I am officially a horrible procrastinator. Well, truth be told, it's been official for many years... but this just about puts the nail in the coffin.
Melinda's birthday is next week. 8 days from this post. And I still haven't gotten around to figuring out when to do her party. Since most of her friends have school or preschool now, I wanted to avoid scheduling problems. Which left Saturdays as the easiest option. But with Halloween coming up, and a church Halloween party the week before, I also didn't want to over schedule people's weekends. Also, Melinda's good friends Anna and Leah, in Pennsylvania, would not be able to come on a Saturday. So I hemmed and hawed about it a little too long, until it hit me - no matter what I picked for the party's date, it would be much too late to really plan anything and give people enough notice for attending.
So there it is. Because I cannot get on the ball, and because I can't make simple decisions, my daughter won't be having a birthday party for her 5th birthday. Ugh, I feel pretty horrible about this, and I really have no excuse.
So, this is our plan, to try to make up for it: We'll have a family dinner, at a place of her choice. And of course, we'll still have cake and ice cream. We'll also have a family outing to "the bouncy place" down the road, which she's been begging to go to for months now. And, since she really did want a party so she could have fun with friends and balloons and decorations and everything, we'll also plan a "holiday" party for sometime in November or December that we can invite her friends to. Then we can do either fall-themed or holiday-themed decorations/treats/games/etc., and I'll have more time to plan and make a proper party.
And hopefully I won't procrastinate on the planning for this one.
Hopefully.
Melinda is generous with her ability to be placated in situations like this, and is actually excited for the change of plans. I am forgiven. Now if only I could somehow get myself more on the ball for these kinds of things!!
4 comments:
You're right. You're a terrible mother.
Gee, what are you thinking, not having these things planned months in advance?! ;)
Wolf has a summer birthday, and the last four years in a row has just wanted an afternoon at the park with friends. I bring a cake, and the kids play for a while then eat cake. SO easy (good thing, since one year I was REALLY morning sick at the time!)
I think 1 week is enough time to pull it together--just call the other parents rather than trying to mail invites. I'm full of ideas for birthday party games--my mom threw the COOLEST parties! We usually had themes like princesses or dinosaurs...we would adapt all the games to fit the theme, but seriously we always played all the same games. LOL! We got parties with friends on alternate years, and could invite as many people as we were years old.
Gee, I'm gonna have to go write a post about kids birthday parties. LOL!
I agree with brightonwoman...don't need friend birthday party every year. Too expensive and soon the kids begin to expect more and more. Sending a b-day card out today. love ya
I'll be honest and say that by throwing a decent birthday party, I feel like I'm both "keeping up with the Jones'", and making up for all the many times I feel very sub-par by my own standards. It's not just Melinda I disappointed by procrastinating.
Jesse's family also had the tradition of friend parties every other year. I'm completely supportive of that idea. The only downside is having no nearby relatives to celebrate on the off days - then it just ends up feeling like any other evening with the family, only with cake and a couple presents. The family parties just need a little more oomph.
I probably *could* throw together a satisfying playdate of a birthday party in a week, but I would first have to get over my extreme aversion to making phone calls, and then have to settle for being less organized than I'd like. And get over my pride, not that it would be a bad thing to do anyway.
Still, I'm reasonably happy with our alternative plan. I've always tossed around the idea of a holiday party for the kids, anyway, and this way we can throw a party without people feeling obligated to buy birthday gifts.
I didn't realize that our daughters' birthdays are so close together. Princess will be turning 5 on Oct 30.
And you know what?! I don't have any plans to throw her a party at all!! She doesn't even know that she's allowed to do that at some point in her life! I think we might get around to doing something next year with friends. Mainly, we invite a few family members over, and have a decorated cake and room decorations and way too many gifts, and she seems happy with that.
I'm thinking we'll probably let her stay up a little bit later and watch a movie with her and have a sleepover with Daddy in the basement (which she calls 'camping out').
So, in my eyes, you're the Mother of The Century!! ;-D
Good luck with all the plans. :-)
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