My son Lincoln is having a party for his 4th birthday next week. I have never really thrown a “friends” birthday party for the kids yet and I hadn’t really planned on starting them yet for Lincoln yet. I figured we would just take the kids to Chuckee Cheese or have his cousins and Aunt Sandi and Uncle Warren down for cake and ice cream. Well, on Christmas Eve at church they asked him to go to the front and they sang a birthday song for him and gave him a picture of Jesus. He was so excited about it and on the way home he said, “Mom, maybe next week when we go to church everyone will sing to me again and give me another picture.” I explained to him that it was something that each kid only gets once a year and it is special. He said (all in one breath), “Well, when are all my friends coming over to our house, and then they sing happy birthday to me, and then I have a birthday cake and presents?” I had to pause a minute as I realized he has been to a few birthday parties this year and naturally he just assumed that he would have one too.
“Next week!” I excitedly replied, as I immediately started counting in my head how many kids are in his primary (Sunday School) class and the other kids he has made friends with.
We have decided on a pirate theme as he is the biggest Zelda Windwalker fan Nintendo has ever had or will ever have…and pirates are the closest thing I could come up with that all the kids would know. So I have been searching the web and pondering and fretting for the past few days about how to have a fun entertaining party without spending a bundle right after Christmas. I found a website with some good ideas for a party and had Brett pick up some good printer paper that looked a bit like old parchment and the plan was to burn the edges and send out the invitation…three days ago. So last night at 12:30am as I am about ready to tuck myself into bed I realize that I still haven’t done the invitations and the next day is the absolute last day I had decided I could hand out invitations and not feel like a total moron for not giving people enough time to plan. (YES! I know I am a huge procrastinator and I I should have planned it all by October…blah blah blah…I’m 29 years old and have been this way since I was in preschool…take me or leave me!) So I trudged down to my computer and started searching for an invitation template on Word. Surprise! They don’t have a pirate themed party invitation…or anything even somewhat similar that could pass off as slightly resembling a pirate invitation (c’mon Microsoft! Pirates are such an obvious choice for an invitation!). So after fifteen minutes of trying to find a template for a better invitation I had a wild hair up my brainstorm (only mom will think that was funny) and decided to do an evite, since I had the email addresses to all the parents of the kids we would be inviting. I made a cute, simple invitation on Evite.com in about thirty minutes (would have taken ten, but on top of being a procrastinator I am indecisive and a perfectionist too) and it turned out great. I even figured out how to change the “to” line in the email to have the child’s name instead of the Mom or Dad’s name. (I wanted to make sure Mom and Dad didn’t show up in pirate costumes ready to party. I am not making THAT many hot dog pirate ships!) By the time I checked my email this morning three people had already replied that they would be coming and I feel relieved to have the invitation out of the way. Now I just have to decide what to do with the $18 worth of parchment looking printer paper and envelopes that are still sitting unopened in my closet.
I will let you know how this turns out.
Whims 