I love birthdays. More specifically other people's birthdays, as my own have an awkward tendency to go awry, and in particular children's birthdays.
Before I had children of my own, I nosed my way into my niece's birthday parties, transforming ordinary paper party hats into fairy-princess steeple hats and wrestling butterfly and teapot cakes from my sister's well-meaning frosting-covered grasp.
Having Bear presented me with the opportunity to fully unleash my theme-party planning goddess within. His second birthday was a circus spectacular, featuring a circus tent, carnival games, circus-themed food, circus music, and the infamous 3-dimensional circus train birthday cake which took 8 hours to frost. I immediately realized that I had blown my wad. How would I ever be able to keep up that kind of momentum through 2 children and who knows how many years of birthday parties? Bear's subsequent parties were slightly pared down, although I have always insisted on maintaining a theme throughout the invitations, food, cake, games, and music. What, you don't spend weeks creating mix cds of appropriately themed music before your children's birthday parties? Wimp.
Then I got lazy. 2 weeks before Thumper's 1st birthday, I was just getting around to printing invitations. Even though I had begun to plan out all of the details in my head in July, I had done nothing toward putting my plans into motion. Months I had spent scouring the web for the perfect cupcake sprinkles, only to settle for whatever they had at the party store. The chocolate bunny lollipop favors turned into molded truffle bunnies (due to an inability to find bunny lollipop molds in January), which I then realized were too much chocolate for kids and would have to use as decorations instead. Days before the party I still had no idea what I would serve for food, other than the ginger-carrot tea sandwiches that I was obsessed with more because this would probably be the best opportunity I would ever have to serve carrot-ginger tea sandwiches at a party than because I thought anyone would actually eat them.
Days after the party I began to remember all of the little details that I had let slide, like forgetting to set out blackberries. Blackberries! How can you have a Peter Rabbit birthday party without blackberries? Even though I know that Thumper will never look at pictures of his birthday and wonder where the blackberries were, I will always feel guilty about not putting the same effort into it that I did for his brother. After having the misfortune of being born only 3 weeks before his brother's diagnosis, and patiently taking a backseat to all of Bear's needs during his first year on earth, that was the least he deserved.
Then I got lazy. 2 weeks before Thumper's 1st birthday, I was just getting around to printing invitations. Even though I had begun to plan out all of the details in my head in July, I had done nothing toward putting my plans into motion. Months I had spent scouring the web for the perfect cupcake sprinkles, only to settle for whatever they had at the party store. The chocolate bunny lollipop favors turned into molded truffle bunnies (due to an inability to find bunny lollipop molds in January), which I then realized were too much chocolate for kids and would have to use as decorations instead. Days before the party I still had no idea what I would serve for food, other than the ginger-carrot tea sandwiches that I was obsessed with more because this would probably be the best opportunity I would ever have to serve carrot-ginger tea sandwiches at a party than because I thought anyone would actually eat them.
Days after the party I began to remember all of the little details that I had let slide, like forgetting to set out blackberries. Blackberries! How can you have a Peter Rabbit birthday party without blackberries? Even though I know that Thumper will never look at pictures of his birthday and wonder where the blackberries were, I will always feel guilty about not putting the same effort into it that I did for his brother. After having the misfortune of being born only 3 weeks before his brother's diagnosis, and patiently taking a backseat to all of Bear's needs during his first year on earth, that was the least he deserved.
No comments:
Post a Comment