Recently our son turned 5, and this is the first year that we didn't do a BIG Birthday Party. He actually said that he didn't want a BIG Party this year , but we wasn't planning on having him a big party anyway. Here are the reasons why...
Big parties are super expensive! We are always out a lot of money on parties every year. We spend so much money trying to match a theme that he has picked out that year. The decor and everything has to be perfect and that's just so much work. Not to mention renting the venue for the party and the food. The venue and food are the most expensive parts of having a party. Like I said, a big party is a lot of work. Who am I trying to impress with a BIG Party, my son or everyone else?
I have also noticed that as Raylan got older, less and less people started attending his parties. People just don't attend parties and functions like they used to. I understand that we live in busy times and nobody seems to have time for anything these days. But it is hurtful to see your child disappointed that there are hardly no kids at his party. In fact one year, more adults showed up than kids and Raylan was so disappointed that he didn't have many kids to play with at his party. Even though we live in busy times, we need to make time to take our children to things especially parties when they are invited.
So when not many show up, you are out that much on venues, decor and food and most of the food just goes to waste. So here is what we started doing this year...
Since Raylan actually decided he didn't want a big party, we let him pick out one large gift instead. He chose the Thomas the Train TrackMaster Super Station and it was the perfect gift. He loves Thomas the Train.
We also took him to Gatti's for Pizza, to see Marshall and Chase from Paw Patrol (they were at Gatti's) and to play all of the fun games. He especially loved the Bumper Cars. They were his absolute favorite. We did this a few weeks before his birthday.
On his actual birthday, we had him a small cake at my dads house and ordered pizza. School was cancelled that day because so many kids were out with the flu. He said he wished that he wouldn't have school on his birthday and his wish came true. It was a cold rainy day, so we ordered in and had cake, cookies and pizza. Winter Birthday's are very hard. We always have bad weather on his February 20th Birthday.
When school was finally back in session, he was surprised when he got to school and saw the large Yard Card Happy 5th Birthday Raylan sign. He was super excited about that!
I also took his favorite sugar cookies, cheese puffs and birthday party hats to school and he had a little party with all of his classmates.
Finally, we had cupcakes and cookies at my mother-in-law and father-in-laws house this past weekend. My dad and father-in-law are both in bad health and aren't able to walk, so it was easier to do two small family get together parties so they wouldn't have to miss out. Raylan's cousins got to attend and they all had a blast.
By doing all of this, it was still so much cheaper than having an actual BIG party. I loved the memories that we got to make with Raylan and seeing the excitement on his face when he went to Gatti's and when we went to pick up his Train Track.
I would rather spend the money making memories with Raylan and taking him somewhere fun than on an actual BIG Birthday Party. *I am in no way, shape or form knocking anyone who chooses to have a BIG Birthday Party. This was our decision and Raylan's to not not have a BIG party and the reasons listed above are why we support out decision. If Raylan ever decides he wants a BIG party again, we will try our best to make that happpen, but for now we are choosing not to do BIG parties. It's so much cheaper and much less stressful this way.You don't have to spend a fortune for them to have a good birthday. You can do several small things to make their big day special. Even Raylan said he enjoyed this years birthday better than the others. I loved making all of these fun memories with him. Here are some snapshots of his 5th Birthday.
I think as my daughter gets older (she's turning 7 next month) we are going to go the no party route too. Maybe have her take a friend or two for an activity or something. I agree parties are nuts now!
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