A Not-So Pinterest Birthday Party...And That's Okay!

Hi everyone! This is Niki and I wanted to share about my son's recent birthday party. Now I love Pinterest! I am always on Pinterest looking for ideas on meal prep, parenting, projects and how to decorate my house that in reality will never happen (but I like to fool myself into thinking that one day I might actually do it so I need to pin it my board). I look up everything on Pinterest. My kid's birthday parties are no exception!

I convinced my husband that it is good for our kids to have birthday parties (he didn't have birthday parties growing up and said that he turned out just fine...party pooper). We compromised with their first birthday party with friends is when they turn 5 and then every other year after that. Rewind to three years ago. For my oldest, Jayci, she wanted to have a Little Mermaid themed party. So I went to my trusty Pinterest and typed in Little Mermaid birthday party. I figured that I could find some simple ideas that my 5 year old daughter would love. There were so many cute ideas that I loved and felt like I had to do it all to give her the BEST first party ever! I stressed myself out for two months prior to her birthday getting everything prepared. I got supplies for the little girls to create their own crowns, I stayed up late drawing a mermaid for "Pin the Tail on the Mermaid", I took time in photoshop creating the perfect mermaid invitation, and spent way more money then I wanted to on decorations and balloons. I even asked Sarah to come dress up as Ariel to really make the party special! I put so much pressure on myself to have the perfect party for my daughter and despite all my efforts, nothing turned out like my Pinterest board and so I still felt like I failed.

Fast forward to 2020 for Tyson's first birthday party. Unlike Jayci who was born in the summer time, Tyson was born the first week of January...poor kid. We have lots of birthdays during the month of December. So between all festivities of birthdays, Christmas, and New Years....Tyson's birthday kinda snuck up on me. To top it off, I was sick with a cold. I began to worry that I wouldn't be able to give him a party at all let alone the perfect party. So instead of trying to create the perfect birthday party, I decided to keep it simple. Only problem....he wanted to have a Star Wars theme party. So unlike Jayci's party, I bought generic birthday invitations from Walmart, borrowed Star Wars toys to place around for decorations, made pizza and cupcakes and asked Sarah if would be willing to do a Jedi Training like what she had done for her son (Sarah is pretty awesome and always willing to help me out. It's also very convenient that she had character entertainment company that would do birthday parties and she still had the costumes).

As the kids arrived for the party, I had Lego Star Wars playing on the TV to help fill up time as I finished making pizzas and decorating the cupcakes (again....I was really on top of it). But I noticed that kids didn't care. They were just excited to be with other kids and watching the TV show. Once the pizza was ready, I had them all come to table and asked them to raise their hands for pepperoni or for cheese. Come to find out.....kids really like just cheese pizza! There were so exited to be eating pizza and drinking "Yoda Soda" and "Dark Side Root beer". Once they were done, their attention went to the cupcakes and wanting to eat them! (Cake decorating is not my strong suite and the Storm Troopers did NOT look like Storm Troopers at all. Oh well! They still tasted good!)

After gifts were open, about 45 minutes of time had been used up and I still had about 45 minutes left of the birthday party. I remember a silly game that my mom did for one of my birthday parties when I was kid. As far as I know the game doesn't have a name so let's call it "Musical Mystery Bag". This is a silly game is one the kids had a ton of fun playing and thought was hilarious putting on different items of clothes that didn't match. Perfect for filling up time during a party!

Musical Mystery Bag Game

Supplies & Preparation:

• Music that can be easily heard and paused

• Large Garbage Bag or Duffel Bag

• Miscellaneous Clothes (men's button up shirts, hats, gloves, adult shoes, etc)

• Place clothes in large bag to be passed around. Objective is for guests to not see what is in the bag.

How to Play:

1. Have everyone stand in a circle. Everyone can hold hands then take a big step back to give good spacing. (They don't need to keep holding hands)

2. While the music is playing, have the bag be passes around the circle.

3. Pause music. Whoever is holding the bag is to reach in the bag remove 1 item.

4. Whatever item is pulled out, guest is to put on that item.

5. Start music again and have bag be continued to be pass around the circle.

6. Repeat steps above until bag is empty or time runs out.

The icing on the cake was the Jedi Training! Like I mentioned before, Sarah use to have a high-end entertainment company that would do birthday parties for kids. She still had the costumes for the Jedi training and was so nice to come do this for the kids! If you don't happen to have friend with an entertainment company, this activity could set you back about $100 to hire a character company to come train your kids. You can also put the training together yourself by making light sabers out of pool noodles and duck tape, cut simple Jedi outfits out of fabric, and watch YouTube videos of the Jedi Training at Disneyland on how to talk and mimic the maneuvers.

My husband dressed up as Darth Vader for the kids to use their new skills on and fight the dark side. Their favorite part was using the force to banish Darth Vader out of the house!

As a party favor, we gave each the kids glow necklaces and bubbles with a label and picture of Yoda saying "Come to my party you did. Thank you I must". I got theses at the Dollar Tree store.

After the party was over, the kids talked about the food, the silly game, and becoming a Jedi. They didn't talk about the decorations or about the cupcakes not being perfect. They were more exited about being together. I think that as parents we put so much pressure on ourselves to make everything perfect for our kids. Remember that it doesn't have to be Pinterest perfect! YOU DON'T NEED TO PUT YOURSELF THROUGH THAT! We're not Keeping Up with Jones here! Our kids are not going to remember the tiny details and the over the top decorations. Tyson is going to remember being surrounded by friends and love and having a great time, which is all I wanted for him. So from here on out for my kids birthday parties, weather they are themed or not, I am NOT going to guilt myself into having a picture perfect party. I'm NOT going to spend months worrying about a theme (birthday parties don't need a theme to be a great party). I am NOT going to spend lots of money on decorations that will end up getting thrown away. I WILL make my kids feel important, I WILL let them have fun, and I WILL make them feel loved. I challenge you to simplify your birthday parties too; unless spending countless hours creating a picture perfect birthday party brings you joy, then the more power to you! But as for me, I'm going to pretend that its 1995 and go back to beautiful simplicity. It really is okay to not have a Pinterest-Perfect Birthday Party!