Adventures in Parenting: the no-name birthday party
Categories: Just for moms, Places to go, Holidays, That's entertainment
7 stores. 5 hours. 2 meltdowns. 1 crawling expedition on horrifically dirty Party City linoleum. Results? Not much.I was brought up in New Jersey, where things are done in a very particular and traditional way. Children's birthday parties have themes. The first thing my mother asked when I called her to discuss Binx's first birthday barbecue was "What's his theme?" The question was asked with a serious formality. It was a test for the new mom. Did I pick a good theme? One that is cute, and fun, and lends itself to showing off my creative decorating prowess?
I answered "on the move." That was Binx's theme, according to our hurried evite of the week before. It seemed apropos, with all the crawling he'd been doing. I pictured cupcakes with little red wagon cake toppers and plates and cups with little red tricycles. It would be a multimodal happy baby extravaganza.
Boy did I learn a lesson.
Turns out, if you're not interested in a Dora-Elmo-DisneyPrincess-Scooby Doo-Hello Kitty-Hot Wheels-Bratz blowout, or looking for other similarly licensed fun times, you might as well give up on finding any pre-themed party materials. The brands have taken over the party stores, and how. There is not a plate, cup, or party hat in Portland with a simple red wagon or a tricycle on it. I can tell you this with finality.
So after all the searching I mentioned, and many shopping hours spent swinging wildly between glee and agony, we finally found a little car stamp and some blank cups at the Dollar Store (nice) and one package of "transportation party" napkins that said things like Stop for Cake! and Yield to Fun! I used kraft paper and red acrylic paint to make the tablecloth and cups. The cupcakes, well, they were plain and yummy, with no cake toppers at all. The boy didn't seem to mind.
And my mother? She approved. I think she really liked the little car idea. And just to be sure I'd put enough work into it, I drew a road in pencil all over the tablecloth. It was more work, but I figure this may be one of my last chances to steadfastly refuse the branded party gear before Binx is old enough to demand it himself. When he gets to be that age it'll be easier to just dump a bunch of Wiggles plates in the cart. But oh so sad, too, and less imaginative.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Alli 5-15-2006 @ 8:13PM
For Fuller's first birthday we choose the theme "One Year." Seemed appropriate since we were celebrating his first birthday and our first year as parents. The http://www.flickr.com/photos/crumleydotorg/51228234/in/set-1109258 cupcakes were a hit, with small white chocolate ones on top. And his invitation (http://crumleydotorg.chattablogs.com/archives/029359.html)was creative genious on my husband's part.
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Laura 5-15-2006 @ 8:22PM
Alli, you link is broken.
i am interested to see what you did.
Larissa, I like the cars. Very cute. My husband is into cars and I searched high and low for something my daughters room that had a pink car on it. No Dice. The hippest thing I found was a clock with a pink tricycle that said "Triker Chick", but I lost the link before I ordered it. (we are both big cyclists)
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Elizabeth 5-15-2006 @ 8:59PM
Alli, that image is incredible! I love it!
The link is http://crumleydotorg.chattablogs.com/archives/029359.html
(The parentheses messed it up in the first post.)
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Wallaby 5-15-2006 @ 9:36PM
Love your theme! You did a great job. :)
My soon to-be-three year old has asked for an "Incredible" birthday repeatedly for about three months. No, he doesn't mean a really fantatic wonderful birthday - he means he wants Disney/Pixar Incredibles stuff for his big day. Unfortunately they have discontinued it at our local store! I managed to snag a couple things from the discount bin but I am sure I will be frantically trying to work out how to do this. I will not doubt be blogging about my "Incredible" woes. ;)
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Peggy-Sue 5-15-2006 @ 9:42PM
Your party decorations look great! I just ran into the exact same problem for my son's 5th birthday - he wanted the theme to be "robots" which I thought was a great idea! (Not the movie "Robots", just plain old robots.) Until I realized that there is not a single robot party decoration/favor to be found - nothing! After searching high and low in the city and finally driving out to the suburbs to a huge party supply store I asked the owner "Do you have ANYTHING for a robot party?" and his response was "No, we don't carry that kind of crap." Crap! I couldn't believe it - what little kid doesn't love robots? I guess all the kids that love TV licensed junk. If I wanted the party to be a Sponge Bob party I would have had decorations up the whazoo. It was disappointing, but in about 48 hours I managed to whip together what I thought was a pretty cool bunch of decorations and favors using robot clip art I found on-line and the colour copier at Staples - and best of all, my son thought everything was really, really cool. It was definitely an eye-opening experience.
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Jill 5-15-2006 @ 10:11PM
I just did a robot party myself on Saturday, and was pleased with what I found with the Oriental Trading Company. http://www.orientaltrading.com/application?namespace=main
We even gave robot shaped lollipops and bendable robots as "goodie bag" items (I try to avoid giving junk). I've yet to do a party with a "character" theme, and I hope to keep avoiding it. I usually peruse the party supply websites and find something that fits his dreams. I also have him draw a picture of the cake/theme idea so I have an idea of what he really wants. I may be a cake decorator in my next career if he keeps this up! It may help if you browse websites with your son- maybe he'll see ideas that are available. I've made the same Party City mistake myself.
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brenda 5-15-2006 @ 11:01PM
Birthday Express Is also a good site that carries some non-character themed party items. I wanted something unique for my younger daughters 1st birthday last fall and ended up with the "Barnyard Celebration" theme. The party turned out adorable and unique, just what I wanted.
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Sarcastic Journalist 5-16-2006 @ 12:56AM
Bleh. That IS sad.
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Baby Clothes 5-16-2006 @ 3:09AM
You seem very creative and love the idea, its all about fun and u seemed to be having just that. Innotive is the best when holding a party and you managed very well indeed.
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tk 5-16-2006 @ 8:16AM
Wallaby, birthdayinabox.com has some Incredibles themed party decorations ( http://www.birthdayinabox.com/lobby.asp-page-theme-dept_id-180-cat_id-5 )
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Wallaby 5-16-2006 @ 11:34AM
Wow, thanks for the link tk! :)
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kate 5-16-2006 @ 1:51PM
Cute idea. Isn't it so sad that EVERYTHING is branded with characters. I'm avoiding all of that and find it so hard to find anything - from clothes, to accessories, to something like this. I'm not trying to bash the characters - but it's just insane how much deep we are as a culture in this. We might as well sign our children's life away to disney and whoever.
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Ashley 5-26-2006 @ 9:21AM
Not sure how to do this....never blogged before. But I do have a suggestion for the Incredibles Party. You can go to www.partyexpress.com and they have everything. However, they don't have robots. I don't mean the movie Robots. but my son is asking for a just a plain robots birthday party and cake! I need some ideas. Help
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