there's nothing fair or unfair about it! We just each have our turns and have to wait an entire year before its our turn again! If only birthdays came around more often... or NOT! Regardless, it's finally her turn, and let me tell you, my organized party planner is MORE than ready!

Happy Birthday my sweet!