Tag Archives: kids birthday parties

Dish Network

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It’s not only toddlers who need a security blanket sometimes.

I was at a 5-year-old’s birthday party last weekend, and found myself feeling a bit socially awkward. Looking for something to do, I spotted a cabinet filled with retro games; I decided to play one with MJ until my shyness abated. This is the kind of thing we non-drinkers have to resort to. I know, it’s very unwieldy. But cheaper than a fifth of scotch.

Anyway. The game we played was pick up sticks–something I haven’t done, probably, since I was five. I eventually relaxed and went on to mingle with kids my own age. But I’d had so much fun playing that I decided to re-create the experience at home. For Mike. Using silverware and dishes.

I think I succeeded beautifully.

He is such a sore loser.

Cheese grater, anyone?

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Along Party Lines

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Note to self: tres leches cake? Not a good choice for a three-year old birthday party. The kids will pick at it, lick one piece tentatively, and walk away disconsolately. You will feel like a selfish beast for choosing a confection that the adults find delectable, but the children think is repugnant.

Other that that? I’d have to say that MJ’s do was a great success. Thank God for friends who are crafty, kind and willing to show up indecently early on a Sunday morning to help set up. Thank God for their husbands, who have even less reason than they do to be so generous. Thank God for weather forecasts that don’t come true. Thank God for public parks. Because kid’s birthday parties? Expensive. Even if you do nothing but serve homemade food, have a grocery store cake the kids hate, and offer a silly craft from Michael’s. Thank God for ebay, where you can buy new/old Beanie Babies, (which — musty or not —  turned out to be the best idea ever for a party favor), insanely cheaply. Thank God for my mom, without whose extra helping hands Mike and I might’ve ended up in divorce court before the weekend was out. Just kidding, honey. Kind of…

And thank God for the day after the birthday party. Thank God for sleeping ’til 8, keeping your kid home from school, going to the Audubon Center with your mom and daughter to listen to the hawks, and feeling 100% satisfied with the celebration that is now, blissfully, receding in the rear view mirror of your life.