Monday, August 17, 2015

The kids' 6th science-y birthday party


I feel like I have to write some of this down before I forget it all.

Invites
After agonising about who to invite, we settled on a set number of kids for K, C and me :) The school invites were completely out of my hands but I basically invited kids my children had spent time with over the last year, minus the ones from the pre-school that they no longer see.



RSVPs
I say this every year but I honest-to-goodness want to throttle people for not just saying YES or NO. Why is this so hard? Check your schedule, speak to your spouse and say yes or no.

We had the worst number of RSVPs ever....even after I reprinted the invites and popped in the bags again after the RSVP by date.

My friends at least RSVPd quickly :)

One parent RSVPd on the Monday before the party, about 10 days later....

Anyway, on the bright side (and Lord knows we need to look for a bright side), all those who RSVPd actually pitched.



The venue
From the time we first went to Sci-Bono at the beginning of last year, I've wanted to have a party there. It is fabulous inside. If you haven't been, go!

The reason I needed the numbers confirmed was because the venue allowed only a certain number of people. Of course, such a small number of people pitched that we had no problems in the end.

I actually considered either having a science party at home, or just paying for each family to enter the venue, but in the end I just sucked up the "wasted" cost and paid the party price.

The party price included entrance to the museum, a guided tour, science demonstration and gifts for each birthday child.



Food
I know from previous years that people just don't eat much early in the morning so we didn't have a lot of food. Good thing because of the transporting food to a venue story. I sent all the chips and juices to school when schools reopened for their Friday snack.

The cakes were made by Pick and Pay, as they usually are, and were delicious.



My attitude
I honestly would rather have had the holiday instead of a party (used the party money to stay a day or two longer!) but of course, I was outvoted by D and the kids. And so I was freaked out before we went on holiday due to these RSVPs, mainly because I wanted my kids to have a nice party and it seemed like there would be only 6 kids total.

I really wanted to cancel at one point but D said it didn't matter if there were 6 kids or 16; our kids would still have a nice time. I wasn't convinced but I knew I was stressed with work and not thinking clearly so I just left it.

Once we went on holiday and I paid for the party, I relaxed into that state of not giving a toss anymore. Can I blame it on the beach?


The day of
People pitched, the venue was ready, the co-ordinators were friendly and good with kids and it was lovely. Honestly.

I got a few good pics but not as great as I'd have got outside. Then again, I have winter babies so basically it's inside parties forever.

I'd encouraged the guests to go explore and play in the museum afterwards so once the party ended, that's what we all did.

We overstayed our welcome by far - the party was 10 - 12, we were there from 9:30 - 16:20. We even heard the "the museum will be closing in 20 minutes" announcement.

I had a BALL!

We had once "incident" but that's a story for another day. Maybe.



Presents
This was the best part of the small party - only 5 presents :)



Thank-you notes
This year we recorded individual voicemail messages for each of those 5 families and we sent them by text.

They are VERY cute - I still have them. If I knew how to embed them here, I'd attach one.

And seems like the recipients enjoyed those thank-yous too.



Next time
I've already told all 3 of them that things will be Very Different next year:
  1. no parties during school holidays
  2. we are going on holidays without worrying about this party business
  3. we're having two small parties on the same day at home!



On another note
I've been keeping records and I told D we've only been to 4 parties this year - 3 kids of friends (Robyn's two kids!) and 1 school friend.
D said, "no wonder it feels like we have a life again" :)

So, what do you think?
Is this school holiday non-RSVP thing a thing?

And then, proof that I was there :)
 

15 comments:

  1. Wait... Do I understand correctly that you were pleased about a smaller number of gifts received?
    We have been meaning to check out Sci-Bono for ages and somehow just never seem to get to it. :(
    It's a bit like folks who live at the coast and never go to the beach, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, THRILLED! I'm of the less is more camp and honestly, these kids don't need anything really.

      Totally go check out Sci-Bono - well worth the time. You'll spend hours there so plan to have a sandwich in their coffee shop and you'll be fine.

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  2. It looks like such a fantastic party! I really want to get to Sci Bono at some stage. With A we now never have her party in the holidays - it's just too difficult. And with the boys that have theirs over a long weekend also not in the long weekend. Great thing about grade 1 onwards - money as gifts is all the fashion. Then at least they buy one thing they really want and you do not sit with lots of things you do not really want

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    Replies
    1. Sounds like a great idea! Tell me when you want to go and we'll join you :)

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  3. It looks wonderful. I must be totally honest and say that I love to just arrive at the parties these days and not be involved with all the planning and drama. I am just so over drama. So glad your beautiful children's party turned out great.

    ReplyDelete
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    1. I can believe it.

      You won't believe it - tonight (are these kids reading my blog?!) K asks me, "can we have a tea party for 6 children?" C said, "I want to have 6 boys and 6 girls but not a party, a PLAYDATE. i said, "that IS A PARTY!"

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  4. I am so bummed that I missed this party because I love Sci Bono! I am so glad it went well. Now that I wasn't there I am hoping that my child and my husband were not the cause of the "incident"... I personally LOVED the voice recording thank you "notes"... very clever idea!

    The school RSVP is a thing!! I invited all 20 of the kids in the class to Kade's party and guess what? I only got 7 RSVP's! And the one kid who RSVP'd wasn't even in his class (no idea how she got an invite but anyhoo she came and had a divine time)

    xxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Oh no, had nothing to do with your loves, or any of the guests!

      I love the RSVP-er who wasn't invited :) Sad to know this is a school thing! We had it at the pre-school too, but only about 4 - 5 non RSVPers.

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  5. I've heard a lot of good things about this place and I think we should go :)
    We landed up not even having a party this year! My mother in law broke her hip so we postponed things a month and then they got postponed again.. and now it seems a bit late... Oh well next year we will have something special :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Definitely go! you cannot let a little boy have more fun there :)

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  6. PLEASE no parties during school holidays!! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You have missed BOTH my parties this year and last year :(

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  7. That looks like such a great party! Our girls would have loved everything about it!

    I'm already trying to think about the girls' party in January. That's a hard time of year, as it has to been indoors...and there are only so many places around to host it. (And I am NOT hosting one here at home! ;) At least until they're considerably older and the mayhem would be of a different variety! HA!)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You all would have LOVED it! Of that I am 100% sure!

      Delete
  8. Managing expectations is key. I did read one blog where the mom only invited the number of kid's age! At 3 , 3 kids, at 6, 6 kids!!!

    Though it looks like the kids did have fun and that is the most important thing after all

    ReplyDelete

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