Tuesday, July 20, 2010

July 17th

This past Saturday marked two important dates in our lives. First of all, exactly one year ago we moved into our house. Secondly (and far more importantly) the 17th is Asher's birthday. He turned three years old.

I laugh when I think about how we commemorated these events. First of all, there was no celebration for our house. Not one room is "done" as far as decorating goes. The house is still lacking in furniture and style. Some rooms need paint. The house didn't even get cleaned for it's anniversary. Sad I know.

On all the mommy blogs I see out there in cyberspace, every child's birthday party is amazing. There are themes and tons of children. There are specialty cakes and fun favors. Not to make Asher feel left out, I decided on a theme. Would you like to know what it was? Of course you would. The theme was "cheap and free stuff."

Yep. He got some cheap birthday hats and some cheap red and blue streamers that were hung unevenly through the blinds on our windows. The cake was free: an ice cream cake that Grandpa bought from the grocery store while he was in town that we never busted out. We wrapped things like tic tacs and fruit snacks. I got most of his gifts on sale at the Disney store. I didn't buy anything that wasn't at least half off. There were no kids at his party, unless you count his baby sister.
We did much better last year. Somehow as we were moving into our house we had time to make a Wall-E cake and invite cousins and stuff. Right now all the cousins are in California, so that didn't work out this time. We still have no friends, so there was no one else to invite.

The thing is... it didn't really matter. Asher is only three after all, he doesn't know he is supposed to have friends or themes or anything. He loved opening things like tic tacs just as much as he loved opening his Buzz Lightyear shirt or Hamm piggy bank. He still had a fun time, and hopefully I'll try harder when he is older and he cares more.


See. Look how happy he is. All the time. No matter what.

5 comments:

Tracy said...

You are right! It REALLY doesn't matter when they are this age. Asher is a happy little camper and was probably thrilled just for the extra attention on his birthday. I don't know why people go all out before their kids even care about their birthday. Maybe just to brag and show off their party skills.

Lynette Mills said...

I set the perfect example for low key birthdays... and you guys all lived thru it just fine. I do feel guilty occasionaly but it only lasts for a couple of minutes.

Emily Bartlett said...

I'm totally hearing you on the crazy kid parties that all the crafty mommies out in blog-land are doing. i'm seriously going to randomly decorate a table with cute scrappy things and take pictures and go on and on about it and pretend like i had a cool party. Someday.

Amaryllis didn't get a bday party either. And she played with the brown delivery boxes on her bday, instead of her presents...

Cindy said...

james---I think your home is so pretty just the way it is...it is warm, inviting and comfortable and a fun house for kids to play in...

coming from a mom who has thrown the theme parties...I thought your celebration looked perfect. I wanted to crawl right into the video that Dan made and wanted to be there...all the stress in planning the party i think takes away from the actual event...

you are such a cute mom! I wish I had some of your mom skills...your kids are really lucky to have you!

love you!

Sara said...

i can't agree more with cindy. the low-key bdays generally mean less stressed Mommy. Kids need that more.