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Sep. 27th, 2004 12:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
naomikritzerMolly's birthday party was today, and it went really well.
She invited five friends: all RSVP'ed and all came. My parents and sister came over to help out, so I felt comfortable letting the other parents just drop their kids off, if they wanted to, rather than insisting that they stick around. (The norms on this are evolving. When I was a kid, as far back as I can remember, parents just dropped their kids off for birthday parties and left. In fact, at my fifth birthday, one of my friends was unable to stay because he threw a hysterical fit when his father tried to leave. These days, parents will often stick around.)
We started off with a craft: I'd taken Molly to this very cool store over in St. Paul called ArtScraps, last week. This is a store that sells stuff that would've otherwise ended up in a landfill. They had straw hats for 75 cents each, so we bought a supply of hats and then a bunch of interesting things to glue to the hats. That activity was a hit, though I'm not sure how well the hats will hold up over time (what we really need, as a society, is double-sided duct tape, I think). Then we played Live-Action Candyland. Remember Candyland? As a kid, I used to fantasize about a game of live-action Candyland with real candy, and what's parenthood for if not realizing our own childhood fantasies? Molly loves Candyland, so I figured this would be a hit. I made a Candyland path out of fabric squares bought during the bag sale portion of a local rummage sale, last week. We bought candy at a local convenience store, substituting the red-and-white mints for candy canes (just TRY to find candy canes in September -- you'll have better luck buying rhubarb in January) and honey-roasted peanuts for peanut brittle. (Kids typically get a handful of candy in their goody bag, and I don't think I gave them more than the standard amount. Plus everyone got to take home a piece of fruit in their goody bag, and I bet everyone eats it.)
I laid out the board in the back yard. They played the game, but I wasn't honestly sure whether the kids were enjoying it. After cake and ice cream, and the present-opening, though, they all went back to the back yard and played another round of Candyland. Ed noted that they'd have to play it without candy this time, and they were fine with that. I noticed that as they passed the basket we'd used for one of the kinds of candy, they were all reaching in. My first thought was that they were checking just in case there was still candy in there, but then I realized that they were just pretending there was candy. Little kids are so neat.
They all seemed to have a really good time. We sent them home wired to heck on sugar, which I think is pretty much par for the course for a birthday party. Ed and I picked up, ate some cake ourselves, and then went for a walk with the girls, as it was absolutely gorgeous this afternoon.
She invited five friends: all RSVP'ed and all came. My parents and sister came over to help out, so I felt comfortable letting the other parents just drop their kids off, if they wanted to, rather than insisting that they stick around. (The norms on this are evolving. When I was a kid, as far back as I can remember, parents just dropped their kids off for birthday parties and left. In fact, at my fifth birthday, one of my friends was unable to stay because he threw a hysterical fit when his father tried to leave. These days, parents will often stick around.)
We started off with a craft: I'd taken Molly to this very cool store over in St. Paul called ArtScraps, last week. This is a store that sells stuff that would've otherwise ended up in a landfill. They had straw hats for 75 cents each, so we bought a supply of hats and then a bunch of interesting things to glue to the hats. That activity was a hit, though I'm not sure how well the hats will hold up over time (what we really need, as a society, is double-sided duct tape, I think). Then we played Live-Action Candyland. Remember Candyland? As a kid, I used to fantasize about a game of live-action Candyland with real candy, and what's parenthood for if not realizing our own childhood fantasies? Molly loves Candyland, so I figured this would be a hit. I made a Candyland path out of fabric squares bought during the bag sale portion of a local rummage sale, last week. We bought candy at a local convenience store, substituting the red-and-white mints for candy canes (just TRY to find candy canes in September -- you'll have better luck buying rhubarb in January) and honey-roasted peanuts for peanut brittle. (Kids typically get a handful of candy in their goody bag, and I don't think I gave them more than the standard amount. Plus everyone got to take home a piece of fruit in their goody bag, and I bet everyone eats it.)
I laid out the board in the back yard. They played the game, but I wasn't honestly sure whether the kids were enjoying it. After cake and ice cream, and the present-opening, though, they all went back to the back yard and played another round of Candyland. Ed noted that they'd have to play it without candy this time, and they were fine with that. I noticed that as they passed the basket we'd used for one of the kinds of candy, they were all reaching in. My first thought was that they were checking just in case there was still candy in there, but then I realized that they were just pretending there was candy. Little kids are so neat.
They all seemed to have a really good time. We sent them home wired to heck on sugar, which I think is pretty much par for the course for a birthday party. Ed and I picked up, ate some cake ourselves, and then went for a walk with the girls, as it was absolutely gorgeous this afternoon.
