I was reading another blog the other day that talked about the amazing amount of commercialism associated with children's programming...it got me to thinking about some of the birthday parties that i have been to for younger cousins in past years...they all seem to have to have some major theme, that is usually associated with a children's show and every piece of decoration, food, etc. is covered with their favorite character...now, i don't mean to criticize...i don't think that television is evil...i mean, we all had our favorite cartoon characters, and yes, jack does watch the occasional baby einstein, sesame street, and ball games with his daddy...but i agree with this other blogger that i don't want jack's room in a few years to be covered from floor to ceiling with tv show paraphanalia...
and more importantly...it reminded me once again that my mom threw the BEST birthday parties in the world!
i could go on and on, but just to name a few of my favorites...
my 5th birthday was a tea party...everyone came in their dress up clothes and brought their baby dolls-except for one girl who chose to come dressed as a dad...my mom made tiny sandwiches and set up card tables in our living room, and she and some of her friends were the waitresses...then after we ate, she had baked little individual cakes for all of us and we got to decorate them...it was such a simple idea, but it still is one of my favorite memories...
on my 8th birthday, i got to have the infamous sleepover...i do believe that was also the year i got the hot pink leather skirt...wow, gotta love the 80s...i have a summer birthday, so we had the olympics in our back yard...my mom set up an obstacle course, consisting of my brother's fisher price car, a swingset, a hula hoop, a picnic bench, a baton, a wading pool and, of course, a slip-n-slide...it was so fun...we all went through and cheered for each other, and then at the end got medals and sang the national anthem in the silly way that you can imagine a bunch of 8 year old girls doing! then after we got inside and cleaned up and opened presents, had cake, etc...we had another game where we paired off...i believe we were given notecards with animal names on them and we had to close our eyes and make that animals sound until we found the other person doing the same sound, and that was our partner! then we were given a roll of toilet paper and sent to various places in the house and told that we would have a toilet paper fashion show in 20 minutes...it was so fun...we had cheerleaders...brides...football players...and to this day, i still cannot figure out how in the world my friend shara made such a beautiful wedding gown, veil, and boquet out of one roll of toilet paper! surely she is a fashion designer now!
my little sister's 3rd birthday was in the backyard, a hamburger cookout and a pony that all of the kids got to ride in a circle around the backyard...my brother's 4th birthday was a jungle party where we all wore safari hats and my mom had decorated the living room with plants and sheets, and made it into a rainforest...it also helped that the living room had bright green carpet...it was also always fun that at a siblings party, we were allowed to invite one friend also...
oh, i could go on and on...but mainly i just wanted to talk about how blessed i feel to have grown up in a house where creativity and imaginative play were encouraged and modeled-i hope that even in this age of severe overmarketing and, to quote that other blogger, merchandising frenzy, that i can teach jack to appreciate creativity...i hope he will have campouts in the family room under a tent of sheets and pillows, i hope he will put on shows for matt and me on saturday nights, i hope that our home will be filled with stories and music and not just the hum of a television in the background...and i hope that my son will never lose the God-given ability to dream beyond what common sense tells you is possible...
i believe i have one of the most creative mothers in the world, and i feel so lucky that she was the one throwing my birthday parties, making stories from the Bible and other books come alive, and teaching me to embrace my imagination...she has always had a natural ability to engage children, and they can't help but fall in love with her...i got an extra bonus...i get to call her mom
5 comments:
This is the other Kate. Tine, I love your mom's creative ideas! I remember my mom making palm trees to fill up our living room and sewing me a beach dress for my Hawaiian party. The best memories are not when we gathered around the TV, but when we used our own imaginations to turn a bridge into a flying car and a treehouse into a mansion.
It is funny that you write about that today.
At lunch, we were talking about one of the teacher's daughter's weekend.
Apparently the new thing for middle schools is to do a "retro" birthday theme parties like Barney or Barbie.
A 6th grader's weekend consisted of 2 birthday parties. But not just a birthday party like you were describing.
The first one was a Barbie theme party at the birthday girl's house and had 60 guest! There was a live band playing while the parents cooked out at the outdoor kitchen. The pond was sloped like a beach and painted like so where the deep end is dark blue. The pool also had spontaneous fountains shooting out. Not to mention the 60 birthday presents!
That was only Friday!
Sat. was another 6th grader's party where they rented a hummer limo and went to Kemah for dinner and rides all paid for.
This 6th grader has a more exciting life than I! And she is only 12...
I remember when my town got a McDonald's and I got to have my 8th birthday party there. I thought that was the pinnacle of birthday parties. Happy Meals were new then. That's how old I am!
What a blessing to have such a creative, imaginative mom. I had one of those too! My favorite party was my 13th birthday when I had a surprise sleepover for my friends! I was the only one who knew about it and their parents did too. My mom and I took the good ole suburban and put all the seats down, went to pick everyone up and they were all in their pajamas already and very surprised! I'm encouraged by your blog to make our home a place of creativity as well!
Hey Tine!
Thanks for stopping by my blog. I was really glad to hear from you. I just checked out your pics of Baby Jack and he's so beautiful!! I would love to see you and catch up and meet your wonderful little boy...it's been too long. I miss you and I hope to see you soon.
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