Do any of you mamas have children that are very opinionated and involved when it comes to their birthday party themes and decor? Just me? OK!
My number one creative outlets are my kids and everything that I can bring magic to that involves them. Holidays are probably one of the biggest sources of Magic, messes and memories in a child's life; however birthdays are so personal it is where I like to really shine! When you are creating magic for a holiday you have to think about all the age ranges, and sometimes what they will tell their little buddies at school but when you are decorating for a birthday that is just focused on that kid at that specific time in their life and instead of lasting family traditions they can be as unique as your child every single time.
This year my youngest boy was turning five. I always let them choose their party themes as soon as they are old enough to do so. This year my little four year old nugget was starting Kindergarten, ( an exciting time for anyone) and his birthday being in August means he only has a few weeks of school before his big day. So we start talking about the theme of his party around two or three months prior to the actual date. I like to be on the lookout for deals on Facebook Marketplace, thrifting or just neighborhood sale pages so it helps to know what kinds of things I'm searching for. I also love to DIY anything and everything I can which takes time. I was fully expecting him to give me a pretty common theme like Power Rangers or Transformers since he seems to be pretty into both of those things right now but I was very surprised when I asked him if he thought about what kind of party he wanted and was told "a brain party". I'm sure the look of bewilderment overcame my face as he then elaborated and explained that it would be a brain party with bright ideas not zombies. You see he had learned to read over summer and his dad and I were constantly letting him know how cool that was and how proud we were. He wanted to have a party celebrating being smart. I know I labeled his party as a "smarty party" but he didn't actually agree or appreciate that term because he explained when you call someone a smarty its rude, and he wasn't about to have a rude birthday! Over the next few weeks I questioned him about his theme of choice and he never waivered that this was the party he wanted to have.
So I began building a Pinterest board of all the ideas I could think of. There were plenty of cute links to Mad Scientist parties, but I was informed that "a little science was ok but he didn't want a party of just science" So I mixed some ideas of science party, back to school, and bookworm/library parties. As the planning started to rev up his ideas got a bit more specific especially the cake. The cake went from a simple brain; easy enough because I have a brain mold, then to a "bright idea" cake, then brain cupcakes, then a book, then an interesting idea of a magnifying glass connected to a bright idea bulb and something in between. Because his cake ideas kept flip flopping in the end I decided I would just have to come up with something on my own!
I had to run my ideas past him, sometimes I would think he would really love something but upon telling him about it the idea may just be shotdown. I informed him that most kids just show up to their parties they don't really do a lot of the planning. When I waivered on my ability to perform some of the tasks I was met with the resounding confidence of my soon to be five year old that "you can do it" or "I believe in you mom" so when you have that type of love cheering you on you kind of figure out a way to make these ideas come to life. I was more than happy to try most of them. I do have a little one less than a year running around which can make crafting a bit difficult.
Overall I think it was a success of a party, even though my lightbulb that was supposed to be standing up out of the cake like the bright idea that it is was too heavy and ended up falling down!
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