My baby boy recently celebrated his 11th birthday and per his extremely last minute request, we hosted a simple party at home.
In years past, I'd become accustomed to having his birthday parties at event spaces that did most of the work for me. They would host, decorate, provide the food and entertainment.
I loved not having much to. And that was a stark contrast to how I used to host parties when my kids were super young.
I'd stay up late finishing up all my DIY crafts or decor, prepping the food and planning the timeline. I enjoyed every stressful minute, after seeing the end result and my vision come to life. But as my youngest got older and the budget got bigger, I decided to leave the diy parties behind.
Not to say I'd never done event space parties before. I've had parties at the Children's Museum, a gymnastics center, a soccer arena, the movie theater and a national park.
For the semi- diy to practically no diy involved parties, all I had to do was show up, with maybe a few personal touches. I love those parties. The originality of diy is lacking but I love the stress-free prep.
I thought this year, my youngest would continue with another event space party, maybe Chuck E Cheese, since we hadn't done that yet. But he surprised me by not wanting a party... until 2 days before his birthday.
Scrambling last minute, I put together a simple little celebration at home, and with the help of his siblings, the party was a success. But boy was I stressed at one point because true to my nature, a simple affair is never simple.
I made three different main dishes plus a few sides and I had to have snacks for my guests to graze on. This party took me back to my diy party days, stress included and now I know why I stopped doing them.
No matter how small, no matter how simple, at home diy parties bring a certain level of stress. It was a nice bit of nostalgia but I'll stick to a birthday trip, a birthday dinner or an all inclusive party from here on out.
