About a week after the birth of my second child my foggy brain came up with an awesome realization. “I get to plan 2 birthday parties a year now!” I excitedly said to my husband (who humors me beyond belief). I love love love planning my kids’ birthday parties. Usually I stick to it being all about them but I fumbled on my eldest son’s 3rd birthday. I’m embarrassed to admit that I started planning for it about 8 months before his birthday! At the time he was way into robots, I like the vintage kitschy quality of robots myself so I got busy. I hand sewed felt robot invitations with silver metallic thread:
I gocco’ed Thank You cards:
I print gocco’ed some paint sample cards to string together for a banner:
I sketched the cake, I saved recycling and shiny things for the kids to make their own robot costumes, I’d even started on the robot piñata. Can you see where this is going? The whole thing became more about me, my vision and the pleasure I get from being crafty than about my son, HIS party and his CURRENT interests. So after some soul searching I asked my son what kind of birthday party he’d like to have, “Baseball!” he excitedly shouted. So I acquiesced. But I decided I wasn’t going to spend any more money on a second party. So I tucked away my runaway robot creations (although I’m really hoping my youngest develops an affinity for robots) and happily planned the baseball party. This time I looked at it as more of a joint project. My husband came up with a great idea, to cut paper plates to look like home plate and have the kids decorate them. My son asked that he get to throw “sprinkles” and dance. It was a kickass baseball party.
I used popcorn containers I already had for the goody bags, filled them with stickers and a Red Sox bracelet (the Lance Armstrong kind). The only bits I bought specifically for the party.
Swing battah battah! We filled the inside with baseball cards and “sprinkes”.
I have to see if I can find one of the invitations to photograph, I delivered each kid a baseball with the party info written on a sharpie. I’m all about invitations that are also part of the favor.
