Birthday Done Right

We celebrated Johnny's 7th birthday this past weekend. We had a handful of our homeschool friends, a cousin, and some neighborhood kiddos over to celebrate. It was a very good day.

We didn't erupt a volcano cake this year. No tornado cake was requested. No birthday cake disasters of any kind were asked for. Johnny simply requested allergen-friendly Namaste spice cake with milk-free cream cheese frosting. A favorite of his and very yummy for nonallergic people too.

I want to share a couple of helpful party ideas for the parents that are tired of the child birthday party excesses. My first idea is the nerf-dart-gun-war. We asked guests to bring their own nerf dart guns with protective eyewear if they had them and any extra guns they could share for children that might not have one. We supplied the nerf dart ammunition. The kids and some adults then split into two teams and had a dodgeball style nerf-dart-gun-war. I officiated which basically means I sent kids and adults back into the game in a timely manner. We also played a variation where dodgeball and dodge-nerf-dart went on simultaneously. A good rule to include for either type of war is that if a person gets hit in the head that he is not out. I now bid a delightful farewell to the moonwalk.

My other idea which worked great was to not give out party favors. Not a single kid asked for them. Party favors are landfill pure and simple. I'd rather wipe my butt with the cash than buy the party favors. At least then the money would have served a useful purpose.