Another year another birthday party to plan!

It’s that time of year again when party season begins and with that it brings the pressure each year to put on a party for pop princess. I really thought the whole party thing wouldn’t start till they reached school age but when she was 1 we decided early on that we would just have family over for a little tea party for her, but then we got invites from all our NCT friends to their children’s parties and these ranged from large gatherings at their houses to people hiring out halls!

I couldn’t quite believe the huge effort and planning some of my friends put into these parties after all they were 1 and would not remember. Then I ended up feeling guilty, perhaps I was a bad parent for not making the same effort and not having that same thought process to do anything big for pop princess.

Then last year when she turned 2 me being the rubbish organiser that I am hadn’t even thought what we were going to when invites came flooding in from her friends. These invites ranged from a party on a farm, a hall with children’s entertainer, pottery party etc etc. So not wanting PP to miss out and determined to plan something we went ahead and decided to book a hall and got a little bouncy castle, had music, colouring areas, food, and a lady called Coco came along and did songs on her guitar which was great. It was a lot to organise but PP just loved it, and thank god we had her grandparents to help who dutifully helped set up and clear away. It did end up costing a lot of money but we thought it was worth it as she hadn’t had anything big the year before.

Next Month PP is 3. So far we have been to two of her friends birthday parties who both had a bouncy castle, which seems the most popular choice for 3 year olds and we have also been invited to a soft play party and a swimming party. It seems each year the parties get bigger and there feels like pressure to keep up with her friends so she doesn’t miss out and if you don’t have a party you feel like you have to explain you’re not having one for fear your friends think that their child hasn’t been invited!

So this year PP is having 6 of her closest friends over in our very small house to enjoy a birthday cup cake themed tea party with her. We are going ‘old school’ and having pass the parcel, sleeping lions, a little buffet and music they can dance along to. Plus some cup cake themed games like pin the cherry on the cup cake and I am going to make a paper Mache cup cake piñata! It’s the sort of party I used to have when I was younger and I always enjoyed them!

There will be no pottery, farm, swimming, pony grooming big party this year. Just yummy food, good friends and family and hopefully no stress! Although I’ve already started to worry about it, will PP enjoy it? will it be special enough? and I know I am being stupid because of course she will enjoy it but I just want to do a good job for her, do you know what I mean?






(Above)PP enjoying her party last year