Happy Birthday, Nathan!

Sorry I have neglected you, blog, but we have been super busy the last few weeks, especially since we had a big party for our now *6* year old son last Saturday. Today is his real birthday, how well I remember going to the hospital bright and early 6 years ago today to have him (it was a planned c-section). I remember thinking that he was so perfect, 7 lbs 11 oz of sweetness. And a good baby, too.

In keeping with my theme of frugality I will share with you how I threw a party for about 30 kids (plus parents) without breaking the bank. Nathan wanted a backyard party, but I honestly didn't want the stress of a lot of people in my too-small house, plus if it rains you are in trouble. We can have water-fun in the backyard another time. I rented some classrooms in my parish's now empty school (closed last year), so I consider that a charitable contribution to a worthier cause than say, Chuck E. Cheese. I was also able to borrow carnival games from the church--bean bag toss, bowling, ducks for a duck pond, fishing game, ring toss--although we did buy a lollipop tree also. I also considered some sort of cake walk and maybe an obstacle course but we ended up not doing those, I had to draw the line somewhere, I was worried about running out of time to decorate and set up. I was glad that we had enough space to invite the whole kindergarten class (I believe 8 came) plus other friends from playgroups and preschool and family, of course.

I shopped around for a couple of months leading up to the party, looking for deals. I found carnival game prizes and craft kits at party supply stores on the clearance racks, plus shopped the clearance category at http://www.orientaltradingco.com/ (with free shipping code, of course). For food I got great deals on hotdogs (coupons!), chips, pop (79 cent 2-liters), juice boxes, buns (bakery outlet), etc. so I did not spend a lot on them. I did buy some things at the dollar store like colorful buckets, tablecloths, condiment dispensers, just to make it more festive. I already had a hot dog rotisserie and my mother came with a popcorn popper to make fresh popcorn. My mother in law did a great job making cupcakes that looked like popcorn in cups, see pic at the top. I bought a roll of tickets so that the kids could pretend to "spend" their tickets on the games and food.

I was surprised at how well it turned out, the kids really enjoyed the crafts and went around and around to the games, getting prize after prize. I had over 400 prizes, plus stickers and lollipops, so they made out pretty well!

Since most of the parents stayed, I had a lot of helpers to man the carnival games, which made it go much more smoothly. And I think they liked hanging out and chatting, too. The older children loved being "carnies", especially for the fishing game, which was the most popular game.

Best of all were the memories made that day. I will never forget the look on Nathan's face as he stood behind the table with cupcakes while we sang "Happy Birthday" to him. Priceless.