We have decided to have the party at a soft play centre. The idea being I turn up with a birthday cake and my child, nothing more nothing less.
Because I work and have no involvement with pre-school I asked for a list of names of children that the 2 year old plays with regularly. They gave me a list of ten and I added a mixture of family and family friends on for good measure. Invites went out to 20 children with Christmas cards, killing two birds with one stone.
Easy peasy, stress free, partytastic!
Then I lost the guest list.
The husband remarked that perhaps I should have placed aforementioned list in a 'safe place' at which point I had to refrain from launching myself across the room armed with only a pen to kill him.
The party list was formulated and reformulated to get the number to 20 and I had to leave out some children. I cannot for the life of me remember who was in or out or how my ruthless list making process originated and am now stuck.
The woman from the soft play centre will be ringing for exact numbers. Do I wing it and under cater with my random rule of 'usually 4 children have better things to do on a Saturday afternoon than eat birthday cake'? ... or over cater and end up paying extra for children who are not there?
I'm now thinking I should send a text message to every parent in my phone saying 'If I invited blahblah to the 2 year olds party can you let me know if he/she will be there. If I didn't invite blahblah then sorry, better luck next year'.
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13 comments:
Oh yes, the latter. How superior!
Ye gods! Why are children's birthday parties so stressful!
Wait until he's 6 and telling you exactly who is coming and who can definitely NOT come and what they will eat and if you kiss him at any point during the party in sight of friends then he'll never speak to you again!
I've been organising parties similar to this for years. You can never accurately work out how many will turn up. Some of those who say they'll be there won't, while some who say they're not coming/don't reply will turn up anyway!
Ah, I should have checked in earlier to tell you about E-vites. About nine tenths of my 5 year old's invitations come via E-vite, and it's fab. You still have to be a bit organised, in that you have to not delete the whole file, but it's a lot better than putting things in that "special place" and forgetting where it is.
I am guilty as charged, I forgot to RSVP, we'll be there!
Dotterel - I don't feel very superior ... more slack mother!
Tara - The 4 year old is easy - she lists all the people she wants in alphabetical order with full descriptions of their current hairstyle and then applies a NO boys rule!
Robert - I think I will just pluck a number out of the sky.
ExPat - That does sound organised. In order to do that I'd have to have everyones email addresses. Maybe by next year I can upgrade to e-vites.
Mary - I now have 2 attendees - things are looking up.
laura, you were just a tad unlucky. Nothing to upset yourself about, really.
Do better next year! do you hear? ;-) x
why is it that whatever happens child's parties turn out to be bloody stressful! Even if you don't have a party it turns out to be just as stressful - the guilt, the looks from other mothers etc. This post made me laugh though - we must all go through the same angst! Good luck with the impending party too...
Thanks for visiting my blog - good to see you!
Uh, maybe skip that text message! How about compromising and assuming that 18 children will eventually turn up? Then you can probably squeeze in an extra or two if they all show.
We are also in birthday party mode. It doesn't get easier for 11 year olds. Sigh.
Ooh, what a nuisance for you! I'm so glad I don't do kids parties anymore, Amy just couldn't cope with it and I have to admit I was glad when she announced she doesn't want to have any more. Nor will she go to any either.
Hope this one turns out well, I'm sure it will in the end.
CJ xx
I say under, there are always people that don't come. Good luck.
We're in the midst of parties as well...
Good luck, hope it all turns out and that everyone turns up!
My very last memorable party for my son was a pirate party. I went all out.
We live near a beach. I created a treasure map for treasure I'd previously buried in the sand. My food had a pirate theme. I named stuff - chipolatas were "dead man's fingers", treasure chest cake (I can do boxes), and I'd marinated chicken wings and called them "seagull bones".
Turned out I was a little too authentic. The kids believed i'd killed real birds (and people supposedly) and refused to eat most of the food.
When he turned six, I settled for McDonalds and they ate the lot.
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