I am Birthday-Manic-Obsessive

Birthday Balloons, originally uploaded by girlzone41.

I know that I go overboard. I know it. There are two big weaknesses in my life that do not involve chocolate or books.

Halloween Costumes and Birthday Parties.

There is so much about childhood these days that just sucks. I cannot turn my ten year old loose to roam the neighborhood all summer long. It isn't safe, and I'll opt for safe over free and missing any day. We live in the city, so there's no catching tadpoles or, well, ANYTHING that I remember from my childhood. There are video games and very structured sports leagues. (I was reading an editorial about why the US sucks at soccer--another day)

So I want my kids to have magnificent Birthdays. Is that so wrong? I've never hired a clown or anything...not even a bounce house. But I like a theme and a twist. Something unique. Big O went to the snooty private school for a while, and I knew better thatn to get into the one-upsmanship game with the Neurosurgeon's wife. OOh, I was just bragging about never hiring the clown, but I guess two years ago I did rent the sh*tty two tube waterslides for our exclusive use--it was cheaper than the Pizza Parlor Video Game Extravaganza...hmm.

OKAY, I go alot overboard sometimes. Big O's Birthday is coming up. He'll be 11. We are bowling. Not content with a mere bowling party, I HAD to make it Intertellar bowling, with an alien theme. Big O and I had already discussed doing a pyramid of Krispy Kremes instead of cupcakes, so now I'll just make the top one into a flying saucer... But now I NEED a big picture of an alien head to make a mask on a stick so I can take a group photo of everyone with their alien mask. I thought about making them bowl in the bobbling antennaes, but I think Big O is going to invite a Girl from karate. He's always had girls at his parties, but I think this is a Girl. Capital G. Which kinda means I have to step up my game, right? I don't want my boy to come off as geeky (his father covers that angle nicely, thank you).

I'd like to thank Bree for reining me in about finding alien themed music that no one will pay attention to...and telling me that yes,t-shirts as souveniers would be overboard (but they'd be so cool!). sigh.

I'm sure I'll be blogging more as the party nears. But it just occured to me that my very first post had the cupcakes from Little O's 3rd Birthday. I'll leave you with the cake from her first birthday, which had a Bee theme, because that's Little O's middle name. That's another post in and of itself...