As MC Lyte said, "A party ain't a party..."

So, we had our first friend party for my now 8-year-old over the weekend.  Since this was our first friend party, I wanted it to be special.  We’ve been lucky enough the previous 7 birthdays to simply host a combined family party (both boys are born in September).  But, when my 8-year-old said, “May (yes, he said may) I please have a party with my friends this year?” how could I refuse? I mean, he used the word “may”.

I consulted my old friend, Pinterest.  I hadn’t been on Pinterest in about 6 months.  It was fun in the beginning, as all new things are, but, after a while, I grew bored.  It’s not as if I a) wore any of the outfits I pinned, b) made any of the foods I pinned, c) created any of the crafts I pinned or d) completed any of the exercises I pinned.  But, if there were ideas out there for a kid birthday party, Pinterest was going to have them.

I was not disappointed.  Pinterest is where crap goes to die.  Cute crafty crap, but crap.  What are you supposed to do with all this?  There’s.  Just.  So.  Much.  Stuff.  Thank God for the search function. 

I searched “kid party”, “Star Wars”, and “Legos” and came back with a gazillion results.  I also found supercute ideas for Halloween parties and briefly wondered we could pretend he was born in late October and have the party then or convince (read:  make) someone I know host a Halloween party that I could attend.  I’m choosing the latter. 

I came out with 6 solid ideas for games.  My husband told me I was going overboard, but since when do I listen to him?  One mother, when RSVPing, wished me luck while rehashing the horrifying tales of her child’s last birthday party.  Hey, thanks, lady!      

I thought my ideas were good.  First, we’d have the kids guess how many Legos were in the jar.  Simple.  The 5-year-old and 8-year-old counted the Legos the night before, I threw them in the jar, slapped a label on the jar with the Legos logo.  Kid with the closest guess won a prize.  Done.  Second game was a balloon game.  Object was to see how long the kid could keep up a balloon, using only his head.  This was a success.  The boys had fun, someone won a prize.  The third game didn’t go as planned.  The premise was simple enough.  Tie a balloon to each child’s ankle.  The object of the game was to pop your friend’s balloon and complete the dare inside the balloon.  The kids ran like crazy people, popping their own balloon, losing the dares.  There was no clear winner, no prize, so it was a bust sucked.

The husband and I got crafty for the next game.  Think Skee-ball, but throwing Legos instead.  We actually cut strips of colored poster board and fashioned the rings.  Go us!  This was a great game for them.  So fun, in fact, the kids played it until the game was completely and utterly destroyed.  Sigh. 

The finale was a relay race.  It involved blindfolds and crabwalking and walking with balloons between the knees.  All was going well until one blindfolded kid kept running… straight into a tree.  There was blood and everything.  And it took a minute for the adults to realize there was a casualty (it might have been the beer). 

Oh well.  A party’s not a party without a little blood, right?

All in all, I think my 8-year-old had a great time.  The party went until 11:30 (PM, people), so I’d consider that a success.  I like the parents we spend time with so it was as much a party for us as it was for the kids.

Now I just need to find someone to host that Halloween party.  I mean, we can make spiders out of Oreos!  Frankensteins out of Rice Krispies!  Cute crafty Halloween crap out of crap! 

Love that Pinterest!