Well . . . There's Always Next Year

My preschooler just turned five at the beginning of the month and we had a very successful birthday party for him. The theme was Speed Racer and it took place at a local crafts studio. I started planning his party about four months in advance.

Tomorrow is my twins birthdays. They are turning two. I am ashamed to say that I did not start planning their birthday celebration months in advance. I didn't even start one month in advance. We were planning on having an casual dinner with the my parents, my in-laws, and my sister and brother-in-law. We ordered a cake and balloons, but with no specific theme. Well, it looks like these plans (and I use that term loosely) may just have to be cancelled. My husband was just informed that his presence would be required at work possibly well into the evening.

I was already feeling guilty that I did not put forth the effort to make the twins' second birthday more special. Now with this little kink in our plans, the guilt is starting to make me think ahead to next year. How can I make their next birthday so great so that I won't have to feel so terrible about this one? One thing I will have to avoid is blowing our budget all on our oldest's party. True, he goes to school and has lots of friends to invite, but it just doesn't seem fair to the twins.

So I am already coming up with birthday party ideas for the twins' third birthday. I found this site that has some great ideas for $50 birthday parties! My favorite idea is the "I Spy" theme. It would be a spin-off on an Easter egg hunt, which all the kids enjoyed last year. Buying toy binoculars and magnifying glasses would be extremely inexpensive. Then we could either buy inexpensive little toys or household items we already own to hide them around the house. I think both children and adults would have fun doing this. Plus I would love to be able to have the party at home. As for a theme, I think we might go with Dora and Diego or Max and Ruby or whatever seems to be popular our toddlers at the time.

One thing I will definitely do next year is to have a party checklist. For the Speed Racer party, I was thinking of things I had forgotten the night before the party. I was starting to panic about what else I may have forgotten. It was extremely stressful. I won't make that mistake again, that's for sure.