Finally - The Birthday Party

Fortunately, Dermot's birthday party was much better than the real day when he stayed home with us. I should point out, though, that Dermot's birthday party was on Saturday and the Friday before he was diagnosed with his very first case of strep throat. Antibiotics and Tylenol kept the boy going. We had the party at Little Gym, which I really like. The parties there are only for the kids invited. So many of the kids' parties around here involve going to some obnoxious place with tons of kids and then spending half an hour in a side room. At Little Gym, it was just us. We were supposed to have 12 kids including Dermot, but 2 kids got sick and couldn't come. That happened to me all the time with my December birthday. So I had talked about that to prepare Dermot for the possibility. He was fine with all of that.

We got there a little early and set up, but everything was really all ready for us. We just had to put the food in the party room and put the goodie bags behind the counter. This year, since the kids are older, some of the parents stayed outside of the gymnastics area. So I played host to them and Ethan went inside with the kids. There were two teachers there too to help the kids. They did a mixture of free play, dance, and organized games. Dermot had to sit out a couple of times because he just didn't have the energy. Poor guy, but he didn't let it get him down. He cuddled with Ethan for a little bit and then he took pictures of all of his friends having fun. The kids had a blast. Since it has been so cold here, the kids had been locked inside for over a week. They all took advantage of being able to run around like crazy people. They all followed directions and didn't bother each other too. It was really lovely.

After an hour of play, it was time for the party room. Everyone else always has pizza for the kids, but I refuse to spend my money on non-vegan items, and I knew the kids would freak out about cheeseless pizza. So instead we just brought snacks. We brought Tings, pita chips, and hummus. Tings were mostly what the kids ate. Little Gym provided juice boxes and we brought in bottled water. I didn't even think of soda until we were there since we don't really drink it. Dermot wanted his vanilla soy milk, but that would have been obnoxious to bring. They make juice boxes of it, but I can only find them at Whole Foods. I wasn't about to go to another store for all of this stuff.

After the snacks came cupcakes. We bought 30 cupcakes from the vegan bakery (sweet avenue bake shop). We bought a mixture of red velvet, vanilla, and chocolate. We had asked what the kids wanted ahead of time. The people at the store are so cool and they have gotten to know Ethan and Dermot a little bit. They made Dermot a special cupcake without us asking them too. They put a picture of Batman on top as a surprise for him. The owners are a young couple and the wife's sister. The husband is a total Star Wars and Batman fanatic. Dermot has a Batman hat and gloves and so the guy started talking to Dermot about them. That's why they knew the cupcake would make him happy.

After the cupcakes it was time to go. Goodie bags for everyone. Dermot wanted a Batman theme for the party and all of the goodie bags had a ton of Batman stuff - masks, rubber bracelets, blowouts, and I sent out Batman thank you cards. I also put in Swedish fish, ring pops, and now and laters. Everything was very Dermot and he wanted a goodie bag for himself. He even put his name on the bag after I made them. I'm such a sneaky mom that I went out and bought him some extra stuff for his bag that he had no idea about until we got into the car. I bought him a small Clone Wars Lego set, a Spiderman lollipop, and orange tic-tacs (since he's always eating mine). He was so surprised and happy.

The best part of the party was that all of the kids had a great time and then we all go to leave. It was really fantastic to just leave when it was over and not have to put anything away or clean up. That was totally worth the money.

The sweetest thing is that one of the girls who was at the party was talking about how much fun she had at the party when Ethan dropped Dermot off at daycare on the next Monday. She was also wearing her Batman rubber bracelet. That made me happy too.

Dermot got quite a haul with his presents. His friends really had an idea of what he wanted. He got a sticker maker (Disney), a Spiderman car, a Batman cape, two action figures that he didn't have, two sets of generic legos for him to create his own stuff, some stuff he did have, but we already went to Toys R us and turned them in along with his gift card and got more Legos.

After all of that, I still think that next year I don't want to do a party. I think I would rather have 2-3 friends over at our house. But we'll see maybe I'll change my mind by the end of this year. Dermot will have all new friends once he starts kindergarten, and that may change a lot of things.