my first MAJOR birthday party!

So, i've thrown together family get- togethers, organized quarterly primary activities, and hosted play group at my house. But this has been the first BIG party that i've thrown for one of my kids. A's birthday isn't until next week, but this weekend worked out best for us to have a party. I was honestly amazed at how stressed i was getting about having this party!! How can i have done so many other things similar, and yet still be so stressed out and filled with angst over it.

It took me a while, but i think i finally figured out why it was so worrisome for me. Kind of a combination of factors: Growing up, we rarely had a birthday party,... and if we did, it was VERY sparsely attended (stress # 1 - is April going to be disappointed/unhappy at her OWN party?!) Although i wasn't concerned about decorating, I was a little concerned about leading the activities with C and E hanging off my legs, and D pestering me in front of everyone (stress #2 - my OTHER kids!) I also had vague worries about the kids not enjoying the activities, and somebody getting hurt, or kids fighting, or something going wrong - GEEZ!! I got to the point that i felt i just didn't NEED this kind of stress; so to pre-empt any of this stress later on,... i told D that we'd give the money to him for his birthday (that we would have used for a party) if he chose NOT to have a party! ;-)

Well, all that stress was for nothing, it turned out WONDERFULLY. To avoid any concerns about sparse attendance, A invited both church and school friends. We had 4 come from church with 2 younger siblings in tow, and we had 6 come from school with 2 younger sibling tag-alongs. So, all total, we had 14 kids. Several had to come late or leave early, but that worked out well. Now, luckily (avoiding my 2nd stress), I was able to farm off the two younger siblings to one of my church friends, and then she offered to take along D too as she had an older boy to play with him - I was in HEAVEN! I LOVE that lady!! I got to concentrate on the party and on A without any of that extra stress. We did have one of my container carriers of cupcakes overturn - but that was O.K. because we'd had some people not able to stay the whole time, so 12 cupcakes was just perfect! And we also had one little girl go into a chocking fit, but My dear hubby and some people from church helped out. I ended up having a couple of parents offer to help with all those extras: taking pictures, passing out plates, germ-X-ing hands, etc. I was SO impressed with the help everyone gave me! In hind-sight, I should have delegated some of the activities and help out prior to the party (which is what makes primary activities so much easier - you've got the whole presidency helping - not just ONE person!) I learned a lot about delagating through this party!!

So,... the run-down of the party - which I went into prepared to the GILLS! (helping me to cope with the stress and worry ;-) We had some gathering activities first - a "guess how many candies" jar, and a decorate your own 'bugs' (butterflies, dragonflies, and bumblebees) activity, and then we used our bugs to play a 'pin the bug on the flower' game. I laminated the flower so that I could use it again in primary; getting the most use out of my excessive prep. Next we had pizza - which I actually HAD delegated off for M to pick up (a big THANK YOU!! to my loving hubby!) We went straight from that into our treasure hunt, which went MUCH faster than I expected!! A and D had helped me decide where to put things, and it took a LOT longer to set-up than for them to finish it! We had 11 different clues, the last one leading to the disguised pinata, which we then hung up and had a blast allowing them to knock down. It was a flower pinata that I had made it myself (although with the amount of time I put in making it - I should have just bought the $20 one from the store! ;-), and I chose to have them slug at it with a baseball bat and NO blindfold! (we make our pinatas WELL) It was a good call, as even with allowing them to hit it straight on, it still took about 20 hits to open up!

After the pinata, I added to their 'goody' bag by adding in bubbles and telling them to go play. Some of them had fun with the bubbles, and some chose to go play on the playground - but they all seemed to have a good time. A and I had chatted previously about her 'hostess' duties and making sure nobody was left out and that everyone had a good time; she did an awesome job at it! I was finally able to catch my breath and chat with the other parents, figure out who had won the candy jar, and take pics of the kids. It was at about this point that A came up to me and said that this was the BEST party she'd gone to EVER, and that she was the HAPPIEST girl in the WORLD! Ahhhh,..... the things that make it all worth it!

I called them back in for cupcakes (when i totally FORGOT to use the candles I brought, and totally neglected having them sing Happy Birthday to A *doh!*) And then we opened up presents - she got a HAUL! I'm going to have to get her a container just for 'HER' toys!! We finished off with a kite activity I found on the internet. 20 kites for 20 kids, in 20 minutes. They use a standard sheet of typing paper, a small bamboo skewer, plastic flagging tape, and kite string. It was a little hectic to begin with (note to self - delegate more!!) But some of the parents pitched in, and it turned out fine. The kids all made their kites and then ran their energy out for the rest of the party until they headed home. All in all, it was a GREAT party, and i really shouldn't have worried so much about it. I really need to remember: 'it will all pan out in the end. Dont' worry - be happy!'