Owl’s third birthday is coming up very soon, and that puts a lot of pressure on me.
Owl has been looking forward to his birthday party… well, since his last birthday party. Every time he sees cakes in the store, he says “Some day, I’ll have a birfday, Mommy! Then I get birfday cake. Some day. Some day…”
Ditto for balloons, party hats etc that he sees hanging on the rack.
“Ooh, I get dis when I have my birfday.”
He spied an Angry Birds cake in Dairy Queen in July and he still talks about getting an Angry Birds cake. I’ll try and get him excited about ANYTHING ELSE.
We were originally going to have his birthday at the same place we had his last party. It was cheap, and fun, and he had a great time.
Unfortunately, they were booked solid through September.
So we had to start looking at other options.
I didn’t really like any of the other options – yeah, we could reserve space at a local play gym, but he could go to those any time – and does.
But by some miracle, Science World had an opening, at our preferred time, ON HIS BIRTHDAY no less. BOOKED.
But then there was more stress – their party for 2 and under is cheaper and more simple – you get a party room, and access to the centre. You also get free admission for 10 children under 3 (which is dumb, because they admit children under 3 for free anyway) and for 10 adults (better).
The other option is for 3-7. They have a 30 minute science “demo” and you get admission for 10 kids over 3, but only 2 adults (basically, you and your partner). It also costs way more.
So we had to decide what to do. Would Owl appreciate the 30 minute demo enough to justify the extra money? Don’t forget that we’d have to pay admission for all of the parents too. Oh, and at least half of the invited children if not MORE would be between the ages of one and three. We definitely don’t know 10 children over three.
So we went with the cheaper, more boring option. I keep having crises of anxiety where I worry that I’ll regret not getting the actual guided program. Otherwise, we just paid for a room, right? I mean, sure, it’s a room at the SCIENCE CENTRE, which is AWESOME, and we’ve been wanting to take Owl there for a long time. But will the kids play with each other? Probably not. They’ll probably eat food, open presents, and run off to explore the centre and won’t play with each other.
Maybe I should have just rented out the play gym.
ARRRRGH.
The kid better enjoy this.
If By Yes 
Would the kids have played with each other at the play gym? If they are under 3, probably not, there would be a lot of parallel play and “mommy look at me!” I think the science centre sounds GREAT.
It’s true, it’s mostly parallel play, although Owl has a tendency to follow other children around and try to get them to interact with them. “You want me? Yes? Let’s play!”
Sounds like you chose the best option. You can’t guarantee a group that age would pay attention to a 30 minute demo and they probably wouldn’t be playing with each other in any environment anyway. This way, everyone gets to have fun at their own pace and Owl gets to see something new on his birthday.
I think he’ll love it there, too. SO STIMULATING.
My experience so far with children’s parties is that the more formal activities never go down so well. An interesting environment and letting them loose sounds just perfect. They’ll have a brilliant time.
I know exactly how you feel. It gets worse as they get older! But they’ll be fine! It sounds like lots of fun for that age group. Honestly, until my oldest turned four, his parties were all at home and the kids just played for a while and we did pizza, cake, and present opening. That was enough. The most I did before then was buy the inflatable bouncer for the third birthday to give them something extra to do, but it probably wasn’t necessary. (Glad I have it, though.)
If our house wasn’t do tiny we’d do it at our house for sure. But a downstairs space of 500 square feet in a non-open floor plan is no good for groups of more than five people!
Oh, I hear you! That’s why we moved them out of the house in the first place. Once we had more friends, and then younger siblings came along, it was just way too much for our space with all the kids and parents. That’s the beauty of now having kid-only parties for the older kids: back to the house and cheaper! Then again, I get so anxious about entertaining them that way. My favorite party so far was at a mid-sized playgym. They had free play for a half hour, organized play with a staff member for another half hour, and then we had pizza and cake and gifts in the party room. It was perfect! Sadly, the only playgym here is way too big for that. And it’s pricey.
All in all, I think I’ll enjoy birthdays more when they’re old enough to just pick one friend and we can go out to eat and to a movie, like I did after gade three! 😛