Me at a birthday party 1979

It’s all about LOVE!

I love kid’s parties… I love the excitement of looking forward to an event. The bringing of people together. A chance to entertain and delight guests. I love the organising and planning for it, the creating of things for it and having fun thinking of different ideas for the special day. I especially love that it involves ‘the loves of my life’… my kids. I love chatting with my kids about ideas and involving them in the planning and preparation. I love making things look lovely… so basically there is a whole lot of ‘lovely love’ from me, for kid’s parties.

However… I am real about kid’s parties… I know they are hard work, they cost money, take time and not everyone is interested in spending their evenings making tissue pom poms. Leading up to my kid’s parties sometimes I wonder why I’m bothering and by the end of the party I usually need a big glass of wine! But for me it is all worth it. The fun we have celebrating in style. The memories created. My children talk about their parties so fondly and look forward to planning their next one.

I do have a personal conflict with my desire to create a party that ‘looks good’ when in my heart I know that how it looks isn’t important.

My main philosophy for kid’s parties is that it’s all about the people… the decorations and fancy food aren’t important… what matters is the little person we are celebrating and having their special people with them.

My favourite Maori proverb sums this up perfectly:

He aha te mea nui o te ao
What is the most important thing in the world?

He tangata, he tangata, he tangata.
It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.

Recently we went to a friend’s birthday party and when we arrived the mum apologised to me that there was no theme or decorations. She had an awesome spread of good old kiwi kid’s party food that the kid’s loved and devoured… cupcakes, sausage rolls, cherioos.. and lots of rowdy trampoline jumping with balloons for the kids. When we got in the car to leave my William bounced into the car all exhilarated and puffing and said, “THAT WAS THE BEST PARTY EVER!” I loved hearing this… (research for kid’s parties)… so I asked, “Why William what made it the best?’ And he answered, “Jumping on the trampoline with Ben.” There we have it… nothing else matters but celebrating and having fun with the people we care about!

So the decorations and fancy food don’t matter… what matters is the people. What matters is that your children have fun and that the important people in their lives are there to celebrate with them. Sure when we host an event we want to entertain and ‘amuse’ our guests but kid’s are easily ‘amused’ and entertained. It’s our children’s party and we should keep that in focus when planning the party. For me I have to balance my love of creating a party that looks gorgeous with my important little people I am celebrating and what they would like.

 

A great reminder for me of this is Rosa’s last birthday. Rosa had two birthday cakes. She had the one she chose for her little party with her Porse – In Home Childcare friends and the cake Mummy chose for her ‘fancy’ birthday party. I wonder which cake Rosa loved the most? The one she stood at the bench and helped Daddy make or the one mummy designed to match her party?

I love spending time on my kid’s parties but that is because the creative side brings me joy and ‘comes from a place of love.’ Kids however are happy with a fun cake (lollies on top) and their special people to celebrate with. They don’t need anything fancy! (This mummy just likes fancy.) For those special milestone birthdays it’s a wonderful chance to treat our kid’s and do something special with them and their friends. Take them to an exciting venue or bring the fun to your home.

Tommy’s homemade cake – simple but filled with smiles and love.

I think the best birthday celebrations are those celebrated with a few close friends and family, some cake, laughing and smiles. Keep it simple, keep it small… fill it with love… and if making pretty decorations and food fills you with love… then add them in too.

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