It's almost PARTY-time

It's that time of year again. Time to organize the Princess' birthday party.

I am refusing to have the party at the closest "kid oriented" pizza place. The one closest to us is a DIVE. Yucky. Dirty. Messy. And there's only ONE ticket counter machine. That is the last straw. I always get stuck behind a boatload of kids trying to redeem their tickets for the prizes. Most frustrating.

I am refusing to have the party at the bowling alley. The Princess has already missed one party (2 weeks ago) at the bowling alley. There is a party there THIS weekend for one of her good friends. And our neighbor whose birthday is the same day as the Princess (but whose party will be the day after) is going to have HER party at the bowling alley.

So....I am opting to have the party at the local park. I'm not having it at the huge neighborhood park with the fabulous kids' play area. I'm having it at the smaller park (about 1/3 the size of the first one). The reason I'm having it at the smaller park is because NO ONE seems to go there. They've got bathroom facilities (not port-a-potties) right next to the ramadas. And since no one goes there it won't be difficult for guests to find us.

I'm planning on having a jumping castle. I may even get two of them. But we're going to have games. Relay races. Simon Says. Blow up the balloon in 60 seconds. At least 10 games for the kiddos. And a boatload of prizes too.

Now, we had the Princess' party at our house last year and we barely survived. I thought my husband was going to have a heart attack with all the running around up and down the stairs, the slamming doors, the basic decimal levels that ensued during the party. And there were only little girls there. This year? My daughter wants to invite some boys from her class along with the neighborhood boys. So there is NO WAY we're having the party here.

AND....I don't want the drama of having people drop their kids off. WHAT IS THAT ABOUT?

Maybe it's only because i didn't grow up with this practice I find it odd. But I have recently found out that when someone has a kids' party at their house, a lot of parents will just drop their kids off and leave. Do you do that? Is it an assumed thing that it's allowed?

[shaking head in confusion]

I think my real issue here is what if a kid starts acting up? What do I do? Do I discipline them? Put them in time-out? What? Now my neighbors? I know them all and they know me. I wouldn't think twice about telling them stuff. Since I don't know all the parents of my daughter's classmates I wouldn't feel comfortable being stern with them. What would you do? Or better yet....what HAVE you done in this type of situation?

I still have a lot to do. The one thing I have done is reserve the park ramada. I still need to buy invitations. Order gifts. Get game prizes. Get gift bag items. Order a cake. Touch base with the pizza place so they can deliver hot pizzas to the park. LOTS to do!