THE November 4 YO tribe ... - Page 6

[abranger]

birthday parties .....

GA hasn't had a party ever yet . Her birthday is Dec 27th and we celebrate both Hanukah and Xmas. We have very generous extended family and friends plus we go a little crazy ourselves. She REALLY doesn't need anything. Well this year she has been asking me when her birthday party is since the spring. She obviously GOES to parties. We have a playgroup that has been together since the kids were less than 8 weeks old that is about 12 families. We are very close to all of those families. And now her class is 16 kids and we've already been to 2 parties from schoolin which all of the class was invited. SO this year we decided to give her a party. It would be way to hard at this point given all of the parties she has been to try to limit the guests. We are going all the way ....: We'll be sharing the party with another kid from our playgroup. We're renting a local theatre (basically a huge room) and having the women who do our spanish music class come in and perform. We'll have pizza or something equally easy. I am thinking the whole thing would be 2 hours or less. We'll invite the immediate world. I am worried about the gifts so I will probably say no gifts since some people will still bring them. Really even now before any holidays this girls needs NOTHING! (another reason I feel so compelled to be a helper mom even though I will be unemployed by the of the year.) Anyone have suggestions on some cute cheap party favors or crafts to do? They can have a spanish theme or not. I was planning to just do something from oriental trading but I thought I would open it to the creativity of this group.

You can feel free to tell me this is a crazy idea ..

Amy

[Mona]

urgh, parties.
being that i hate sugar and hate the typical girl party themes that seem to exist every where i go, i'm also trying to decide what to do for K's party.
Her b'day and mine are two weeks apart, so i think we will have a party together, since i am also very close the mom's of her closest friends. I am honestly considering having a margarita party combined with some kid stuff, but very low key. I personally just want them to get together , play and have fun. Nothing major planned- no competitive games that someone always gets left out of or winds up last, and no games with compliacated directions that half the kids don't even get anyway. In other words, i dont' really want an adult led kids party like seem to be the norm. At the same time, there obviously needs to be some things planned. I'm thinking of a pin the tail on the X(whatever animal chooses) and maybe some other kind of collaborative game, not sure what atm.
It will be small- like 6 kids total (including K) so in theory we really could just allow them to have free play/art most of the time, with the adults socializing. Snacks and food and cake of course. And, did i mention margaritas?

K gets overwhelmed easily, and so i'm really wanting to keep it really low key. If all our friends didn't have two kids, it would be even smaller and easier!!! just kidding!!! oh, and get this. All the kids will be girls. lol.
the boy friends she has are not all that close to us at this time, and tend to bring in crazy energies. lol omg boy energy!! zomg

a friend of mine had some women come in that did a lot of music centered activities. it was great, but at the same time it was so organized. so linear, i guess.

so, to close, i have no idea what we're doing. lol


Amy- the theater thing sounds cool! i also like the spanish idea for a theme. K just recently found dora. omg. lol

ok, not gonna re- read or edit this post. so i guess as always, love me or hate me for my bluntless. /hide

[saritasmile]

Originally Posted by MamaFern

yeah!! im saving up to move to mexico next winter

ya, me too...

i'm so excited about this icon! speaking of...:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15720339/

[Mona]

omg that is evil.

i'm going to florida next week for thanksgiving to visit relatives, i have the laws of florida all ready. lol

[XmasEve]

Wow, that airline story baffles me. Truly awful.

So who's up for a flight to Vermont with me? :

[goddessjulia]

I'm here, dealing with positively wretched morning sickness all friggin' day mine's not 4 yet. planning the party for 11/26, birthday is 11/28. that way all the grandparents can come easily-- both nannas are schoolteachers. he wants bionicle decorations-- I had to ask!

[tea olive]

bionicle.....that gives me a clue about what your boy is like.....

ruby's birthday is this sunday, and i haven't done a durned thing. she asked dh for a pink yoga mat so she could stretch with him, so he got that. my boys always had their parties starting with 4. but today they still have fever and then, i'm not okay with my house right now, and dh has to work 3-11 saturday and 12 hours sunday. and out good friends, one oftwo families i would absolutely wnat to have over, is already having a lazertag for her 9y ds that day. i would have the parties together but i am gonna have to skip it cos to play the game you have to be 7 and clay will cry and i hate those places.

so i feel a little ashamed that i'm not trying hard enough for her. we were going to do a something impromptu at park day last friday with another little boy, but something came up with them.

maybe i can have a party after thanksgiving. or maybe i should quit feeling guilty. i go through this cos i only had two birthday parties as a child and no holidays with the family. certainly i don't need her to acquire the birthday present disease. clay spent every day between 4 and 5 asking when his birthday was and making gift and guest and party activity lists. EVERY SINGLE DAY.

wow, i am not doing well.

[Mona]

casina- sweetie, my goddess, stop beating yourself up!!! sickness can just totally wack every ounce of goodness from you. your entire house was sick- omg. K had a major healing crisis two weeks ago and it totally turned my life upside down. i can't imaging having 3 kids sick. I have suspicion you are totally sleep deprived, not to mention your body is all imbalanced from most likely fighitng off that crud yourself.
i imagine a good night of sleep, a long bath, and some good nutritious food would serve you well.
do you have any rescue remedy? take some so you can take that edge off.

as far as a party- go with what ruby is wanting? does she really want a party? if not, you can do something at home the first day damen has off work. if she wants a party, then have it in a couple weeks when everyone is better and your house and head are in order. She knows you love her, and she knows everyone has been sick. Your excuse can be you need to get the germs out of the house before people come over, and it will take that long for them to go away.

i wish i could give you a big hug right now. everything has gotten all convaluted right now bc of this massive illness, and left you w/o much grounding to deal with things. Try to sink into the earth and remember it is a stage and will pass.
Btw, what sign are you again?
i love you casina.

[calynde]

it's my first time on this thread!! hi everyone!

my little guy turned 4 on the 7th. we do our at home parties with family only (including similarly-aged cousins). Some ideas for a non-commercial birthday experience:

we wrote our son's birth story out for him, in the style of a kid's book or fairy tale...including how his father and I met, thoughts and experiences of the pregnancy with him, his actual birth (minus any grodi details ), and reasons why his name was chosen. Each person, the 3 of us, the midwife, doctor, grandparents, whoever...is a character in the story. We painted the background of the story with watercolors and made it the "birthday story book". Every year around his birthday, we bring it out and tell it over and over again. he adores this. photos of all the various stages are also a big hit. At the party, the story is told in front of the family and our son is always so proud...and happy to be the center of attention in a positive way! we like this to be the main "event" as a way of being both entertaining and honoring his birth. For the storytelling part, besides showing photos, it's also fun to hold up their newborn pyjamas or booties etc. I didn't think a group of young kids would enjoy this, but they did!!

Another cute idea is after the birthday child makes a wish and blows out the candles...you can have the others at the party say what they wish for your child. Little kids say things like "I wish for him to have fun" or "a lot of cake". It's quite sweet.

We don't like commercial parties either, and normally people spend way too much on presents (which are very often something we don't really want). We got around this this year by making a gift "theme". We had bought him a wooden farm, and so we asked each guest to bring one farm animal. Then it wasn't expensive for anyone, but overall he ended up with one nice coherent gift!

anyway, nice to find this tribe!

[majazama]

woohoo!! that's the one I voted for!

calynde~ Whats it like in switzerland? I love your ideas for a birthday book! I might try that.

for Ms.H's birthday, I don't know what to do. I moved, as yall know, and I don't know any other families here. I don't want to do the same thing we did for sasa's birthday (just grama and step grampa came over)... and h keeps talking about her birthday. I want her to have fun with other kids. I was even considering signing her up for preschool for a couple of weeks so that I could meet some other mamas and kids. I always get so emotional at their birthdays. My baby will be 4!!!

[calynde]

Originally Posted by majazama

calynde~ Whats it like in switzerland?

Well, if you're me, and you moved here from San Diego, then the first adjective that comes to mind is COLD! nah, it's lovely...not much to complain about really. It's weird to live outside your home country long-term, though. I feel like I have one foot here and one foot there, which makes it hard to feel rooted, well, anywhere! It's definitely a process!

Even weirder is to be raising my son here, in the midst of nothing but Swissness and to see how "American" he's turning out to be...despite having never even visited the US. His Swiss genes must be recessive!

[majazama]

that's cool ! (pun intented) I live in B.c. canada, and I know all about cold It's pretty progessive there, though, right? Like everything is recyclable...
I've been no where in my life, other than the northern states and eastern canada. *sigh* travelling is something I would sure love to be able to do one day.

It must be in the middle of the day there right now, hey? I'm a night owl. I totally should be in bed right now. (3 am)

[MamaFern]

oh how i miss staying up late!

i was in bed by 11:00 last night. we spent close to 2 hours setting up elwynn's new birthday bed ( i know its early.. but he needed it!) its a low loft bed from ikea (kura) and its so rad! now he has a space that is sister free (which he really needs sometimes!) and a place to play under and keep all of his toys. our house is pretty spacially challenged, so anything that makes more room is good!

on other news.. we may be getting a 2 week old foster baby in our home today! we got a call yesterday from my moms social working asking if we would be open to it and my mom and i both said YES!! we dont know any details right now exept that it is an emergency situation and that they desperately need a family for it. im totally dying to know whatsis going on. when i heard i was like "lets go get it!! NOW!" and i wonder if i can breastfeed it.. and if i can get the diapers together to cloth diaper it.. but its not up to us at this point. anyways, ll keep you all posted. im waiting by the phone.
its soo so sad as well.. im excited because i love babies, but i wish that no baby ever had to be a way from its momma.

and yeah, im working ..so id beter go

[Mona]

omg fern, how exciting!!!

[goddessjulia]

Originally Posted by tea olive

bionicle.....that gives me a clue about what your boy is like....

yeah, it really does : I second the pp, casina, go easy on yourself and rest up. I am a total slacker mom with this m/s and I just can't worry about it! It's all I can do to fix frozen peas right now

hang in there!

[goddessjulia]

Originally Posted by majazama

woohoo!! that's the one I voted for!

me too!

[tea olive]

hey everyone. welcome, calynde, please don't mind my current state. i'm glad you are so excited, fern.

i don' mean for my post to be disruptive to the thread, but after wailing so much i feel responsible to report back. it has meant so much to me to know y'all are here. i have had a hard time trusting myself with my real life relationships right now because i am been acting so weird. i'm not sure if one of my best friends is distancing herself or if it is just me being distant cos i don't want to rub my bad vibe and disappointments on her.

i am feeling much better, and the kids were playing seminormally today. haha, that means they were not fighting as much as usual. i wanna work to keep that.

i opened a book this evening abt women and ADD. it completely resonates with me, though i am hesitant to adopt the idea so easily. i don't trust my flighty self. but it makes lots of puzzles in my life make sense, puzzles i had not known were there. it is interesting that one therapy is to prescribe desaprimine, an antidepressant. the time my mom made me see a psychiatrist when i was 23, he finally decided to give me that after a few months, and i felt wonderful that first week, i woke up in the morning and slept normally. and then i got hives. he told me i should not have felt anything so quickly, so he had a psychologist test me, a big long multiple choice thing. when i met this guy for the results, he completely slammed me. he told me i was a liar and delusional. i just cried and cried, and he continued his assessment and i refused to ever go back. the one thing i have always known i am not is a deceiver. i have never had the energy to expend that way. i can see how my answers could have seemed that way, the more i learn about ADD.

anyway. kids illness is funny, because i always find it a break from my failures in daily responsibility. i can just focus on them and let everything else disintegrate. as long as i am sure i don't need a doc. the idea of it makes me wild. our insurance kicks in january.

ruby wants a party here in this house and she wants this 60 dollar my little pony castle. i have looked and looked at it. i could afford to buy it this one time. i have no place for it. it is a horrid piece of plastic that will break and get dirty. yes, she will play with it. lots, and she will actually take care of it. i am the mom and it ain't a great investment in my ideal and i should put my foot down and when i looked at it yesterday i decided not to get it and got her an outfit. but she is expecting it. unfortunately, the boys have been using it for leverage all year, cos they saw a commercial for it the one time they watched tv this year and have seen it from a distance at walmart. anytime they really wanted her to do something and she refused, they would say, okay ruby, no horsey-pony castle for you! so there is an emotional value, even though i put a stop to that practice awhile back, after it had gone on for a month. now that i think about it, she sure screamed less then. i have spent probably 5-6 hours of my life sheerly pondering just this thing in my free time which is a shame. i should just buy it and get it over with and curse the money later, which i would rather send to rynna or punk, but this is my daughter, right? modern materialism stinks. when reed and clay were this age they got nothing like this. and they are the ones that have helped expose her to it, with my assistance.

lately i'm either i'm gonna ramble or say nothing, and i apologize. i beg your tolerance or indifference. okay, i'm gonna quit rereading and editing now.

[majazama]

casina~ you've hit 1000 posts!! :

and ...

[tea olive]

well now, what a way to start being a senior member!!!!! LOL

now you know it is y'alls fault for being so delicious and interesting and wonderful that i have made that many posts.....

[Mona]

hugs casina.
btw, i'd buy her the castle pony.