Monthly Archives: January 2009

How to Host a Kid’s Pirate Party on a Budget

January 26, 2009birthday cakes, birthdays, summerKirsetin

My son has a summer birthday, which has its advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, the weather usually cooperates and we can be outside. With a slew of boys, this is always good. On the other hand, he never gets to hear his class sing “Happy Birthday,” a fact he learned to capitalize on quite early.

Perhaps because his birthday isn’t celebrated at school, we always have a party. However, we haven’t always had the funds—or the inclination—to turn the celebration of another year of life into a pricey affair complete with a scary clown and the moon bounce. Nonetheless, we want his parties to be fun, and memorable.

To this end, when he turned 5 we sent his friends invitations to a treasure hunt. Ahoy, Matey, there’s treasure involved!

The inexpensive fun included:

A tattoo for everyone upon arrival
A pirate hat (homemade, with construction paper)
The homemade cake you see above
Games:

Hot “treasure” (hot potato, with a bag of “gold”) My husband still mocks this game.

Pirate-Pirate-Gold (duck duck goose) Okay, he mocks this one, too.
Pirate tag (tag)
Walk the plank (basically, a very low balance beam made from some wood in our garage)

If these sound completely lame, think again. That’s because you’re all grown up. The kids totally loved this!

But they especially enjoyed finding the clues that led to the treasure—a big gold box (thanks to the magic of spray paint) filled with their goody bags.

After the cake and ice cream, they went after the bad guy (dad) with their balloon swords, sugared up and full of energy just in time for their parents to take them home.

Now that’s what I call a successful party, on a family-friendly budget. Ahoy, indeed!

What I Want My Son to Know

January 26, 2009balance, blog blast, nostalgia, ParentingKirsetin

Before I had you, my life centered around me. Time was a commodity and I spent it doing things I enjoyed: working at a great job, eating at fun restaurants, and reading good books.

When you were born, the center shifted and it was dramatic. As I held you, my first tiny baby, in my arms, I was overwhelmed with the responsibility of being a parent. I was overwhelmed with the responsibility of the road ahead. Instead of seeing the world through the lens of my own wants and needs, my peripheral vision intensified. I was suddenly and deeply aware of how my choices would affect you – you as a baby, as a boy, as a man.

I was overwhelmed, too, by the less significant things: the laundry—which seemed to triple with the addition of one tiny little being; the food—scheduling, and preparing, and feeding; the sleep-deprivation—enough said! Little did I know that your schedule had only begun to affect mine.

Fast forward:

3 boys, 3 schools, 3 book fairs (fall and spring), 3 parent-teacher conferences (fall and spring), 3 PTO meetings (every other month), roller skating parties, birthday parties, soccer practice, games, tournaments, football practice and games, basketball practice and games, yoga, Pilates, updating the scrapbook and the list goes on. The laundry and grocery still need my attention. Writing and speaking take time; lots of it. And don’t forget the fun stuff: foosball, darts, Barnes and Noble visits, dinners out, dinners at home, Yahtzee, dates with dad, and time with my friends.Here’s the thing, sweetheart: there isn’t enough time to do it all, and there isn’t enough time not to do it all. Before I blink you’ll be living in a dorm. You’ll get a job and you’ll marry a wife. You’ll have kids of your own and then, slowly, you’ll begin to understand all of this in a way that you just can’t until that day comes.And I will have time to spare.

So until that day, I balance these things the best I can. On good weeks, I plan ahead. I know on Monday what’s for dinner on Friday, even if the plan is eating out. I have a load of laundry in before you go to school and you get it folded before you head out to practice. The other weeks, I wing it and it’s not always pretty. But either way, we eat together, we play together, and we enjoy time together as a family. These are the moments of balance. The rest is just life, flying by, whizzing more quickly than I could’ve ever believed. I wouldn’t miss participating in it for the world.

Love,
Mom

This week’s blog blast is about motherhood and balance (or the lack thereof). This post about was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by BOCA.

Wii-Free Family Game Night

January 24, 2009family funKirsetin

Have you tried it?

I know, it’s tempting to go Wii bowling or do the hula, and I freely admit that I love to play these things on our friends’ Wii (thanks Sharee’!). But since we remain one of the only Wii-free homes in America (until, maybe, my birthday), our game nights still involve flipping cards, drawing pictures, or rolling the dice.

photo credit: Thunderchild

The boys didn’t have school this Thursday or Friday, so we were able to spend more time playing darts and foosball than usual these past few days. No nasty homework or early bedtimes interfered with the intense competition, thank goodness! And tonight, after I cooked the highly nutritious pizza from Costco for dinner, we all sat down to a game of Yahtzee.

All right. It’s true. I totally cheated. Okay, the boys knew it, and I didn’t take the points, but still, I had the worst Yahtzee rolls in history which was completely unfair. So, occasionally I asked my partner (the 6-year old) to roll again, when we had already used all of our rolls. I didn’t matter. We still lost by a bazillion.

And, you know, it worked out okay. Because I used this unfortunate situation to demonstrate a long-standing truth to the boys: Cheaters Never Win. Bah!

Maybe next time.