Thursday, May 26, 2005

Who's birthday is it anyway?

I'm planning my daughter's 1 year birthday party and it is quickly escalating to a debutante ball-like occasion.

Originally there were to be a few friends and family. People Isabella has seen at least twice in her 12 months of life. Now it has grown to include people that I have maybe met twice in MY lifetime. How do I reign it in?

For example, our neighbor's husband was killed last week, he's a trucker, and we went to visit the wife and extend our condolences as well as a casserole (a first-time recipe casserole so she'll either hate us or love us for it). Upon leaving and among hugs of grievance, my husband spews "Isabella is 1 next month, you'll come to the party won't you?". There were far too many strange eyes in that room for me to shoot him The Look, so I just tried to send frantic ESP messages to his brain. No such luck. So that's at least 5 more people to the party (she has a child and a sister with two children living with her).

Now I'm having to practice a breathing technique similar to that I learned in childbirth class that never got put to use. How do I stop the madness? There's Hubby's friend who doesn't like children but has a new girlfriend we've never met and only till recently thought didn't exist. And an aunt who's one of the least nice people on earth but is hub's mom's sister.

So...who's birthday party is this for? I'm thinking it is not for my sweet one year old who just wants to dig into cake and feed it to Mommy after she's rubbed her snotty nose with it.

I guess birthday parties for babies are really for adults. So we can eat sugary treats, drink the best pink ice cream punch and open gifts for which Isabella could care less.

5 comments:

Michelle said...

I completely understand where you're coming from. Our first birthday party turned into the same huge event... almost.

I luckily got away with only inviting those people that would have been offended if I had not invited them. We still ended up with about twenty people there, and my child and Reid were the only kids... a lousy party if you count kids, but a really fun time for the rest of us. From what I hear from Amanda P, kid parties aren't really for the kid until they're about three. Then they want to be involved in planning.

Don't stress about the little things. The only thing everyone wants to do is come see Isabella dig into cake and hug her little face. Don't be upset if she only opens one present and doesn't want to look at any other ones... or if you have to open them all. And don't forget to just HAVE FUN! She's YOUR daughter, and it's just as much your party as hers! :)

chirky said...

when my nephew had his 1 yr party, it was complete with rented bouncy house for the kids, a grill out, and tons of gifts brought by well-wishers. approximately 50 well-wishers.

90% of which were adults.

therefore, i agree with you.

Amanda said...

sheesh! what is the theme??? is it formal or business-casual?

daniel and i are planning on coming...maybe we will bring some random friends.

Jennboree said...

Oh yes, please bring more people so Isabella can cling to her Daddy and I for dear life even MORE than she's already going to .


yipee...

Theme?..uh...

Amanda said...

lol....

what weekend is it anyway? sounds like you have your hands full. maybe we will come a different weekend, if that would be easier for you. we are having a small party for her here too, aren't we?