Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums General Discussion I cannot be alone doing this nonsense

DD wants a wizard party for her 6th birthday. I finally came up with a station thing where each kid starts as a wizard in training, goes to different stations does something, gets a check on her card and at the end becomes a Jr. Wizard. One of the things is decorate the hat with moon & star stickers. It was such a pain to find moon & star stickers but I could only get glow in the dark so I order a dozen packs and spray painted them. Not so easily as the spray lifted them and turned them over as I tried to spray paint them.

Then, I could not get one color party hats bigger than 7 inches. I called party supply places, party stores, asked if they could special order them, no, not made. So I got poster board and made the hats and then spray painted them. A beautiful day, one of the last of summer and I spent the day making these hats.

I know there are mothers even more crazy than me that make a big to-do. I feel so insane right now.

Ren

HA!!! Want to feel better? I checked out every single Michael's store from Portland, Maine to Halifax, NS looking for enough pith helmets for a safari party for DD's 4th birthday. (Okay, I was on vacation... but I googled every single store before I left!).

For her 7th birthday last year, I spent two weeks making decorations for a rock 'n roll karaoke party that took on a life of its own. That party almost gave me a nervous breakdown.

This year, we had it at a glow-in-the-dark mini-golf place and told DD to get used to it!!

We did a pirate party one year that sounds kind of like this. Wrote a message on the back of a pirate ship jigsaw puzzle for them to put together, then sent them all over the house and neighborhood on a search for clues. Leading back to a chest of "gold coins" (chocolate) in the field by the house. Made pirate chest individual cakes for them to decorate. Hats and moustaches for everyone (all girls :)). It was a TON of work, but several years later the photos and memories are priceless.

I am apparently a glutton for this stuff because several years ago I gave my kids a big Halloween Party (so not even someone's birthday!) and called it the first annual Halloween party. So now every year we do this party. We all dress up. We make the yard a graveyard. I make cheese spread in the shape of mummies etc. - you get the idea. Design and make Halloween themed games and treats and so on.

Birthdays are often big events also. My favorite was the Beach Party in the winter.

I actually enjoy the planning. The costs can get crazy but we make a lot from scratch and I order from Oriental Trading co. At this point I have leftover unused items that I can reuse also.

Oriental Trading didn't even have solid colored party hats. Not even 7" ones. I did order some silver stars and black tablecloths with silver stars from them. I ordered the moon & star stickers from craftsforless.

It was worste then getting the school supplies, including 7 2-pocket folders in set colors. I was told they don't sell white separately because they get so dirty. I drove from Walmart to Target to Staples, to another Staples for a white 2-pocket folder. Not exactly fair, I got most everything else, including 5 of the other 2-pocket folders at Walmart.

DD is going into grade 1, what is with this list?

I digress from my own post. Too much spray paint...

Ren

OK. I am another one of theose crazy mom's who has it all planned out for the parties. Always found the best ideas on this site http://www.birthdaypartyideas.com/ type in theme and read all about what people did for that theme to get ideas for your own! I always had a theme and EVERYTHING had to be tied in to it somehow! You are NOT alone! Trust me! I also used to do this so much that I started making invitations and selling them for people who aren't as crazy to do it themselves (back when the kids were little and I had more time! heheh!)

You mean like soaking paper in tea to create an old looking pirate maps at 2 a.m. the night before the party? I still cannot believe that I did that.

Fortunately I've taken it quite easy ever since. There is a hope

One year for Christmas, I was pregnant and didn't get out to buy as many gifts as usual, so I decided to create a little scavenger hunt for DD who was 5 at the time to find her gifts in hopes of her not noticing that there were fewer.

So instead of soaking paper in tea (too bad I didn't know you LMom), I wanted the treasure map to look authentic so I decided to burn the edges and burn a few holes in it. I almost set the house on fire during the first try. After that, I did it over the sink! :-)

But I will say I am known for my fabulous parties - both for the kids and adults. Yes, I too go over the top sometimes.

When shopping for school supplies for grade 1, I was very pregnant with DS and supposed to be on bed rest. After the third store, looking for an elusive grey duotang I gave up. I bought a second white duotang and wrote GREY on it in big letters. I told DD that if it was a problem she could colour it with her colour pencil.

I'm working on escaping from that sort of thing. I grew up with the perfect mother who could make anything, do anything, and usually on one night's notice because I never mentioned anything till the day before. I tend to feel very inadequate because I just can't do anything as well as I remember that Mom did when I was little--which in all probability was not as perfect as I remember it!

DS's birthday is tomorrow, but I work tomorrow, so we celebrated it today, and I have been sick since Friday. We didn't have any kids over, and for the first time in my life I actually BOUGHT a birthday cake--I'm very proud of me! I just couldn't get up the energy to make and then decorate a cake this time.

To be fair, the kid is getting about 5 different days of birthday this year--he got his big present a month and a half ago, a desk which we expected to be backordered and wasn't, so it came early. Then he has today with the presents and cake, tomorrow the actual birthday, whatever day we end up doing something at school (I will make cupcakes for that), and next weekend when his godparents will do a cake and stuff for him. Ought to be enough birthday for anybody, even if it didn't have any perfect mom stuff to it!

We got him the "Heart of Mathematics" textbook that somebody here recommended, "Murderous Maths", a Calvin & Hobbes book, his own copy of "Why Pi" so he can stop wearing out the library one, a Perry the Platypus t-shirt, the Super Mario game he wanted, and a Periodic Table shower curtain that now hangs over his bed and will probably keep him awake for the rest of the school year.