After I wrote my post Monday, I had a conversation with a good friend of mine regarding sleepovers.  She has a daughter, age 5, who LOVES the idea of sleepovers, but she isn’t quite ready for it - nor are her friends.  Each child reaches that point of being able to handle the overnight separation at their own pace; to deem a specific age as the “ready age” for spending the night away from home is impossible.  Nevertheless, her child was convinced that she NEEDED a slumber party for her 5th birthday (don’t you love the influence of older siblings???).  Genius that my friend is, she came up with a solution - the fake sleepover. Read more…

My younger son will be turning three this weekend (and Susan’s middle child will have a birthday soon, too!).  So, you can only imagine the preparations that are happening around our home right now.  Grocery lists are mounting, decorations are being sorted and created, RSVPs are actually coming in, and food is being prepared.  But, in all of this, I have discovered the most important part of pre-party preparation is having my son be an intregal part of it. Read more…

I went to the birthday party of one of my dearest friends’ daughter this past weekend - her first birthday.  It is a monumental occasion, those first birthdays.  It is a reflection of the past twelve months, of the accomplishments and milestones that have been crossed, of remembering that amazing moment when parent and child first lay eyes on each other.  And, in Addy’s case, it was extra-sweet: she had been born nine weeks early, spent six weeks and NICU and overcame some pretty big obstacles along the way.  Here she was, a year later, diving into a applesauce-sweetened spice cake and smearing pale pink icing from ear to ear (and not necessarily just her own ears!).  Those first birthdays are definitely a major milestone.

It was time to turn on a bit of the think-tank to come up with a present for Addy; after all, there were over forty other people in attendance (don’t freak out - they were all mostly relatives) and all bearing gifts.  Your typical tub toy or outfit wouldn’t hold a candle to this crowd.  So, I sat down and created a list of some ideas for gift-giving to be a little bit “different”.  Read more…

We recently had our son’s 8th birthday and party, and I was quite overwhelmed with the number of websites out there with birthday party tips and ideas.  So, here are a few of my favorites, pared down from the almost 100 sites I originally bookmarked! Read more…