Well at least here. S turned 7 on the Dec. 9 and has been seriously campaigning for a birthday party. I of course tried to put this off. Being as we celebrate Hebrew and English dates, I started procrastinating on Nov. 21 Or the 14th of Kislev and finally on Dec. 9 I had not choice but to follow through. So on Thursday morning, Dec. 9, I agreed to see if we could pull off a birthday party that afternoon; because I had said we would do something during Channukah and that was the last day! Yikes!
After trying to juggle work and other mommy duties in the morning I took M (who was on vacation) to pick up Y and went to buy party favors for 8 kids, 5 of whom I had no idea if they could even come. Party favors were balloons, markers and little baggies to put it all in. Total cost, $5.50. Then it was home to guest proof and clean the house and make the phone calls. All 5 guests were able to come. Wow! Now we had 4 Hebrew only speaking kids coming, one new American with questionable Hebrew and my 3 with fair Hebrew skills but that can clam up with new faces. We had only met 2 of the kids. The others I knew their parents, but wanted to get them introduced to my kids. I thought this was for sure going to be disaster in the making... And I spent most of the afternoon wondering "What WAS I thinking when I agreed to this?! I must be crazy!" And of course that is true. But at about 5;15p we had our first guests arrive with their mom and shortly there after everyone one else.
The pens and balloons turned out to be great ice breakers and the gift from S's really good friend. He got S a remote control car. To see 5 boys stand around from all different backgrounds, discussing this car and what to do and how it worked was priceless. They looked like a bunch of teenagers around a real car. They all got to "drive" the car and made sure everyone had a turn. To see 5 boys just click like that when 1 kid knew NO ONE and two brothers only knew their mom and each other was just amazing! We also played a round of musical chairs which was fun because it was a new game for all the boys. My kids played it for the first time last year and the twins were really not into it then, so it was also more or less new to them as well.
For refreshments we had a homemade volcano cake which was a huge hit, complete with pink lava, and popcorn and juice. We rounded out the setting with a plastic Thomas Table cloth thanks to Grandma A. The total cost of the party was probably $10 total. The result, the best party ever! According to 8 kids in Israel. There is a statement we all know that says "fill in blank, is priceless, for everything else there is Visa." Pffftttt....... forget Visa. Its not visa that makes everything else possible, it is mommy ingenuity and Abba know how! And we do it all with out charging interest!
Suffice to say I am still beside myself with how well it went over. Of course now I will be required to do this again in 6 mo. for the twins. They have really only had one proper party when they turned 3 because of different circumstances. Fortunately it kind of has gotten by them. Years one and two are really blurry for them thankfully (because they are for us!) and the year they turned 4 Shmuely had not had a party either. This year they will remember however, soooo I guess in 6 months I will be putting my thinking cap on again. Hopefully a bit earlier.
In retrospect, I find that the things we either do on the cheap or on the fly seem to go over really well. Its a gift and a curse I think. A gift because we have pulled off the impossible more than once doing it this way; and a curse because just imagine what we could do and do it stress free if we planned ahead! Kind of like the kid who does OK in school but would be straight A's if only they would "Apply" themselves. I guess some of us are just lacking that "skill" set.
In the same line of thinking, for S's b-day D and I made him a stuffed dinosaur. We took an old flannel blue pillow case and I "drew" a dinosaur on it and D cut it out and sewed and stuffed it. It is probably the homeliest dinosaur ever, but really cute and he is S's new best buddy. His name is Elazar and he has his own bed and his own toys. The kids love stuffed animals, but this is the first one to get a real name and the royal treatment. Except maybe M's bunny foo. But Bunny Foo is a story for another day. Anyhow, Elazar is a kick and it is just totally cute to see S love this little guy soo much! Once again Eema and Abba ingenuity beat Visa any day of the week!
What we have discovered is, it is not the amount of money, it is the thought and follow through combined with a little creativity. Not only does it break the stereo type trap, but it also gets compliments. In Israel and maybe the U.S., the answer for treats and party favors are sacks of junk food. Whether it is bought as pre-done party gift packs or sandwich bags with 3 different kinds of candy. The two major problems with this are A) My kids are allergic to additives and preservatives. Seriously. Grocery shopping is just a joy.... and B) Its expensive and once its eaten, its gone. All that remains are hyper active bored kids. What kind of stupid combination is that?! I love non-food because it is useful. The pens and balloons were great ice breakers and we got to see everyone's talent. For M's Channukah party this year I did popcorn in sandwich bags with little hair bands to close the bag. It puts a spin on something that might seem boring and its practical. Part of the reason for this choice of treat is the fact that mine can't have processed food and another girl has Celia-cs. It eliminated my usual choice of pretzels. Plus M just switched schools and we now have 9 girls, not 33. So total cost, about $2.00 tops. But I have done larger projects for 33 girls too on about $5.00.(With that one I MADE little books from old wrapping paper, computer paper and ribbon, then took a little candy and crayon and combined it with a hair band. It took 6 hours, but M was the bell of the ball that day!) Thanks to the universal love of cheap "stuff" most party favors can be put together for just a few dollars and have the parents come out rock stars at the same time. And for us that's the name of the game! But the nicest thing is, our kids really appreciate too. And perhaps that's the best part of all.
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