In the seven years since we’ve been throwing kids’ birthday parties, the party landscape has lost its mind. I blame Pinterest.
Last week was the big first birthday for our youngest, and let’s just say the theme was “simplicity.”
It’s a good thing love isn’t measured in mix-your-own trail mix stands or chalkboard signs or carnival themes, because Em had none of that last Thursday. And spoiler – she didn’t care. She didn’t even care about the age-appropriate first birthday gift we gave her (although the stacks of tissue paper I used to wrap it were a huge hit).
Before settling on that toy set with the lights and buttons and whirling things, I jumped online to Google “first birthday gift ideas,” and ended up on, you guessed it, Pinterest.
And down the rabbit hole I went, until I found myself seriously debating the merits of a rustic/vintage county fair theme complete with a mini petting zoo and a photo booth (family heirloom quilt backdrop, naturally) to a decidedly more practical pink lemonade stand idea. Because who’s going to refuse to buy lemonade from the tutu-bedecked birthday girl? That’s what I want to know. Also – does the handcrafted ombre banner put it over the top, or is that just me?
And really quickly, how much planning and preparation and work goes into a vintage county fair first birthday party anyway? Good Lord. Who are these people? And can we be friends?
If I’m being honest, I love this crap. I really do. But not so much that I’d actually do it. I have neither the time nor the inclination (and I’m trying to picture my husband’s face if I pitched either of these ideas). And let’s be real – these parties aren’t for the kids. They’re for the parents. Right? Totally cool, I just feel like it’s really important that we all acknowledge this.
So for this first birthday, we went all out on the minimalism. We invited ourselves, got divine takeout pizza from up the road and popped a candle into an outrageously delicious vanilla bean cupcake from a local cupcake shop.
She clapped her hands while we sang to her and then poked a finger into the swirl of frosting on her cupcake. Then she got after it, just like a baby should when she’s facing down a birthday cupcake.
It’s a pretty laid-back approach to birthdays, I guess, but that’s kind of been our standard for years. We were early on the “no goody bags” bandwagon, initiated because we hate those bags of crap full of stuff that breaks before we’re even home.
And this year, after going to stash gifts in the kids’ closets and finding unopened gifts from their last birthdays that we forget were even there, we’re hitching our wagon to the “no gifts please” approach.
I love the idea – we went to two no-gift parties this year and they were both great. Both suggested donations in lieu of gifts – one to the local SPCA and the other to a children’s hospital. We brought dog food and chew toys to one and books and a board game to the other, and the whole concept sparked a lot of great conversation with our kids.
Pinterest-worthy? I have no idea. But I like it anyway.
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