Homemade Birthdays -They're Great!

My girls really know how to give great 'home' birthday parties. Bryn just gave a darling 'bug' birthday party for 4-yr-old Cambry and used the 'Family Fun' website as a springboard for her ideas. So clever.

I read an interesting newspaper article recently about a group of Minnesota moms who are concerned about over-the-top birthday parties - skyrocketing costs, increasing expectations for lots of expensive presents, peer pressure (from moms and kids) to outdo the last party. These concerned moms have banded together and formed a website of ideas and support for more meaningful birthday celebrations. "Simpler" seems to be the key. And if you've had your own bad birthday party experience and need to vent, they've got a comment section just for you :). It was nice after reading some of those comments to see Cambry get so tickled over a simple bottle of bubble bath.

When I was little, our neighborhood birthday parties were all at home. We played 'pin the tail on the donkey', 'drop the clothespin in the bottle', duck-duck-goose and a variety of relay races (ya know, with balloons, spoons, crackers . . .). No one tried to come up with much new - we loved the favorites. Children haven't changed -

Our only party treats were birthday cake and ice cream, maybe we'd get a balloon. Though simple, birthday parties were much anticipated. We looked forward to celebrating in the same traditional ways over and over - kids are like that at heart.

Well, there are many ways to celebrate a birthday. However we choose to celebrate, I think the mark of success is that the birthday person is the focus and feels loved and special. And Bryn you certainly accomplished that - Cambry felt like the cutest 'bug' at the party.