My daughter's birthday is coming up in a few months and that means it's party planning time. It's weird because I actually hate parties and on the day I will be so stressed and overwhelmed by the end of it but planning it is an obsession I have.
This year we were not supposed to have a party, instead she wanted to go to London on a shopping spree, so I worked out the cost of train tickets, having a meal somewhere (they have a place with animatronic animals that she wants to go to) as well as shopping at hamleys...you know everything costs alot more there then any other toy shop...and they have a monster high section
, so yeah it was going to be pricey. Then thinking about it more we have the problem of walking, she hates to walk, she will happily run around playing tag, dancing or whatever for hours on end, ask her to walk and within 5 minutes she will be saying she's tired, can she have a piggyback etc. So I figured London was going to be a bad idea, whilst she's this age anyway, maybe in a couple of years, so then I suggested a party and she was really pleased, turns out she'd been worrying about the same thing (the walking) and was worried about telling us she didn't want to go anymore.
So I was of course very pleased because I love party planning:cloud9:, if I could actually stand people I would probably be an awesome party planner but fact is I don't get on well with others so only Kyoko gets my obsessive party planning. For the past few days I have been researching and getting quotes and putting it all together to make a list of what types of party we could have, I quite liked the idea of laser tag in the play centre because it's local and I don't have to liase with someone to hire a venue. My husband however wanted me to find something a bit different, so I gave him the go karting party option, he hated it, said it was too pricey(it wasn't) and a terrible location(I agree). So then I found 2 animal places (we've had a reptile party before, that's when he became obsessed with getting a snake) one has a conservation programme and all the money you pay them for the party goes towards saving rainforests/animals, I loved that idea. The animals were pretty basic but they set up fake trees etc to turn your venue into a forest which sounded cool...then I got the quote...NEXT!
My husband almost wet himself with excitement when I told him about the next one I found, another animal experience but the guy has chimps as well as other exotic animals (he hires them out to TV/films) and animatronics, that was it he was set on that one, still waiting for the quote but I did say to him it will probably be an insane price. Every type of party I suggested from then on (that I got quotes from) were totally blown off by him, spy party; their venue is setup like a submarine and you have to get through ventilation shafts, bypass laser lines, hack codes etc...sounded awesome:nerd:, got a big NO I want the chimps. Bowling party..No, boring, I want chimps, Rollerskating..no, Cinema party..boring, Farm..no, various playcentres with varying awesome parties..all got a no because he wants these damn chimps. I did remind him that it was not his party, he seemed to think Kyoko would be set on the chimps too, so I said when she got home we'd ask her which she wanted to do. So I read them all out (the ones quoted for) and he added "don't forget about the chimps" he then told her all about them she thought it sounded awesome but then she said she really really wanted a monster disco which suited me perfectly because it was one of the cheapest/easiest. I thought my husband was going to have a tantrum :bouncethat's a joke) seriously though this was 2 days ago and he still keeps asking if the chimp man has got back to me, even though Kyoko has picked a monster disco and I have called the company to ask about dates etc. Kyoko did make me laugh she whispered to me after he asked yet again if the chimp man had replied "Maybe we should get daddy the chimps for his birthday so he stops moaning about it"
Then comes my favourite part - the details; tableware, decorations, designing invites, personalised bits etc, soooo many ideas. So far we have decided on the monster disco which includes party games/prizes, 2 smoke machines, UV/FX laser lights,glow stuff (sticks, bracelets, glasses)monster high tableware. I've already snagged 2 bargains for the party bags, a 20 pack of girls rings for 99p and 30 bouncy balls for ?2. I'm going to make them all a monster high themed cookie, get some empty picture keyrings and make each kid a personalised keyring with either monster high or moshi monsters, some sweets and of course a slice of birthday cake and bag is filled(I might handmake something else too, so many ideas). I've already made a start on the invite/thank you note design, party shops charge like ?2.50 for a pack of 8 when I can print my own for a fraction of that cost.
The food I'm still stuck on, I'm torn between having the usual plates and bringing out serving platters but then I have to make lots of sandwhiches, veggie sticks etc and the kids always grab waaaay too much. Other idea was food boxes so pre-fill them with 2 sandwhiches, some crisps, vegetables, fruit, a cookie ad maybe a cupcake but then we will inevitably get the "I don't like X or Y or Z can I have something else". My husband wants to just get macdonalds for them all, he's always had this wish to pull up to a drive thru and order a crazy amount of happy meals. Can you imagine that?
"Can I take your order please?"
"Yeah I'll have 24 happy meals; 8 burgers with..."
"Wait what!? 24!?"
"That's right; 8 burgers with fries and coke, 7 nuggets with fries and strawberry milkshake, 2 fish fingers carrot sticks and OJ, 4 burgers carrot sticks and milk, 3 nuggets fries and chocolate milkshake, 24 mcflurrys; 6 smarties......."
"Oh and can you make sure the free toys are all the same, don't want any arguing, thank you"
"oooookay uhm anything else sir?"
"yeah I may as well get some coffee too, I have a token for that by the way":rofl:
He really wants to do it but macdonalds for 20ish kids who are then going to dance afterwards...uhm bad idea, plus getting the timing right will be hard (not to mention the cost!), it would be funny though.
So anyway this is my obsession for the next few months, I will of course panic 2 weeks before the party that something will go wrong, I will have dozens of meltdowns along the way over cookies(I will be doing lots of trial runs), birthday cake (again trial and error runs), things taking forever to arrive (OMG those bouncy balls still aren't here and the party is in 21 days, what if they don't come...). Then on the day I will be a complete wreck and swear I'm never doing it again but I'm lying to myself I LOVE planning all of this and will probably do it every year.
Oh and to top it all off my husband has told her she can have 2 friends sleepover after the party...AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHH NOOOOOO! I hate other people's kids, having them come play I can just about deal with but sleeping over..total nightmare, at least they will be worn out from the disco!
This year we were not supposed to have a party, instead she wanted to go to London on a shopping spree, so I worked out the cost of train tickets, having a meal somewhere (they have a place with animatronic animals that she wants to go to) as well as shopping at hamleys...you know everything costs alot more there then any other toy shop...and they have a monster high section
, so yeah it was going to be pricey. Then thinking about it more we have the problem of walking, she hates to walk, she will happily run around playing tag, dancing or whatever for hours on end, ask her to walk and within 5 minutes she will be saying she's tired, can she have a piggyback etc. So I figured London was going to be a bad idea, whilst she's this age anyway, maybe in a couple of years, so then I suggested a party and she was really pleased, turns out she'd been worrying about the same thing (the walking) and was worried about telling us she didn't want to go anymore.So I was of course very pleased because I love party planning:cloud9:, if I could actually stand people I would probably be an awesome party planner but fact is I don't get on well with others so only Kyoko gets my obsessive party planning. For the past few days I have been researching and getting quotes and putting it all together to make a list of what types of party we could have, I quite liked the idea of laser tag in the play centre because it's local and I don't have to liase with someone to hire a venue. My husband however wanted me to find something a bit different, so I gave him the go karting party option, he hated it, said it was too pricey(it wasn't) and a terrible location(I agree). So then I found 2 animal places (we've had a reptile party before, that's when he became obsessed with getting a snake) one has a conservation programme and all the money you pay them for the party goes towards saving rainforests/animals, I loved that idea. The animals were pretty basic but they set up fake trees etc to turn your venue into a forest which sounded cool...then I got the quote
...NEXT! My husband almost wet himself with excitement when I told him about the next one I found, another animal experience but the guy has chimps as well as other exotic animals (he hires them out to TV/films) and animatronics, that was it he was set on that one, still waiting for the quote but I did say to him it will probably be an insane price. Every type of party I suggested from then on (that I got quotes from) were totally blown off by him, spy party; their venue is setup like a submarine and you have to get through ventilation shafts, bypass laser lines, hack codes etc...sounded awesome:nerd:, got a big NO I want the chimps. Bowling party..No, boring, I want chimps, Rollerskating..no, Cinema party..boring, Farm..no, various playcentres with varying awesome parties..all got a no because he wants these damn chimps. I did remind him that it was not his party, he seemed to think Kyoko would be set on the chimps too, so I said when she got home we'd ask her which she wanted to do. So I read them all out (the ones quoted for) and he added "don't forget about the chimps" he then told her all about them she thought it sounded awesome but then she said she really really wanted a monster disco which suited me perfectly because it was one of the cheapest/easiest. I thought my husband was going to have a tantrum :bounce
that's a joke) seriously though this was 2 days ago and he still keeps asking if the chimp man has got back to me, even though Kyoko has picked a monster disco and I have called the company to ask about dates etc. Kyoko did make me laugh she whispered to me after he asked yet again if the chimp man had replied "Maybe we should get daddy the chimps for his birthday so he stops moaning about it"Then comes my favourite part - the details; tableware, decorations, designing invites, personalised bits etc, soooo many ideas. So far we have decided on the monster disco which includes party games/prizes, 2 smoke machines, UV/FX laser lights,glow stuff (sticks, bracelets, glasses)monster high tableware. I've already snagged 2 bargains for the party bags, a 20 pack of girls rings for 99p and 30 bouncy balls for ?2. I'm going to make them all a monster high themed cookie, get some empty picture keyrings and make each kid a personalised keyring with either monster high or moshi monsters, some sweets and of course a slice of birthday cake and bag is filled(I might handmake something else too, so many ideas). I've already made a start on the invite/thank you note design, party shops charge like ?2.50 for a pack of 8 when I can print my own for a fraction of that cost.
The food I'm still stuck on, I'm torn between having the usual plates and bringing out serving platters but then I have to make lots of sandwhiches, veggie sticks etc and the kids always grab waaaay too much. Other idea was food boxes so pre-fill them with 2 sandwhiches, some crisps, vegetables, fruit, a cookie ad maybe a cupcake but then we will inevitably get the "I don't like X or Y or Z can I have something else". My husband wants to just get macdonalds for them all, he's always had this wish to pull up to a drive thru and order a crazy amount of happy meals. Can you imagine that?
"Can I take your order please?"
"Yeah I'll have 24 happy meals; 8 burgers with..."
"Wait what!? 24!?"
"That's right; 8 burgers with fries and coke, 7 nuggets with fries and strawberry milkshake, 2 fish fingers carrot sticks and OJ, 4 burgers carrot sticks and milk, 3 nuggets fries and chocolate milkshake, 24 mcflurrys; 6 smarties......."
"Oh and can you make sure the free toys are all the same, don't want any arguing, thank you"
"oooookay uhm anything else sir?"
"yeah I may as well get some coffee too, I have a token for that by the way":rofl:
He really wants to do it but macdonalds for 20ish kids who are then going to dance afterwards...uhm bad idea, plus getting the timing right will be hard (not to mention the cost!), it would be funny though.
So anyway this is my obsession for the next few months, I will of course panic 2 weeks before the party that something will go wrong, I will have dozens of meltdowns along the way over cookies(I will be doing lots of trial runs), birthday cake (again trial and error runs), things taking forever to arrive (OMG those bouncy balls still aren't here and the party is in 21 days, what if they don't come...). Then on the day I will be a complete wreck and swear I'm never doing it again but I'm lying to myself I LOVE planning all of this and will probably do it every year.
Oh and to top it all off my husband has told her she can have 2 friends sleepover after the party...AAAARRRRGGGHHHHHHH NOOOOOO! I hate other people's kids, having them come play I can just about deal with but sleeping over..total nightmare, at least they will be worn out from the disco!
