Birthdays

Our youngest daughter will be one in the next few days and after two huge first birthday blowouts we have come to the conclusion that birthday parties before the fourth birthday are really just for the parents. For one, the children rarely know what is going on. Our son and daughter slept through most of their parties, they didn’t actually get to enjoy the bounce houses or any of the games, and they were terrified of most of the guests. The second point is, the children do not remember any of it! For my sons fifth birthday party we rented a Cars themed bounce house and our eldest daughter started to cry, sobbing that we’d never gotten her one before. The funny thing is we rented a princess themed bouncy castle for her second birthday and we had the pictures to prove it. For about a month this time around we went back and forth on whether we would or would not go all out for our little munchkin the way we have with the other two. We knew we really did not want to have a gigantic party when a small intimate celebration was what she would be happy with and enjoy the most but the guilt of not giving her what we’d given her siblings kept coming back. In the end we decided that what we want most is for her to know that it is her day and she is being celebrated, even if it does not abate our guilt.