Party Planning

The past year has FLOWN by.  It’s hard for me to believe that I need to be planning Munchkin’s first birthday party.  She turns one in three weeks.  THREE WEEKS! 

We don’t want to do anything huge for the party, just some friends and family to help us celebrate the amazingness that is Munchkin.  So we’re going to do a cookout.  Hamburgers, hot dogs and the sides that go with them.  Simple, easy and yummy.  I also wasn’t going to do any decorations.  Then I was thinking about it and figured that a few decorations couldn’t hurt.  I know I could make some but I don’t want to.  There, I said it.  I don’t want to make party decorations.  It doesn’t make me a bad mom, just one who knows that it’s not worth it to me to add to my stress level by making them. 

At first I was thinking I would do a Minnie Mouse theme.  Munchkin likes Minnie Mouse and how cute would that be?  So The Man & I checked out what the Dollar Tree had for decorations because I don’t want to spend a fortune for  decorations for a 4 hour party.  Sadly they did not have any Minnie Mouse decorations.  I guess it’s not surprising but I was a little disappointed.  They did have some super cute monkey decorations so we decided to go with a monkey/jungle theme.  We bought what we liked and decided to check out Walmart/Target/Party City to see what else we could find.

Party City had some really cute monkey decorations and we decided that we would get a few more things.  Then we decided to just see what else they had.  They had some super cute Minnie Mouse decorations and I was sad for a minute I had changed my mind.  Then I thought that there’s always next year and that cheered me up!  There was one more aisle and as we walked down it we came to the section that was for 1st birthdays.  It was cute and I was doing fine until we found the section that had Minnie Mouse first birthday decorations.  I just about lost it.  I just stood there and stared.  And stared some more.  They were so cute! The Man, after a bit, told me that I could change my mind if I wanted.  Can I just say how much I love that man?  The decorations we already had are non returnable (they just do exchanges) but he was willing for us to spend even more money for the decorations I really want.

I hemmed and I hawed.  The Man and Munchkin walked around the rest of the store while I just stood there and debated with myself.  I try really hard to not waste money and I felt that if I changed the theme I’d be wasting money.  I might have started crying because I was so stressed out (I blamed it on hormones.  They do go back to normal eventually, right?!?!?)   Once The Man assured me for the 6th time that it really was ok to change my mind, I did.  So Munchkin is having a Minnie Mouse birthday party after all.  She’ll also have more decorations that I had originally planned but it’s ok.  She’s worth it!

What do you think about 1st birthday parties? 

Should they be all out, laid back, or not celebrated?