Mystery Bag

What a coincidink! We had my youngest's birthday on the weekend as well. We have a tradition of doing elaborate theme parties. This one was super-hero school. You'll read all about it as soon as I'm recovered enough to post a recap. Sorry that your previous experiences have been "circle of hell", though. It's all in the presentation!

believe it or not, it was in the back of my mind how much you enjoy and put into your kids' parties, so i think i was ever-so-slightly inspired to try to do a better job of it this year. we did a very loose carnival theme and actually had more than enough stuff to fill the time, which added to the enjoyment factor. nothing worse than running out of things to do and then dealing with chaos and/or bored children!

I remember doing that when I was a kid. I hated the cold spaghetti. I always freaked out over it beacuse I knew it was cold spaghetti. I would have been fine if they told me it was brains or something.

that's like the opposite of what's supposed to happen! ;-)

Hey, mjrc. I just read Mentok's post and yours, and it occurs to me that the real trick is trying to have fun with these parties. The kids, I imagine (since I don't really know), with enough cake and other sugary things, are almost guaranteed to have fun, at least until they are socially aware. I like the gross things things in bags. Did you have some kind of bug simulant? That would give me the willies.

bug simulant--lol! yes, as a matter of fact we did. we had gummy worms. that was one that they figured out, though. the other substances were peeled grapes, spaghetti and cool whip. the grapes grossed them out the most.

i think the trick is having enough for them to do, plus the age group was fun. eight year olds are old enough to know what's going on but still young enough to be spooked and such.

mentok, on the other hand, probably has more fun than the children do at his parties! (oh i kid, i kid lyle!) but he really goes all out. we could all learn a lot from him and his wife when it comes to birthday parties. : )

Actually, the parties are a lot of stress for me... performance anxiety, pacing the floors, obsessive-compulsive rehearsals, all that kinda thing.

You are right that the trick is pacing...not pacing the floors, but pacing in terms of timing. We usually allow at most 10 minutes per activity, maybe 15 minutes if it's some sort of craft, so you have to be prepared with a constant flow of activities. When the kids aren't physically doing something, bombard them with bombastic talk and gesticulation. Circus ringmasters are good examples.

Anyway, thanks for all the kind words. I'm hardly altruistic; I get a lot out of those things myself. Although the parties themselves are stressful, I get to be Dad of the Year around the neighbourhood and get a lot of 'street cred' with my kids' buddies.