Birthday Party Fun

8th Birthday: Jama, me, Belinda, and Mikael

Today was a fun day at MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers). We had a guest speaker today who had a business in birthday party planning, and I could have sat and listened to her talk for another full hour -- fascinating! She provided a wealth of information and examples related to choosing a theme, planning party activities (with built-in transitions), conducting the birthday "circle" for the gift time, decorations, food, crafts, and even creative ways to handle the misbehaviors of little party guests.

Although I have yet to plan a birthday party of this magnitude, it's nice to have some information and ideas to use when planning. Who knew there could be such a great "birthday party formulary?!)

And then at our table we had further discussion around birthday traditions, and what birthdays were like for us growing up. I remember my birthday party from when I turned 8. I was joined by just a few friends, though I recall others had perhaps been invited. These were my friends who were my best friends on up until I graduated from high school, and two of them were brides maids in my wedding. You see, I don't think we remember all of the gifts we got, but I think we remember our time well spent enjoying the company of good friends. I am always wise to consider this as a parent moving forward.

As a fun element in our morning, each table was decorated with a birthday party theme by one of the moms. For those of you with girls: one of the table themes was a cheerleader theme -- the mom said she had UW cheerleaders come to her daughter's party and teach yells and do face decal painting and gave the girls purple and gold pom pons. And it was free because college cheerleaders can't charge for this. You could also get local high school cheerleaders and donate money to their club fund.

And to cap off our fun morning, a cake decorator spent time with us talking about icing cakes. We each had 2 practice cupcakes, and I learned about using thin rice paper to trace designs to then decorate a cake with much more detail using edible food markers-- wow, who knew?! And I even learned how to make a rose, not that I'll be needing that for any boy birthday cakes, but fun to learn, nonetheless!

It was such a pleasure to spend the morning with other moms, gathering ideas for my mommy toolbox.