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It sometimes happens, even in the best of families, that a baby is born. This is not necessarily cause for alarm. The important thing is to keep your wits about you and borrow some money.
Elinor Goulding Smith
My little Ebay will be turning 18 in just a couple of weeks and I’m having a problem.
It’s actually not what you think. I’m not having a problem with my youngest boy entering the magical land of “legal-adultness.” I guess because I’ve already had to deal with first-born son Superdude, turning 21…what’s 18 when you already have a kid old enough to purchase alcohol legally?
No, the problem is that Ebay is turning 18 – kind of a milestone, and I am completely blanking on any kind of birthday celebration idea. As my boys have grown up, we’ve always had fun with birthdays and we’ve had some great parties over the years. Here are some of my favorites.
CAT/DOG PARTY: When Ebay was a little guy he went through a phase when he just couldn’t be bothered to speak to people and would…well…meow instead. In honor of this anti-social animalistic behavior we had a Cat/Dog party. The young guests were provided with either cat or dog ears and nose and served cookies in the shape of dog biscuits and fish served in animal-type food bowls on the floor. I can’t quite remember what the games were, but I remember that it was a fun party.
COWBOY PARTY: This one was for Ebay too. The kids made their own stick horses and then we had a rodeo in the back yard complete with cardboard box cows that we would rope and rustle. Then of course we cooked hot dogs over a fire in the sand pit and had IBC Root beer in those old fashioned brown bottles.
HOTEL POOL PARTY: This one was for Superdude in about 5th or 6th grade I think and was probably one of my favorites. We rented a room at a local hotel with a swimming pool (the La Quinta in Orem I think). Super dude invited his three best friends and they all went to have sleep-over at the hotel. They swam in the pool, ate pizza in the room and jumped on the hotel beds. Then Mommy went home and the boys stayed in the room with Dad to watch videos and maybe even …sleep (or not).
As I’ve mentioned before, Superdude was smart enough to have his birthday coincide with the ultimate party day (New Year’s Day) so as he grew up, having parties for Superdude is pretty easy and kind of came with the territory at that time of year.
Ebay’s birthday has always been a little harder at this time of the year – still good because at least the weather is starting to be nicer, but not as automatic as a New Year’s Party if you know what I mean. We’ve had a lot going on lately too with the cruise and everything– plus I’m taking a really hard (for me at least) math class and my brain is just completely full of trying to remember how to solve for X. So now Ebay is quickly approaching the big One-Eight and I got nothing - No ideas at all, or at least no good ones. It is easier having teenage birthday parties because it can be as easy as putting food out and then getting out of the way. But I would like to up the stakes just a little bit for the 18th birthday.
So what do you think everybody…any ideas?
4 comments:
I don't know . . . the birthday parties you've described are already so much better than what I've ever done that I'm thinking about copying you sometime.
And I have all girls . . . I haven't the foggiest idea what to suggest for a nearly grown teenage boy!
when my kids were 18 they were just into spending their b'days w/a few close friends... if your kid is the same, how about tickets to a concert of whoever they all love? as far as other ideas, well i could tell u but they all involve alot of money.
My kids are so birthday-party-deprived that they're pretty easy to impress. But one idea we've had for older kids was to take a group to the Ropes Course for some adventure and then to some sort of eatery for some chow.
That's all I've got.
When I was in high school we did something fun for a dance that could probably translate into a b-day party.
It was a type of traveling dinner scavenger hunt. First off, we were given an envelope with a clue to figure out which told us the first restaurant we were to go to for appetizers. Towards the end of the appetizers, we were given another envelope with a clue for the next restaurant to go to for salads, then one for dinner, & finally, one for dessert. (We ate at nice sit down restaurants for appetizers & desserts, but went to fast food places for salads & the main course.)
I don't know how embarrassable Ebay and his friends are, so this next part may not work. But the thing that made it really memorable were the things we had to do at the restaurant before we could order(the people taking the orders were in on it and had a little poem to read to tell us what to do). They had based them around all of the girls in the group- like we had a cheerleader with us and she had to lead us in a cheer before we could order. I was on the Seminary Council, so we had to recite a scripture. Choir- we ended up singing "Happy Birthday" to another patron in the restaurant and drama- we had to recite a line from a play or make up our own poem. Of course, all this led to finally ending up at the dance, but you could end it with a different fun activity.
Anyways, I had a lot of fun doing it and loved seeing the reactions of other's in response to our pre-ordering antics.
I hope this all made sense.
Whatever you decide to do...good luck and Happy Birthday Ebay!
PS- I love your party ideas and I think I just became a copycat.
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