It's My Party - Or Is It?

I have to confess, I don't get these parents that give their children birthday parties every year. I grew up as one of six children. We had a birthday party on our 6th birthday, and on our 16th birthday. Other birthdays were celebrated with cake and ice cream, presents and the dinner of our choice. Since I started having my own children, I'm amazed at the number of my contemporaries that plan parties for their children every. single. year. And each party has to top the last one. Plus, when we weren't homeschooling, I noticed that mothers would bring cake and little presents and party favors to class during the school day as well. They had a little mini-party in the classroom in addition to the real party.

Now I usually made cupcakes to take to class when one of my children had a birthday. But we didn't do all the party favors and extras. We have limited money. I spent that money on birthday presents for my children and on making their birthday nice. Not on throwing a big party.

The reason this is coming up now is because Luke is turning 16 on Sunday. Both of our kids that hit 16 before him, got a party for their birthday. So Luke is getting one too. We just had trouble figuring out when. And where. And how. Lots of things in everyone's schedule these days, and what good is it to have a party if no one is available to come. We discussed different weekends, but we don't have any free ones anywhere close to his birthday.

Luke was being very helpful. He suggested having a bunch guys come over around noon on a Friday, and we could take them back home again sometime Saturday evening. I told him he wasn't having a 24 or 30 hour party. Just not a good idea. Then he wanted to have the guys over all day, followed by a rally our youth group was going to that evening, followed by a lock-in that the youth group was having that night. Again we thought that was a little much for one day.

Thursday we finally realized that the only day we could possibly have a party is--today. Fortunately, most of Luke's friends are also homeschooled and they were able to rearrange their schedules. I have to work so my husband was going to supervise the party. Except he needs to be at the church today, so the guys were going to ride bikes for a while in the morning, and then hang out at the church and play xbox. Then when I got off work, I'd bring over a cake, and voila! Party!

Luke was thrilled with the idea, but we hit a little snag this morning when we woke up to a 100% chance of rain today. So the bike idea got tossed, but they're still going to hang out and play video games. Once Luke faced the reality of what was actually possible, he was happy with the idea. Turns out if you have friends, games and cake, you have a party. Who knew?