Hello All! Today we celebrated Gracie turning 5. We had a fun family party. Just the 5 of us : ) I started planning Grace's party a month ago. One day when I was obsessing about it Kelly showed me an article in our local paper. The article was about taking the pressure out of kid's birthday parties. The article shared about some parents who have had enough of the big
ger is better philosophy for kid's birthday parties. An example from their article was " A mother reaches her limit with 36 children at her two year old's party. Her husband says she is hard to live with when planning parties." So I read all the examples of parents going overboard to celebrate their child's birthday and I thought no big party this year. Some may say, "Oh, that is cruel" or "She is missing out". I totally disagree. I did not have a party every year while growing up. It helped me to be very appreciative of those parties I did have. I remember two that really stand out for me. My parents treated me to a McDonald's Party and a surprise party in our basement where all the girls that w
ere invited played dress up. I don't think for either party they went into debt. The party today was great! We had balloons, crafts, gifts and games. Grace even got to pick out her own cake at the store this morning. The party was great, quite low stress. I think we will have bigger parties where the kids can have friends again. but, not each year for each kid. I think the kids can come to expect it and they are not as grateful. Today's 5th birthday party for Grace had a kitty cat theme. Complete with kitty cat balloons, suckers and cute little stuffed cats. The craft was even a cat valentine craft that said "you're purrfect" on it. The favorite gift was from Grandma an
d Granddad 
Briden it was the Full Armor of God. The Full Armor of God comes from the bible in Ephesians 6: 13-18. The kids loved and played with that for quite some time. Another thing downsized today was the cake. It was a little mini-sheet cake. Commonly in the past after birthday parties I feel the need to finish of the cake. Leaving me on a wild sugar high until all the cake is gone. Not to mention the addition of several pounds added to my weight when I step on the scale after the cake binge. A little cake + a fun smaller family party=good for mommy, good for daddy, and good for kids : ) if you are interested in the article I read go to http://www.birthdayswithoutpressure.com/ Love you all- Crystal
ger is better philosophy for kid's birthday parties. An example from their article was " A mother reaches her limit with 36 children at her two year old's party. Her husband says she is hard to live with when planning parties." So I read all the examples of parents going overboard to celebrate their child's birthday and I thought no big party this year. Some may say, "Oh, that is cruel" or "She is missing out". I totally disagree. I did not have a party every year while growing up. It helped me to be very appreciative of those parties I did have. I remember two that really stand out for me. My parents treated me to a McDonald's Party and a surprise party in our basement where all the girls that w
ere invited played dress up. I don't think for either party they went into debt. The party today was great! We had balloons, crafts, gifts and games. Grace even got to pick out her own cake at the store this morning. The party was great, quite low stress. I think we will have bigger parties where the kids can have friends again. but, not each year for each kid. I think the kids can come to expect it and they are not as grateful. Today's 5th birthday party for Grace had a kitty cat theme. Complete with kitty cat balloons, suckers and cute little stuffed cats. The craft was even a cat valentine craft that said "you're purrfect" on it. The favorite gift was from Grandma an
d Granddad 
Briden it was the Full Armor of God. The Full Armor of God comes from the bible in Ephesians 6: 13-18. The kids loved and played with that for quite some time. Another thing downsized today was the cake. It was a little mini-sheet cake. Commonly in the past after birthday parties I feel the need to finish of the cake. Leaving me on a wild sugar high until all the cake is gone. Not to mention the addition of several pounds added to my weight when I step on the scale after the cake binge. A little cake + a fun smaller family party=good for mommy, good for daddy, and good for kids : ) if you are interested in the article I read go to http://www.birthdayswithoutpressure.com/ Love you all- Crystal
