The Non-Birthday Party Blowout Family

My daughter just turned 5. We have somehow managed not to have a birthday party for her, yet. Well yes, of course we celebrate her birthday. Each and every one. Small family get-togethers, mostly. When she turned 3 we did the whole “First Trip to Disney” thing. When I say birthday party, I’m talking a real, bouncy house, petting zoo, Pinterest out the behind, $1,000+ birthday party. My husband and I are social, love having fun, and do tons of planned activities with our kids. I’m not exactly sure why we have not done the blow-out birthday party thing just yet. But, you know what? I’m okay with it. 

Without having an actual blow-out birthday party, there is still a lot that goes into a kid’s birthday to make them feel special. 

The presents.

Let’s face it, if a kid is 5 or under, they don’t really know what they want for their birthday, in my opinion. Every day leading up to the actual birthday I would ask my daughter what she wants, and every day it would change. The day after Christmas she informed me that she wanted an American Girl Doll for her birthday. There has been no mention of this from that day on. Believe me, I was asking often to see if it came up. What did she want instead? A remote control car that her (male) cousin got for Christmas. This $24.99 Amazon Prime light up remote control car was at my door in two days. She was THRILLED! My husband thought it was the strangest choice when I told him, but agreed after she opened it, the car was the right choice. Between grandparents, aunts and uncles, even a small birthday get-together will spoil any child rotten. Almost too many gifts!

The morning of.

When a birthday falls on a school day or a weekend there are a lot more options than when it falls in the middle of spring break on a week day. Since she is 5, I wanted to make sure she felt special because she actually knew it was her birthday, and knew we weren’t having a big party. The morning of the big day we had a bouquet of “5” balloons that I had to sneak out to Party City to pick up the night before. I had a birthday table all set up with decorations and presents. At 5:30 am my wonderful husband had to get out of bed and get showered so he could head out to Dunkin Donuts to follow my very specific instructions to get the most colorful donuts they had. Of course my daughter chose the bright blue donut and looked like she ate a Smurf the rest of the morning. It was a successful morning. She also saw the cake that started out as a hot mess that I decided I was going to make for her this year instead of ordering from Publix. I was trying to save money and be resourceful, but when it’s all said and done, I think ordering a Publix cake would end up being more cost-time-effective. 

The birthday day.

Baby brother dropped off at a friend/cousin’s house, check! Now, it’s time for us girls to do what girls do. Get our nails done. I even let her get blue nail polish since it was her birthday. On the few occasions she has been to the nail salon, I usually only let her get light pink. It was the birthday girl’s choice for lunch. Where does a 5-year-old want to go? McDonalds. What did she order? An Egg McMuffin. Hey girl, your birthday, your weird choice. When we got home from our girls morning out, she wanted to watch Netflix while I prepped for the family party. Hey mom, can I have a bubbly water, she yells from the couch? Yes dear, it’s your birthday. That night grandma, aunts, uncles and cousins came over for a ravioli buffet. She wanted that or to take everyone to the place where they cook in front of you (Saito’s). Since she’s only turning 5, and it’s a Tuesday night, 5 minute boil and ready ravioli it is! After dinner, she opened presents. No matter how much I told everyone to keep it simple, it still amounted to a lot. So much that the dads were seen surfing Facebook on their iPhones, and the other kids were running around during the gift giving.

All in all, our simple family birthday was more than she ever even wanted. Was there any mention of her not having a party after this fun day? No. As a mom who is a people pleaser, and always wants things to be festive, cute and fun, I think another year of the non-birthday party party was a great decision. Next year, she will be in kindergarten and I think it will finally be time to bite the bullet and throw a big party. I will let you know next March if that really happens.