The Bounce House Birthday

When I was a kid, we always had the best birthday parties. So did everyone else I knew, actually. All birthday parties seemed to be crazy, lavish affairs with forty kids, goody bags with care-free gum, enough balloons to lift the house, a sing-along, a puppet show, and pony rides on the pony that lived in our garage. You think I'm kidding. But I'm not. And I thought this was perfectly normal. Didn't everyone do this?

Well, apparently not. And now that I'm a mother, and I have boys that have birthdays, and that go to birthday parties, I know why. First - it's insane. Second - it's expensive. Third - it's crazy.

This is the first year Nathan has had a birthday party with friends. I told him he could have a party when he turned 4 last year, when he turned 3. And when he changed schools, I assumed I would just do what the other mothers at the school were doing in terms of sending out invitations. But there was a problem - there have been no other parties. None of the other kids in his class have sent out invitations or anything. So I was breaking new ground.

Nate had been asking for a party at Chuck E.Cheese's. I managed to convince him that a party at our house would be much more fun, and less likely to kill me. But when I got his class list... there are about 25 kids in his class. Not all kids come on all days, but when I crossed off all the kids that weren't in class with him on any days I was still left with 20 children, and that didn't count my kids or the other kids we are friends with. And Nathan never talks about any kids in particular, so I was left with either just randomly cutting people out of the party and risking hurting feelings, or trying to force 30 kids to picnic in the snow.

So I decided to have the party at a bounce house. We've been to parties there, and it's fun. I only wish I hadn't stressed about it so much. The bounce house offers to provide pizza, juice boxes, goody bags, and even cake and bottles of water. You just have to pay for each item. And I rolled my eyes and insisted on buying my own of everything. And it worked out. But I might have saved myself some stress just letting them do it. After all, they took care of EVERYTHING while we were there. They shuttles gifts to the party room. They served the pizza and cake. They threw away the trash. They gave me paper and a pen to write down who gave which gifts.

And best of all, I didn't have to clean my house. Not before, and not after. I think that qualifies as a success.