Naomi turned seven last Friday. Pretty unbelievable! We had her party over the weekend, and it was CRAZY! Crazy fun…I hope. Six weeks ago, I asked her if she still wanted a tea party for her birthday, because that’s what she’d told me in December.
N: No, I want a city theme.
Mama: What do you mean?
N: I want to have shops and the kids can have coins and spend money in the shops.
Mama: What kind of shops?
N: Oh…[here follows a long list of shops]
Mama: Well, we’ll have to talk to Daddy about that.
Telling the kids that we’ll have to talk to Daddy about something is a good way to buy time. My initial reaction to the city theme and turning every room in our house into a shop was NO STINKING WAY! Do you realize that, if we do that, the ENTIRE house will have to be clean at once? Hah! However, I wisely ignored my purely selfish initial reaction and in the end, we had the city theme. Which got more and more elaborate as time went on.
N: Can we have city scenes on all the windows?
N: I’d like to have a Star Bucks.
N: How are we going to do the cars?
Dear readers, I did draw the line at cars. We negotiated that either it could be a walkable downtown area OR the kids could do pretend cars, whichever they preferred. Cars came up 3 days before the party, and I was not ready to figure out how to do them – there was plenty of other work to do!
The thing is, the other kids’ birthdays are in the summer – or close enough. There are tons of fun summer options for birthday parties, like going outside and running around like crazy. For some reason, that party plan never gets old. Winter birthday parties in our area are tricky, and certain things, like pizza at the bowling alley, aren’t good alternatives for us because my kids can’t eat pizza. Last year we did the folk dance birthday party, which was also totally fun. So, if Naomi wanted to do the city theme, and I could pull it off, I figured it would be memorable and fun, which is a good thing for a birthday party.
It didn’t end up being too complicated or expensive, either. We had to clean the whole house, but it was a good excuse to do so. We moved a few things around (and some have yet to return to their original places), but we actually also got our bedroom furniture how I have wanted it for a while. And I turned the rug around in the dining room so that the part that Hildy the bunny chewed isn’t in the main pathway any more.
The main thing is, it was really fun.
Did I mention that there was face painting (by my very talented sister) in the city’s beauty shop? Also nail painting and hairdos. Face painting was by far the most sought-after thing in the whole city.
Ladies enjoying the Star Bucks (Hannah wanted it in two words, presumably to avoid any litigious action by the one-worded store). The kids paid coins for snacks and drinks. This was probably the second most-popular area.
My sister created the cityscapes on the big windows downstairs. We opted not to do EVERY window.
The craft shop, with a couple of craft options and helpful workers (Hannah and her godmother, the crafting queen) to help customers put the crafts together.
Simeon sold tickets to the movie. He was SO EXCITED about it. The tickets were a joint effort of our kids and the local cousins, and the booth was designed and executed by Hannah and local boy cousin.
The movie theater was in the basement. It showed Looney Tunes. Naomi no longer harbors a deathly fear of Looney Tunes. (Oh, yes, she really did FEAR Looney Tunes.) Don’t ask about the muppets, though. Still not keen on them.
As you can see, the birthday girl took advantage of the face painting. And the cake was a creation of mine, meticulously and not terribly expertly put together. Happily, Naomi loved it. Notice that she’s using her left hand to hold back Tess from mauling the cake.
More face painting.
We decided to go the ultra-realistic route and even had garbage pickers. Okay, they were really the babies who could walk, and they were getting into the Star Bucks trash. Also, Tess figured out VERY QUICKLY that chocolate cake crumbs left behind by children are absolutely delicious.
Besides the beauty parlor, Star Bucks, craft shop, and movie theater, we also had a play dough area, a library, and a game room. We had story time, assisted by a good friend (man, we could NOT have pulled this off without our friends – thank you all so much!), who read to a large and enthusiastic crowd.
It turned out to be a gorgeous day here, too, so after cake and all the shops, the kids ended up in the back yard running around until dark.
It was totally fun, and I still can’t believe that tiny little baby is now seven.
