Sep 18 Is it only me who never wants to throw a birthday party?

Who invented birthday parties?  The children are already planning their respective parties and the birthdays are not until after Christmas!

Is it wrong that the thought of them fill me with dread?  I smile a wry grin when I say this to other mums as it seems I am not alone in my displeasure at making sandwiches that curl up at the ends as they dry out in some random community centre as no one eats them.  Instead they dive on the the dinky brownies and flapjacks that were hastily thrown in the trolley.

The Party bag that cost a fortune to put togethe,r only to be relocated to that overflowing kitchen drawer that contains all manner of crap that will one day be useful.  Why do we do it -shall I be the first to break the mould?

This year I plan to give Erin a party – after the year she has had and spending her second birthday in spica she deserves it more than most.  However what do you do?  She goes to nursery and has her friends from there plus a number of family friends.  I think I may invite a few friends for a play date and cake in the afternoon.  But it’s a tad awkward when you don’t know the mums.  Will they think I am a bad mum cracking open the wine to swig through a three year olds party? I kind of feel I failed when I had winter babies, no whacking up a bouncy castle in the garden and getting the hubby on a BBQ for us.  It needs to be house based.  I need to pile in more people than my lounge was designed for.  Do you feel my pain?  What do you do?

I think it does get a little easier as they get older.  We vowed to stop parties at ten, but Chloe has rail roaded me into a birthday disco this Jan as she becomes a teenager.  It seems easier – hire a community, throw a few bowls of crisps around, hire a disco and ta dah it is done.  I guess I should be grateful that she still wants parties with her parents present – I am sure in another few years time the parties she attends will be a great deal messier. 

Therefore I will once again be joining the one upmanship for the perfect party.  All I know is that seeing as it is also a celebration of me giving birth I expect Gin and lots of it!