Where I draw a line in the freaking sand. I will never serve hors d'oeuvres to one year olds.

I’m just writing this down so I can point to it when our kids are older and learn to read. “See Mike, it says so right here!” Yeah, that will work…

So. For our kids we have had small family get-togethers at our house for their first, second, and third birthdays. Nothing fancy, just a meal, a cake, and grandparents bearing presents.

At age four and five they get a party where we invite their whole preschool class and have it at a local gymnastics place. They do a fantastic job entertaining the kids for an hour and a half, serve the cake, and do all the clean-up. Simple for us, but not cheap. (For example, last Sunday was $325 for up to 20 kids. Plus cake, goody bags, and so on.)

After that, they can have a big party for any year that is divisible by 5. Other years, they can invite a couple of friends over to see a movie, or have a sleepover, or go out to dinner. You know, simple and cheap!

I’ve just seen so much extravagance where we live. Hell, the neighbors have a 5,000+ square foot house and bought the house next to them so they could have more room. They have kid parties in their yard with petting zoos and live entertainment. Fine for them (I mean that), but I guess we’re simple folk.

Cue the banjo music.


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4 responses to “Where I draw a line in the freaking sand. I will never serve hors d'oeuvres to one year olds.”

  1. Flo-Queen of the Bad Mommies Avatar

    Yeah, I’m totally with you on that. We enjoy celebrating the kids birthdays, and we want the day to be special, but it gets to the point of “where do we go next?”. Plus the $$$. My youngest’s birthday is July 2nd, so her first and second birthday parties were also excuses for us to have a 4th of July barbeque and invite neighbors and etc. But really, when you start getting into petting zoos (or getting a tent and a dj, like my sil), that’s a little much.

  2. Toni Avatar

    $325??? Our gymnastic place here is $125 for 1.5 hours- 15 kids! Thought that was high!

    We also don’t go overboard on birthdays, mainly home with a few special friends. (Family lives to far away)

    I enjoy your blog, glad I came over!

  3. Cheryl Avatar
    Cheryl

    For the longest time we had grandparents, balloon / decorations, gifts and a two layer cake, compliments of Betty Crocker and cool whip frosting!

  4. Jamie Avatar

    This year we had a family only party for Amelia who just turned 2. We had cake, ice cream, and I had some munchy type appetizers (chips and salsa, cheese and crackers, veggies and dip) since my half sister and family were driving through from Florida. For Caitlin, who turns 5 in June, we’ll have the first party where we will invite her entire preschool class. We like to keep things simple! I can so relate to your philosophy.

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