Yeah, the weather’s nice and yeah the kids are out of school with nothing but time, but trying to plan a summer party for your kid blows.
The kids may be available all summer long but the first thing I always worry about is how to invite these kids, who I may not have all the contact info for. When they are in school, getting them an invitation is so much easier. The kids takes it to school and hand it out. My daughter’s kindergarten year was the first time she had other friends to invite. I tried sending her with invitations in the last week of school. The main problem is her birthday is in July and school gets out in May. Most people will forget all about it by the time July rolls around. I think we got 1 taker.
Then, you have to contend with summer vacations. The kids don’t have school so most people take their family trips during the summer. My kid’s saving grace is that their birthdays aren’t around holidays like 4th of July when folks will definitely have plans. My daughter is at the end of July and my son is the middle of August, right before school starts back up again. So everyone should be back from their vacations by then.
I may have found a very formal answer. Almost business-like. I made save-the-dates for my daughters’ birthday. A small card with the date of the party and my email so that any parents who want to plan on going can send me their address so, in July, I can send them an actual invitation.
I guess I should consider myself lucky. More kids means more work. I just don’t want them feeling like no one wants to go. I have a July birthday, too. My mom never put much effort in so I never got to have the big birthday parties with all my friends like everyone else did because it was summer.
The other problem with summer birthdays, especially here in Vegas, is the heat. Water is a necessity and we don’t have a pool. Again, I can consider myself lucky. Kids and water can mean trouble. I would be worried about danger. We can get by with inflatables, sprinklers and water balloons. Kids don’t need much more than that. It helps that my daughter wants a mermaid party. Plenty of “keep cool” options. My son wants a dinosaur party. We may make that indoors-only. We’ll see.
Mermaid is a fun theme, though. Last year was unicorns and it turned out great. Can’t wait to see what we come up with this time.
Wonderful Randomness 