Birthday party disasters
Imagine having three children in less than three years (no multiples, I’m talking every 13 months or so). Three different sized nappies. A fridge of bottles, parsnip puree, cheese squares and carrot batons. Did you know, BTW, it’s nearly impossible to find a good pushchair for three. Our local school thinks it is really funny that as soon as one of our children has vacated their seat in the reception class, another one is sent in her place. Their birthdays are every six weeks. I guess if you mess up planning, you may as well do it royally.
Yes, we have entered party season at the Scott household. We have a big bash every six weeks.The first is done (a Hannah Montana disco party with hot dogs and cupcakes). I don’t know what possessed me to invite 30 children. It all went well though, no disasters.
No, my biggest party disaster happened a couple years ago. A similar big bash at a local gym. The kids get free run of the gym for an hour and their is a room already set up to serve sausages and hula hoops. Perfect. Except the teenager in charge never turned up to open up the gym. So at 11 am my husband and I found ourselves alone with 22 five-year-olds. A couple of parents took pity and stayed. There’s a field by the gym and we played every game think of. Stuck in the Mud. Tag. Red Rover. The sun came out. This is not so bad I thought. I looked at my watch. Another hour and a half to go.
Finally the parents started to arrive to claim their children. Many of the kids share rides and you never know exactly who is going home with whom. I handed out party bags. Nearly everyone was gone. I was starting the get that after party elation. It’s over. I did it. Then I turned around and nearly bumped into a mum, she had car keys in her hands.
Where’s Anna?
Not a child in sight except my daughters.
Ummm. Panic. I honestly has no idea. This was not good.
A couple quick calls and it turns out that Anna was already home safe and sound. She thought she was supposed to go home with friends.
Phew.
So do your parties go off without a hitch?
Photo credit: Scribble Taylor
Mummy Of One | 17th Feb 12
I am planning my 5 year olds very first birthday party. So far everything has gone well as far as finding everything I need except for the costume. My husband tells him a story every night about Bruce The Dinosaur (Bruce has his own dinosaur voice as my husband is a gifted impersonator) and I thought it would be fun if “Bruce” showed up at the party. For 2 weeks I have searched for an adult size dinosaur costume and nobody has one! Not for hire or sale. We are in Australia by the way. So I am tearing my hair out trying to find a costume in time 🙂
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Muddling Along Mummy | 14th Feb 10
Oh my goodness .. this would be the sort of thing I have nightmares about
Working Mum | 13th Feb 10
I’ve only organised one so far, so I’m a party virgin, as it were. I hope to god I don’t have that experience. Just the one I organised had me demented watching everyone’s children and making sure they didn’t wander off (it was at a Garden Centre). I don’t know how you manage three in quick succession. Kudos to you!
Emma | 13th Feb 10
Arrrgh! And I thought planning a 1st Birthday Party was hard , I never thought what it would be like when I have more children and they get older! Arrrggghh!!
Helen | 12th Feb 10
I also had three in three years, so for a little over a month, my kids are a nominal year apart! I can totally sympathize – we agreed early on that we were not putting on themed parties (which is expected here in Brazil), so we kind of had a birthday cake and something else for those who turned up – I still break out in a sweat when I think of giving a party. We recently survived the most sofisticated party we ever threw on my daughter’s fifteenth a few weeks ago and next Sunday is my eldest son’s eighteenth… we are still trying to find an honorable way out!
Nadine Hill | 12th Feb 10
Oh – I was so worried about poor Anna! It makes your heart stop doesn’t it – when something like this happens!
My daughter was born on Christmas Eve so it’s always a busy time but I’ve never had an actual birthday disaster unless you could the time I realised at 10pm on 23rd December that I hadn’t got my daughter a Birthday card! It has been overlooked as I had so much else to think about!
I dispatched hubby to the 24 hour ASDA to sort that one out!
Nadine
x
angelsandurchinsblog | 12th Feb 10
You are a brave lady! Not sure we’ll do another party at home since a two-year-old got her head stuck between some bannisters.
Erica | 11th Feb 10
I’d have been seriously panicking, not good for my crohns 🙂 Sounds like you handled it like a pro though!
geekymummy | 10th Feb 10
Oh my, elephant cake deserves its own blog post, Cathy! I’m in tears of laughter here!
Susannah, Its birthday season here too, I only have the two kids, but they are 2 yrs and 5 days apart (how on earth do you cope with another, superwoman!). Mine are still young enough for a joint party (2 and 4). The bouncy castle is booked, the cakes ordered, the guests invited, the camera has fresh batteries…. I’m nervously looking forward to it! Hope yours goes well.
Iota | 10th Feb 10
I am wetting myself laughing at the elephant cake!
Iota | 10th Feb 10
You pass over the “where’s Anna?” moment, but I bet your heart hit the ground (or rose up into your throat).
At least you can now look back smugly and think ‘pshaw, all this modern party nonsense! All you need is an open space and a bit of sunshin…”
My worst party moment was when I had eight 4 year olds in my own home. A friend was helping, and with only 10 minutes to go, she sat them all in a circle and got them to say what their favourite song was. Then we all sang it. (Amazing what you can make fun, for a bunch of 4 year olds.) One little boy said his favourite was Kum-ba-ya, and then in the most beautiful perfect clear ringing treble voice, sang us a solo. I started crying, and had to leave the room. I don’t think anyone noticed…
Expat Mum | 10th Feb 10
Sorry – I’m still in shock at the “three kids in less than three years” part!!
With two teenagers now, there are no parties for a few years – and then I will really have to worry. The 6 year old has a party of course.
A few years ago the last mother arrived about 20 minutes late to pick up her child, but the annoying thing was that the child knew she was going to be late, yet no one had had the decency to inform me that I would be babysitting for a while.
Working mum | 10th Feb 10
I loved the comment about the elephant cake!! I also had a go at scaring children. This was for my younger brother’s birthday party when we were kids. He was around five or six, I was a teenager, roped in by my mum to help organise a pirate treasure hunt. I embraced the challenge and made it as authenic as possible, staining the map with tea, and burning the edges, burying the treasure chest underground and so on. I started the hunt with a story about the pirate captain that died in the house a long time ago, and the clues took the children all over the building from loft to rather spooky and spidery cellar. The children were not quite old enough for the drama of it. At least one of them wet themselves with anxiety and several were reported as having nightmares for days afterwards. My mum had great fun explaining that one…
Cathy Dean | 10th Feb 10
The Year Mum Made the Scary Elephant Cake is firmly lodged in our family’s book of things to beat me over the head with.
It was my daughter’s 3rd birthday (she’ll be 20 next month…) and she wanted an elephant cake. Fine, I thought, I can do that. Naturally, I decided to colour the sponge pink, because flesh is pink. Sadly, I was a little heavy handed with the food colouring. (already you begin to get the picture, I suspect…)
Next comes the icing. Elephants are grey but you couldn’t get grey icing in the olden days. The lady in the shop tells me to mix equal quantities of black and white icing to get grey. I do – and I get charcoal gey. Oh well, I think, they’re only 3, they won’t mind if it’s a bit dark.
I cover the scarlet cake in the (let’s be frank) black icing, and fashion the legs, ears and trunk. The trunk’s a bit long but it’s late and I’m tired so the elephant has a trunk that wraps almost entirely around his body like Dr Who’s scarf.
Then I make his eyes. And only realise, as I go to stick them on his face, that I’ve made them both going in the same direction, so he can either be cross-eyed or gazing over his own shoulder (probably trying to locate the end of his trunk). I go with cross-eyed.
The party arrives and at the appointed time I triumphantly bring out the birthday cake. The tinies freeze. A couple of them start to whimper in fright. I plough on regardless and start to cut slices. Remember the red sponge? My black, mad-eyed elephant now appears to be bleeding everywhere. More tinies are crying. The bravest ones tentatively take a piece but aren’t quite brave enough to eat it so they hold it in their hot little hands. Their hot little hands get all sticky so they put the cake on the floor and wipe their hot little hands on the wall.
By the time they’ve all gone, we have black handprints all over the wall and bleeding elephant cake trodden into the carpet.
And every year since then, my kids have BEGGED me to get a “proper” birthday cake from the shop, like everyone else’s Mum does…
Rosie Scribble | 10th Feb 10
Thankfully nothing as bad as that has ever happened although at IJ’s last party at a soft-play area I was supposed to be looking after a child whose father had decided to sleep in his car outside. I turned my back for to minutes and looked back to find blood everywhere and no idea how it had happened. Thankfully the more alert mothers were rushing round her and it turned out to be a nose bleed not a serious injury. But then I had to wake her dad up to explain the blood-stained clothes.
A Modern Mother | 10th Feb 10
@marathon I can recomend a great disco party woman 😉
marathonmummy | 10th Feb 10
I thought I was bad with one child every two years! I’m just about to start party season here too, with no1 about to turn ten, then next month we have 8, then 6 and lagging behind slightly, little not-4-till-October. I’m supposed to be researching party ideas right now, but have ended up having a lovely time reading your blog. Oops.
A Modern Mother | 10th Feb 10
I think maybe smaller parties are the answer. Less kids => less hassle => less worry.
TooManyHats | 10th Feb 10
YIKES – I’m sure that was a moment of complete panic. Nothing here to report, thank goodness 🙂
nappyvalleygirl | 10th Feb 10
We haven’t given any big parties yet but that thing of who is going home with whom would really unnerve me. At the party Littleboy 1 went to last weekend, I found a crying child trying to escape out of the door as we were leaving; he was looking for his Mum. I returned him to the party and the mother in charge looked aghast at the thought he had almost slipped out unnoticed. Being responsible for so many little kids is very scary.
SmartLivingDiva | 10th Feb 10
I’ve so far managed to avoid parties for the 2 and 3 year olds so it’s just the six year old – we’ve only had one party and that went okay – I cop out and give my daughter a ‘special day’ instead – for her fourth we went to London for the Natural History Museum – this year, for her sixth we’re taking her and two friends to see Disney Live – much less stressful!
Stigmum | 10th Feb 10
Last year I cancelled the Picnic on the Heath party. Three years running, I could no longer handle the pressure, oh the pressure entertaining 30 children each time. My goodness, five six year olds in the cinema would have killed me last time round were it not for my boxercise intructor stepping in.
Now, three young children you are asking me to imagine? Three parties a year for my three children?
I cannot! No, I cannot!
What I can say is though, disaster or not, in my mind it is a minor miracle you are still here!! Great job mamma!!
ella | 10th Feb 10
I haven’t had any party disasters yet, but i know my turn will come!
Trish@Mum's Gone to | 10th Feb 10
Oh I went cold just worrying about where Anna had got to! We had one awful house party where all the little boys just jumped on my husband and we lost control! Our best one was a Spy Party at a place near Cambridge where the children have to tackle special tasks in a series of rooms – codes, laser stuff etc – the boys (aged about 10) adored it.
Urban Mums | 10th Feb 10
Those gym people owe you big time! I can’t even imagine… Sounds like you handled it all so well so though! My almost 4-year-old wants a princess rock ‘n roll party… so I’m sure I’ll have a story (or many!) to share from the upcoming festivity.
Laura McIntyre | 10th Feb 10
Thankfully we have had no party disasters so far, although i hate them . Spend months freaking over it and most of the day of the party taken panic attacks . I know it is not about me but i just hate every minute.
So happy this year that my soon to be 5 year old has decided she would much rather have a trip to the zoo than a party. Now that i can enjoy 🙂
Surprise Mum | 10th Feb 10
Liking the sound of the field party!
I am just in the process of planning little’s girls 2nd birthday, a diddy dance party no less in the local pub. So far so good.
Except I thought it would be great to share the costs with 3 of my NCT buddies as the birthdays are all close and one of the little girl’s is little girl’s best friend. Still good.
But oh my, trying to agree on the start time has been fraught enough…
Am I going to get better with practice?
A Modern Mother | 10th Feb 10
or pity?
Liz (LivingwithKids) | 10th Feb 10
Oh boy! Well I haven’t had any major party disasters because I’m such an over-zealous planner but I think I’d go slightly nuts if I had to plan so many kids’ parties in such quick succession! Respect to you x