So I'm at least a week or so late in posting this, but those of you who also follow me on Facebook have had some minor updates. The official biopsy numbers are in for Chloe, and have confirmed her diagnosis of EoE, just like Cassidy, which you can read about here. We were not surprised, in fact, after the concerns we went through with Cassidy prior to her diagnosis, it was actually almost a relief to know that Chloe has the same disease and not something more devastating. We have started the 3 part allergy testing process with her, and will move forward one step at a time once we have the answers provided by that process.
In the mean time, Miss Chloe and her partner in crime (and twin brother) Quinn will be 5 years old in just a couple of weeks! This year they are having their first big birthday party which includes inviting friends. We usually celebrate birthdays with a small family gathering in our house, so the kids only have a "friend party" once every few years. We actually try to rotate it so one kid gets to have a big party each year. The shindigs start the year they turn 5. While we will never force the twins to share a party if they don't want to (not their fault that both buns were bakin' in the oven at the same time!) this year they were wild about the idea of doing it together. Probably because since they are in the same preschool class, they pretty much have just one peer group and they are only 5 so they basically love everyone. Works for me. They still each picked a theme, though.
Quinn wanted a Star Wars party, and Chloe's dreams will play out as a Woodland Fairy party (she was very specific about that, not fairy princesses or Disney fairies which she also loves, but "real" fairies, which she calls woodland fairies). So we are setting up at a local orchard with a large play area, and they also provide hay rides for the kids and let them feed the farm animals. What I call the "play area" is actually a slightly hilly field with wooden play structures scattered about, a huge sandbox and some picnic tables under large shady trees. Perfect for a bunch of little kids running around with light sabers and fairy wings.
All of the girls will have fairy wings and crowns that I made, and
all of the kids will have light sabers made from pool noodles and duct
tape (I love duct tape!) Chloe wanted all of the girls to have complete
fairy outfits, but that was really just too much. Chloe will be in her
fairy finery, but for the guests I think that they can dress in whatever they like, and providing them all with wings and crowns is plenty,
don't you? I actually really enjoy party planning, but if you have to
take out a second mortgage on your house to finance a party for your 5
year old, you have issues. I have been to more than one party that was
clearly thrown in an attempt to out-do the other moms and parties, and I
find it to be creepy and excessive. Get your head out of your ass.
It's your KID'S party, not yours. If you have hyped it up until they
are overwhelmed or disappointed in a too-sophisticated version of a
theme, you have completely missed the point. The idea is to celebrate
the CHILD, not impress the town with the party of the year. Don't get
me wrong, there is nothing wrong with taking one or two of your
offspring's youth driven "big ideas" and running with them (I did, after
all, make 10 sets of fairy wings from scratch), but some of what I have seen, both in person and online, is horrendous.
As I said, we don't do big parties every year, and this past year has been significantly stressful, exhausting and draining both physically and emotionally for all of us but especially for the birthday girls herself, Chloe. And it should not be overlooked that this has directly effected her twin brother as well, as they are especially close. So while staying within what I see as rational bounds for a child's birthday party, we have tried to really do it right and let the kids express their dreams. Important distinction here, what qualifies as a self described dream party for a 5 year old is probably MUCH less than we would come up with as our version of a dream party. They request things like a fruit platter, juice boxes, cake and friends. Really, the basics. For some reason they especially love to help with planning the goodie bags, though, and they had some really good ideas! I don't want to spoil the surprise for any readers who may be attending, so I'll cover those in my next post. But I will say that it is very touching to me when my little ones say that they want extra special goodie bags for their friends, and I don't think they even realized that the friends would be bringing gifts until we talked about good manners and thank you notes. For them, it is about the heart, not the hype, and that is how it should be.
As for the extras that we let them add, the light sabers and fairy wings, the kids envisioned Jedi battles and frolicking fairies in the grassy hill at their favorite orchard. Total cost of the light sabers? $0.50 each. Total cost of the fairy wings? $1.60 a pair, plus 20 minutes of my time. Given the rough year and the infrequency of the big parties, a small price to pay. Plus I really enjoyed it, and it is bringing my kids genuine joy without nauseating excess and poor example.
It has been enough fun for all of us, in fact, that there will be tutorials to follow. Maybe they can help someone out there throw a fun and inexpensive party for their kids that everyone can enjoy since really, that is what it should be all about.
No comments:
Post a Comment