Birthday plans

Maddy is having a "school friends party" this year for her birthday. It's her first, which means it's also my first. I've ducked the responsibility of throwing a "real" birthday party for almost 7 years. I had a good run.

I heard somewhere from some celebrity (which proves that it's sage advice) that the appropriate number of kids to have at a child's birthday party is the age they are turning, plus one. Therefore I allowed her to invite 8 friends. It seemed like a reasonable number at the time. Plus the invites come in packages of 8, which is a clue to the uninformed that 8 is the preferred number of guests. Never mind the fact that if there is only one host that leaves you with an odd number of people. Which makes seating an issue, but that doesn't really apply here. Considering we will be serving pizza from a picnic table that is sitting in wood chips. But moving on...

I didn't consider that 8 kids also means up to 16 parents, plus the possibility of siblings. Yikes. We are talking a major party here. If on average every kid has one sibling we could have 32 guests. But that is assuming everyone comes, which I highly doubt will happen. Right?

Power Rangers is the theme. So girly, I know. But hey, it's what she wanted, who am I to judge? It will be nice to break away from the pink and flowers for a bit. We went to a birthday party this weekend for a little girl in the neighborhood and everything was so perfectly themed. Strawberry Shortcake. We even ate actual strawberry shortcake, on Strawberry Shortcake plates, with Strawberry Shortcake forks. The kids played pin the strawberry on the cake and whacked a strawberry pinata. Maddy came home with a Strawberry Shortcake tatoo on her arm, and a strawberry shaped goodie bag. There were even home made chocolates in the shape of strawberries. The mom talked about how hard it was to find the pinata and how she had to order the forks online. She planned. She researched. She created.

Me? I was planning on swinging by Party City on the way to the park that morning and picking up whatever they happen to have. Is that bad?