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Just because you can, doesn’t mean you have to.

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Sunday morning, post-sleepover party.  It was sunny, I flung open the doors,  I vacuumed and lit lovely smelling candles, the bebe was sleeping and the 10th birthday party was over {for me at least, Dave was on duty with 5 boys at the hot pools – where’s that laughing-so-hard-i’m-crying emoticon?}.  How jaded do I sound?  Very, I know.  Here’s the deal, we have gone big on birthday parties for so many years, and I can definitely pull them off.  Remember Big Foot hunting in the forest when Dave hired a costume and was actually Big Foot?  Yes, I think our work here is done.

So, I’ve got a few tricks up my sleeve, a few skills you know; I can take some pretty snaps, sometimes people pay me to do this.  I can produce large and small scale graphics and run Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop with my eyes closed, sometimes people pay me to do this too.  One thing I can definately do is make awesome birthday invitations and get all crafty with party stuff.  But this year I didn’t.  No mummy-guilt here, just knocked out a Minecraft invite 5 days before the party {oops} in literally, 6 minutes.  Ethan was pretty much in raptures.  Check.

I have made my blessed first born an awesome cake every year for every party.  He wanted a cheesecake this year which was no problem as I can knock one of those up in a flash  {Cheesecake Recipe here}.  Totally purchased all the ingredients and didn’t have time to make it.  No mummy-guilt here, Dave ran up to The Cheesecake Shop and got them to write “Happy 10th Birthday Ethan” on his store bought cake – in really crappy looking writing – and it was just the best thing ever!  “Look at this”,  E exclaimed to his friends, “my DAD got this custom made!”  “you don’t just buy them like that, DAD hooked it up”.  Yes, DAD totally “hooked it up”.  Obviously I hadn’t been hooking it up enough for the past 9 years to deserve that enthusiastic reaction to cake, but whatevs, there was cake!  Check.

Afternoon tea – Ethan planned the menu; cocktail sausages, grapes, frozen savouries, chips and soda.  Healthy?  No way.  Easy, yes!  24 hours of party food won’t kill anyone and will also help this mummy not kill anyone – everybody wins!

Dinner – Pizza Hut $5 takeout pizzas – still winning!

Breakfast – Pancakes, cheers Dad.  Our amaze Pancake Recipe here

So, to summarize, this is NOT my idea of an epic birthday party.  No perfectly planned menu, no crafts and decor, no Pinterest worthy pics, in fact no pics at all aside from this gem  – can’t see the cake or the birthday boy, the lighting is shit, image quality worse than shit and I have 7 chins!  

Birthday Party - New Zealand Mummy Blog 

But for all of its failings in the ‘Perfect Party’ department, Ethan had an amazing weekend with his friends and enjoyed the unstructured, un-fancy-no photo-opp nature of his celebration and it was a good lesson for me; my expectations can be lowered without the world falling off its axis!

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Comments

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  1. Nov 24, 2014 2:20 pm

    Big thumbs up! You ticked all the boxes, but most of all – the kids had fun! 🙂

  2. Nov 24, 2014 2:43 pm

    That is an awesome photo. As much as I love party planning too, I am also enjoying seeing how children's wishes for how they want to celebrate evolve and how the party becomes less about a theme and more about just wanting to be with friends. Ultimately, watching a happy child celebrating their special day with friends and family is what it is all about and what memories are made of, not the frills (but I am still glad I have children young enough to still want themed parties and indulge my love of making it happen!).

  3. Nov 24, 2014 2:44 pm

    Oh, and happy birthday E!

  4. Nov 24, 2014 5:53 pm

    Love this post!

  5. Nov 24, 2014 7:30 pm

    I love this. I reckon if the birthday boy (or girl) is happy, then that what makes it a success, right? Good on you. xx

  6. Nov 25, 2014 12:23 pm

    Happy Birthday Ethan! As long as the kids have fun and the parents are happy, what else matters? Things happen, sometimes we can, sometimes we cant – yay for a great day 🙂

  7. Nov 25, 2014 12:41 pm

    The title of this post is so true. We put ourselves under so many expectations for creating this amazing, flawless event when really our kids could care less and what they enjoy is not the effort we put into a pristine party. Easy to be guilty of this in the days of social media. Love your honesty and looks like E had a fab day and that's all that really matters!

  8. Nov 25, 2014 1:37 pm

    Love this! My last party for my boy was like this too and he loved it. Was a good lesson for me too that my expectations can also be lowered and I will survive. And even be a little more relaxed!

  9. Nov 25, 2014 8:19 pm

    This sounds like an amazing party! Also, holy mackerel, Big Foot hunting? COOL!