Birthday Party Day!

The weekend that Braden has been waiting for is finally here — his birthday weekend!

I like to make a big deal out of birthdays – they are a big deal, am I right? Especially for kids. We’ve been talking about his and planning his party for the last few months, so he was stoked when he woke up this morning and realized that TODAY was party day!

I love to have parties at home, I love planning all of the fun little details, I love opening our house up to our friends who hang out for the rest of the day.. but this year, Braden wanted nothing to do with it. He didn’t care about how cool his pirate party was last year or even the adorable little ducky party from his first birthday. Nope, all he could talk about was his third birthday party at o2bKids. One that I planned as an easy party, since I was hugely pregnant with Mackenzie, close to my due date, and exhausted.

I tried my best to convince him to have a fun Spider Man party at home. I stalked Pinterest for party ideas and showed them to him, but he wasn’t having it. o2bKids it was.

The kids started out in the play village – they have a huge play structure to climb in with slides and all, a dress up area, toddler play area, building blocks, rock climbing wall, a big play kitchen, pac man, foosball, mini basketball courts, video games – basically Heaven for kids.. and some of the dads too.

After that, the kids headed outside for balloon animals, face painting, and some fun on the playground.  It was actually supposed to just be balloon animals and face painting, but despite the fact that it was over 90 degrees with nearly 100% humidity, they decided to do this on their back patio, right next to the mud-filled playground.  And with only two party leaders and 20 kids.  Kind of a recipe for disaster, and quite annoying as the host parent.  The kids sat at the tables looking bored while waiting for the not-so-enthusiastic party leaders to do the face paint and balloons until we finally told them to go crazy on the playground.

We were supposed to be in each station for twenty minutes, but ended up outside for a lot longer because the kids wanted their faces painted so badly.  Some started melting down.. the parents that were outside with the kids were just melting.  I was really disappointed, especially when one of the party leaders started complaining to me about the heat and just sitting there doing nothing while the other was painting faces.  Thankfully, the other one asked her to please help, so she did.

The kids all left that part of the party happy, the ones that wanted balloon animals got them and the ones that wanted their faces painted got it done.  My boy was happy and that was the most important part of the day, so I didn’t say anything.

Next up was supposed to be a scavenger hunt in the play village, but it was a mess as well.  Unfortunately the party leaders didn’t have quite the enthusiastic nature that’s needed to keep a party full of 5-year-olds engaged and entertained and they were way off schedule at this point.  They spent maybe five minutes in the play village pointing out animals and other random things to Braden and one or two of his buddies, then announced it was time to go to the gym.  So much for a scavenger hunt.  At this point, I was really annoyed.  I specifically asked the person on the phone when we planned the activities if they were age appropriate and she assured me that it was, that the kids would love it.  The majority of them had no clue that it was even happening.

Next up was the gym, which was by far, Braden’s favorite part of the day.  Actually, I’d say it was probably a favorite for all of the kids.  There’s a tumble track/trampoline, lots of mats to climb on, balance beams.. the kids had a blast in there.  I kind of wish they’d allowed us to just stay in there the whole time.

I also noticed that with doing the face painting first, followed by the gym activity – they kids were a sweaty mess from being outside then rolled all over the mats with it.. some of them washed the paint off and others just had sweaty, painted, messy faces.

After the time in the gym, we headed to one of the pre-school classrooms where they had the room set up for pizza and cake.  One of the really great parts of having a party at o2bKids is that you really don’t have to do anything except bring a cake and show up – they provide plates, cups, napkins, goody bags, drinks, and order pizza for you.  That part is fabulous and makes the party so much easier.

Braden wanted a Spiderman party though, so I picked up some Spiderman plates, cups, and napkins.  I also wanted to do a little extra something for the goody bags, so we did those.  The party leaders handled setting everything up and the room looked great when we came in.

I was a little annoyed that the goody bags I made (with name tags attached) were out on the table on the plates when we came in, it confused the kids who were trying to sit by siblings and/or friends and the kids dug into them and were distracted when we were trying to get the pizza passed out.  Not a huge deal, but something to remember if we have another party here.

Next up was cake and presents. You see that huge grin on B’s face? It pretty much never left his face the entire time. I may have been annoyed, but he had absolutely no clue and had a fabulous time and at the end of the day, that’s what is important.

He loves to have the Happy Birthday song sung to him and I just adore that sweet grin he gets, he loves being the center of attention and being surrounded by all of his favorite people.

After the party, we headed home to relax and regroup for dinner and a movie. Our neighborhood was doing a floating flick night, where they show a movie on a big inflatable screen and you watch while lounging in the pool. B was super excited about it and asked to invite his best buddy, Aiden.  We met Aiden and his family for dinner at a new restaurant in our neighborhood, along with my parents, and had a great time and some delicious food.

Braden wasn’t sure what to think when a handful of the servers, all girls, came out clapping with a big bowl of ice cream to sing Happy Birthday to him.. again.

He dug right in to his treat though and was happy to share with his buddy — ice cream is always better with friends, right?

While we were eating, the neighborhood sent out a tweet saying that due to the weather (it was storming off and on all afternoon) the floating flick night was cancelled. Thankfully, the restaurant we were eating at is right across the street from the theater, so we bought tickets to see Monsters University from our phone and headed over after dinner. Such a cute movie, I wish I had a picture of the boys sitting together. I didn’t think to take one though. They were so happy and excited and both seemed to enjoy the movie.

We got home and put Braden to bed, for the very last time as a four-year-old. After he was asleep, we hung a birthday banner in his room and scatterd balloons all over the floor for him to find when he woke up. I can’t believe my baby is going to be FIVE tomorrow. A whole hand!

I’m not sure if I should call o2bKids and let them know that I was disappointed in the birthday party.  I did notice one of the managers talking to one of the party planners during the party, telling her she needed to get the kids engaged more.  Nothing really changed after that though.  What do you think?  Braden had a great time, so should I just let it go?  Or do you think it is important to let them know that as a parent, I was less than thrilled?  What would you do?

PS – I’m super late on my last race report.  I’m working on it, I’m just having a serious writers block.  Kind of like my runners block that’s kept me from running, I suppose.  If not tomorrow, then Thursday, promise!