Happy birthday Violet!

My little bird Violet celebrated her 9th birthday this past weekend. I love throwing a good birthday party but have been a little off my game in recent years. Yes, this is the drawback of multiple children and a busy schedule.  My oldest children were lavished with over the top parties at horse barns with carriage rides, treasure hunts and ornate cakes in the shape of castles and dragons, full on dinners with homemade favourites and a house full of people with a truck load of presents.  Not to mention loot bags fitting the theme and stuffed full of goodies for all the guests.
This weekend’s party required a lot less work, a lot less money but was still a whole lot of fun and Violet couldn’t have been happier. Here are a few tricks that helped make it a simple yet sensational party.

• Make it a toonie party! Request the guests bring some change and a card rather than a gift. It costs less for the attendees and your home isnt bombarded with tonnes of new clutter, I mean, toys. The birthday girl gets to take the money collected and save up for a big ticket item or better yet, save up for college or a car for when she turns 16.

• Decorate your own cake: rather than going out and buying a cake make a bunch of mini cakes or cupcakes, whip up some icing of various colors and buy some candies to garnish. The girls loved being the Cake Boss and it kept them busy for a chunk of time. When they finished decorating, we popped a candle in the birthday girl’s mini cake, sang Happy Birthday and gobbled up the cakes.

• Have a Plan:  it’s always good to have more than enough activities to occupy the time. I always have games, crafts and activities lined up to avoid boredom or worse yet, chaos.

• Keep the goody bags simple and useful: a pair of socks, a package of skittles and note thanking our guest for coming.

Okay, so my party won’t make it on Pinterest or in Good Housekeeping or Today’s Parent but everyone had a blast, I kept my sanity and more importantly, the birthday girl was delighted…now to start planning Liam’s birthday party which is less than 2 weeks away…eeek!