January 14, 2009

Birthday Party


My daughter's birthday is at the end of the month and we have begun to discuss party ideas.

"I want a Hannah Montana party," she announced the other day.

"What does one do at that kind of party?" I wanted to know.

My five-going-on-fifteen year-old looked at me like I was a single-celled organism.

"I'm going to dress up as Hannah Montana and sing songs," she explained to the clueless, "And my friends can be the audience."

"That sounds fun," I replied, "Especially for your friends. Do you have any other ideas?"

"How about a High School Musical party?" she proposed.

"Let me guess," I said, "You'll be Gabriella and your guests will be Sharpay."

"The audience," she corrected.

"Let's pick a theme that doesn't involve a t.v. show or a movie," I said in a furtive attempt to avoid imminent disaster. My argument seemed reasonable enough: not everyone, including my daughter, has seen Hannah Montana or knows any of her songs.

After I ruined my daughter's life a little more by turning down her request for a Suite Life of Zack and Cody party (another show she's never seen but heard about from her friends at school), she decided that a "pet party" sounded kind of fun.

Visions of dinners served in dog bowls and pooper scooper relays danced in my head.

"I LOVE IT!" I shouted a little too enthusiastically. My daughter's face contorted into the likeness of a Doberman Pincher.

"Yuck!" I corrected. "Pet parties are no fun. Definitely a no-go."

That pretty much sealed the deal. I left the birthday girl standing in the kitchen while I rushed off to print a set of dancing dog invitations from the Internet before Hannah could break in for an encore performance.

21 comments

Shosh said...

I'm planning a birthday party for my 5 year old and he wants to have a police party where we go and visit the police station. I can just hear it now...."look kids, there's a convict!"
Good for you for nixing the Hannah Montana idea.....I once wrote a whole post about that girl. she irks me.

Liz said...

Don't you love it when YOU end up having more fun with the party theme then the kids.. :)
I can see all the lightbulbs lighting up now!!
I wanna run in a pooper scooper relay! No fair!

Sticky said...

The pet party sounds like a lot of fun! Can I change mine? (mine, how funny is that!)
"we" are having the party at one of those gymnastics places so all the little hooligans can run around and tire themselves out...Thank God. I'll take pets over that commercial crap anytime - but I like your girl's performance attitude!
Look for a recipe called "puppy chow" for the party - its cute and addictive (if you can't find -I'll send!)

likeschocolate said...

You are a party pooper! Every child should have an obnoxious birthday party that includes all the characters we love to hate at least once in their lives. You don't want the poor girl to have to go through therapy. I say hire a couple of girls from church and have them help you do hair, nails, facepainting, and you will have a big hit on your hands with lip glossf from the dollar store.

icancarryallthebagsandthebabiestoo said...

We had a fancy tea party for my daughter's birthday last year. We rented the ball room of our local country club, served cocoa and sandwiches shaped like flowers, invited all of the children to wear their tea party best, gave the little girls pearl necklaces, feather boahs, had them decorate big straw hats, made the boys bow ties and had them decorate top hats...

Everything was beautiful. I decorated with ballerina table skits and flowers.

Everything came together...

And then my daughter INSISTED on a gigantic Hannah Montana birthday cake.

That Hannah is a witch... I swear.

Kimberly said...

Hannah Montana. Oh, no. I once made a comment about how tired I was of seeing her ever-smiling face on every stinking product at the grocery store. Since then, my boys (5 and 4) will scream, "AAAHHH! Hannah Mon!" every time we see her. Needless to say, we're not having a Hannah Montana party at our house, either:)

me said...

Go for the pooper-scooper relay race. I think that tootsie rolls would be the most convincing.

Alisha said...

I say half the fun in a party is planning it. The pet party sounds like so much fun. Girls grow up too fast, and soon enough, I will be arguing against Hannah Montana parties, or whatever is popular in the next couple of years, just like me mother argued with me about the spice girls. lol

A day in the Life... said...

I am glad you dodged the Hannah Montana Bullet.. My daughter is 5 and has never seen the show but still seems to think she needs everything related to Hannah Montana. I am so sick and tired of looking at her everywhere I go I could scream.

Unknown said...

Is that the birthday girl in the bra on the sidebar? Looks like she's ready for Hannah
:)
I'm sorry.
I hope the pet party goes over well.

Missy said...

I am so glad that my daughter has not gotten to the Hannah Montana stage yet.

Bugs said...

How about a CSI:Miami theme. You can take turns fingerprinting, then tracing each other with chalk while wearing bikinis.

Michal said...

have you seen the kitty litter cakes? you just have to make one. it would be just up your alley. if you haven't seen them, google it!

it is so sad to me that little girls idolize people like hannah montana. when i was her age, i was all about laura ingalls wilder and holly hobbie. and obviously, camber is evidence that not letting your daughter watch the show doesn't completely prevent the idol worship! could it be that all the ridiculous merchandising plays a role?

HollyB said...

you need to make the "cat litter cake" it would be perfect for the party!!!!

Jan Russell said...

Sweet Niblets! Glad you avoided THAT theme ;)

Reinvent Dad said...

I'm another who has blogged about how much Hannah Montana has infiltrated our household. In fact, my 10-year old daughter had a Hanna Montana party this past year...they did Karaoke and dressed-up, etc....mostly harmless....it could be worse, my buddy took his 11-year old daughter to one of her concerts!

Anonymous said...

Just had to say that Bugs' comment almost made me pee in my pants! =) Lovin' the CSI:Miami theme.

Morgan Hagey said...

Bugs- the CSI:Miami theme would only work if the party was peppered with incredibly obnxious one-liners like, delivered deadpan... of course! :)

Post-it Note said...

You rock my world! When I was 5 I went to a fun barnyard birthday party dressed as a lamb. When we went outside reality struck, and I refused to ride on the back of my mom's bike with cotton balls attached to my tights. She drove the Volkswagon Bus instead. Good times. I am planning my first ever birthday party for my first's first. Do one year old's need a theme? Looking forward to more mean mom-hood in the future and battling popculture... Paige

Teresa said...

That is too funny. I'm glad my kids are grown. But I have a daughter and grandson living with us. He still likes the simple things in life, like Build-a-Bear (LOL!). Try one of those parties on for size. Sheesh, my daughter spend an absolute fortune on that thing. This year it will probably be the Tumble Bus.

Everyone else it seems is doing Jump It Up. No thanks...

Not to change the subject, but when did parties get so involved? Full meals for the kids and parents, gift bags for the guests, so on and so forth. My kids got a cake (which I decorated [one of my many parenting talents]), simple games, and the guests got to take home a party hat and stupid paper whistle. My daughter has spent no less than $150 on the trappings for a birthday party, and that doesn't include the gifts for her child.

Anonymous said...

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