Happy Birthday!
My son turns three today. THREE! I can’t believe how the time has flown or how much my life has changed since the day he was born. (That’s a blog for a different day!)
This past weekend, we celebrated his third birthday. Now, we don’t allow a lot of time for television in our house. Maybe just an hour each day, on average. So, when asked about a theme for his party, he had a handful of characters from which to choose. He's familiar with Daniel Tiger (of Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood - inspired by the works of my childhood favorite, “Mr. Rogers Neighborhood"), “Curious George,” "Veggie Tales," “Thomas the Train" and “Bob the Builder.”
At one point during the past year, he was, dare I say, obsessed with Bob! Of course, we’re sure it was because his daddy lets him “help” on any project, whether it be something in the yard, garden or even improvements inside the house. Once we exhausted all Bob’s available episodes on Netflix, somehow we became acquainted with Disney’s “Handy Manny.” Needless to say, these fellows are pretty hard to beat when it comes to some much needed quiet/rest time in the afternoon (nap time transitioning will also have to be a blog topic for another day), especially when mama needs a little break, too!
As you can tell from the pictures, I enjoy planning events, playing hostess and coordinating all things related to a theme. When I was a full-time professional, I would assist with planning and coordinating events at various levels. So, it’s natural for my professional exuberance to transfer to my role as a stay-at-home-mom. Would I do the same for my kiddos’ parties if I was working full-time? The answer is a whole-hearted YES! It gives me great pleasure to plan an annual event, see to the special details and, after the event, look back and feel satisfied at a job well done. And, I really enjoyed seeing the excitement on my little boy's face as I showed him each little detail of his party! What makes family event planning even better is executing it with my husband! Successfully coordinating any event - as a professional or a mom - isn’t possible without a great team, and I am exceptionally lucky to have my best friend - my husband - at my side!
Okay…enough with the mushy stuff (but, I must give credit where credit is due)! On with the party (and point of this blog)!
This year’s theme was contemplated late-fall/winter 2014 and finalized after the first of the year - Bob the Builder (bet you didn’t see that coming, eh?)! The real planning began in January 2015. Logistics such as the guest list and location were decided. Then, I took to Etsy to find an invitation to match the theme. This year, I hit the jackpot! The Etsy shop KraftTKreations offered Bob the Builder EVERYTHING - invitations, birthday pendants, wrap labels for napkins or bubbles, stickers of all sizes, a banner - you get the idea! The price of this package was incredibly reasonable. So, I paid her, she personalized the items with our son’s name, and voilà! Naturally, I wanted to get my money’s worth, so I decided we would use as much of the materials as we realistically could. (I’ll spare all the event planning details, but please comment or e-mail me, and I’ll consider posting a separate blog.)
The pictures from our event give you an idea about the party. We even had a bouncy house! We had seven little boys running around our yard, playing in the sandbox (our son’s present last year) and exploring the latest addition - a treehouse (this year’s present)! Seven. Little. Boys! It was fun for all - parents included (I think!).
We allowed our son to open gifts at the party. Now, I’ve read in parenting magazines where etiquette dictates otherwise, but when I was growing up, I opened gifts in front of my friends, and vise versa. When did this change? When did it become tabu to open gifts after guests departed and offer gratitude to the giver solely via a thank-you note? After a lengthy discussion and weighing the pros and cons, we decided our son would open gifts at the party for two very important reasons: By opening gifts in front of party guests, he would learn 1) how to be a gracious recipient and use his words to express gratitude; and 2) selflessness through giving.
Will he remember his third birthday? Probably not, although you can bet I will share pictures so he doesn’t soon forget. He’s already proclaimed he wants a “choo-choo” cake next year. I quickly reminded him he had a “Thomas the Train” party last year. To which he replied he wanted to see pictures of his cake!
When we asked about his favorite part of the party, we expected the answer to be the bouncy house, his tree house or even a favorite present. His answer? "Ice cream!"
