Kids Birthday Parties

Each year of my son's life he is inevitably liked a different tv show, toy, or thing at birthday time.  At 3 it was "Dinosaur Train."  4 was construction and trucks.  And 5?  Legos.  For the past several years I've gone out of my way to do these birthdays huge.  Last year I rented out a room at the YMCA, purchased about $100 worth of construction hats, vests, and nick nacks from Oriental Trading Company, and invited his entire preschool class.

And all of 4 kids came. 

This year I decided to scale it back. And I also finally listened to what he wanted for his party.  He didn't want to go to the Y (although it's a lot of fun), he didn't want everyone in his class there, and he didn't care one bit about the construction-themed rubber duckies.  He wanted to play legos with his friends.

We picked a date and invited all the boys from preschool.  There were no crazy pinterest-inspired decoations to make.  No cheap and potentially toxic candy and toys shipped from China.  And no headaches in transporting all of the stuff to another location.  It was quick, easy, and cheap. 

And he loved it.

He and his friends played legos, ate cake (my one exception to the no-out-of-control-pinterest-ideas promise), and went home happy.  It was small, easy to clean up after, and not overwhelming for the kids.  It was also a good lesson for all of us over-achieving mothers out there that think our kids won't be happy unless we create custom invitations, make unique decorations and give out the best goodie bags ever.  Because usually it's not what our kids want.  And isn't it their big day to begin with?