Party Time!

Even before I had a child I always thought parties for very young children were silly. I mean they don’t know, so just keep it simple. I subscribed to that idea even after my son was born. Especially since his first birthday was on Thanksgiving. Then as the day approached I started to have a change of heart.
 

What if he looks back and wonders why he didn’t have a party? Would it matter to him? Would it matter to me if we did not take time to stop and celebrate his first year of existence. And then I started to panic.

 

We have a huge family and all the kids are older. It will be November which clearly rules out any possibility of an outdoor event. So what on earth should we do? A children’s museum, a farm, a bounce around party, an indoor water park, the aquarium. No all of those ideas were limited to a certain number of guests or were entirely cost prohibitive. And then it came to me. Pizza and bowling! Children of all ages, adults included, love bowling. And so began the hunt for the venue.
 

We decided on a private room at a newly renovated establishment where I bowled as a child. How times have changed! I remember the days of smoke filled bowling alleys. No more of that. This place was amazing! Even the main area had leather couches instead of those hard plastic chairs. The days of writing your score on a piece of paper are also long since past. Now its electronic and projected on a big screen. The lights were dimmed for a true galactic bowling experience.

 

The baby, now an official toddler, could have cared less. He was more terrified at first by all the goings on. Most of the time was spent in my arms or his fathers and a bit of time with his grandmother playing patty cake. He was excited about three things, pizza and cake and a wrought iron railing he could cruise along near his friend Logan. Who can blame him? I mean I like pizza and cake too! Walking with friends is also pretty darn cool. 

I took lots of pictures. The important part was that he spent time with my friends and family and everyone had a marvelous time. It was the perfect first birthday party and in the end even the personalized goody bags were a hit. All the time I spent fretting was wasted energy and when I look back I know it was worth every penny because of the smiles on the kids faces as they walked out the door of my beautiful baby boy’s very first birthday party.