thank you's birthday party. ugh

[susiestar]

We do a half-birthday party for thank you. We NEVER do more than cake with church and then presents from us and the grandparents on his birthday.

This is his celebration with friends, and presents are totally optional. (The year I requested no presents I had a number of parents tell me that it wasn't fair - because he chooses such nice presents for his friends.) Mostly he just wants to play games and have prizes and goody bags with his friends.

I sent invites to his ENTIRE class of over 25 children.

We have gotten ZERO replies as to who is coming. I have NO clue how many kids will be there.

I am just so scared for him that NO ONE will show up.

But the games and prizes are ready, as are the goody bags.

The cake is cooling, ready to be shaped and iced. The icing will be made shortly.

sigh. We are mostly ready.

Please send good wishes that some of the kids show up. He will be just crushed if only my parents and bro and niece show up.

thanks,

susie

 

[Lothlorien]

Not one reply? I would have called a few of the parents to see if they were coming. Usually no reply means not coming. That's just sad. Did you have any of the neighbor kids or any of the kids from church coming too?

 

[Christy]

I hope things work out okay. Is it possible that the invitations were not delivered?

 

[susiestar]

We handed the invitations to the kids.

We have NO neighbor kids his age that he can play with (only family with kids his age are very into thier religion and thank you can't play with-their kids because we are a diff religion - NOT my decision.)

Most of the time I would assume no replies meant not coming. but lately it hasn't worked this way. Not sure what will happen.

Thanks for hoping with me!

susie

 

[Star*]

sending postitive AUNTIE vibes to all the kids that should come.........

Hugs
makes me so angry - parents are idiots.

 

[everywoman]

Hoping that his classmates show. I always hated having parties for just that reason.

 

[mrscatinthehat]

People these days just don't always understand that we really need that rsvp. Hope the kids come through for thank you.

Beth

 

[Abbey]

I can tell you from hundreds of events that people just don't RSVP anymore. It really leaves you in the lurks.

I see on a weekly basis where a couple plans their wedding, birthday party, etc, sends out the invites, only a fraction of the people they invited actually show. Yet, they have to pay the entire cost of the expected number.

I'm sure thank you will have a good time no matter how many show up. Games are fun!'

Abbey

 

[susiestar]

ONE child showed up. ONE.

Wizard came and was so great. He played pokemon with the boys. he didn't have any cash on him, but was coming to mow my lawn afterward. He asked if I would stop and let him have the mowing $$ ahead of time so he could buy a gift for thank you. I said we would stop, but I would happily pay for the gift. He REALLY is trying to build relationships with us, and I help the other kids buy gifts for each other at bdays.

thank you is not upset. While he wishes more would, he had fun with his friend. I think he has a pretty good outlook on things.

He did say this way he gets more of the goodie bags, LOL!!

One of Jessie's friends came, and sweetly brought a present. Her little sis and thank you are friends (rather like bro and sis in the way they treat each other) but little sis was having a bad day and was clinging to mom. I still sent goodies to her, with a little purse to put them in.

I am not sure we will do this next year. At least the things we bought were well within a very frugal budget, and not things we mind having around. Though why anyone needs a POUND of laffy taffy I am not sure. though it is wonderful for things on decorated cakes - you can mold it into almost any shape you need.

anyone need some laffy taffy??

Thanks for the good wishes and support,

Susie

 

[tinamarie1]

Oh Susie. I hate that for your lil guy. All of my difficult child's parties have turned out that way for the past few years. So this year, we decided to do something different. I told him that he could ask 2-3 friends to come over for cake and ice cream and then I would take them to the go cart place or movies. They opted for go carts of coarse...duh mom. We paid about what a birthday party would have cost somewhere and they had a great time. This year he wants to invite 2 friends to go camping and fishing.
I wish he had more friends, but I guess its the one or two who are really his friends that matter, not a big amount. For those few that came this past year, I made contact with the parents directly to invite and get an answer so we weren't sitting around guessing again this year.
p.s....I LOVE laffy taffy!

 

[Andy]

Would Laffy Taffy last until Oct 31st for Trick or Treat handouts (if you do that).

Those other kids don't know what they missed out on. Glad thank you enjoyed what he did have as a party.

 

[Abbey]

Hand out for the laffy taffy. I LOVE that stuff.

I'm sure he had a good time, even with only one friend. Look at it through his eyes.

Abbey

 

[Big Bad Kitty]

My heart broke for the little guy! See, this is why I hate people (except you guys).

I am glad that in spite of (or maybe because of) the outcome, he had a good time.

PS way to go Wizard!!

 

[susiestar]

I have tons of the Laffy Taffy!!! BUT I did go to the candy wholesaler (supplies the mall candy shops and the gas stations) to buy it. so for what I would have paid for the number of kids we actually had, I got a POUND!! And, Adrienne, it will not last until Halloween. I am SURE my sugar monsters will eat it before that!! (They are actually REALLY good about sugar, Jess will share it with her friends)

Oh, and now we are into the "Too much birthday" evening meltdown. Fairly mild - he tried to tell Jess if she didn't play pokemon with him by 11 am tomorrow he was taking away the new national treasure movie he got for his birthday!!!! (I had to laugh at this!)

We told him he is NOT going to blackmail any family member over anything.

BUT we will have Dad and Wiz play with him tomorrow.

Part of this is Dad hating to enforce a bedtime with thank you. Not sure why, but I had to crash and Dad was in charge. So, it is 10pm and now husband is rubbing thank you's back so he will sleep.

Just shaking my head here.

Susie

 

[DammitJanet]

I am so not looking forward to this stuff again.

I dont know why but for some reason we never really had birthday parties for the boys when they were growing up. We did family get togethers and did something special just the 5 of us plus my mom. I think it was probably mostly because the youngest two were born within 13 days of each other and money was an issue for us so we just made it a combined thing.

Already we are worrying about who to invite to a 2 year olds party...lol. And this little two year old in particular is always going to have multiple holidays and birthdays because she is in a split family so she has her birthday with her daddys family, her mommys family and then when we go up to my family...lol. Can we say spoiled!

 

[flutterbee]

Devon's birthday is in the summer so we never had parties with invitations. It was just neighborhood kids and was pretty spur of the moment.

When I had Wynter's first 'real' birthday party when she was in Kindergarten, we had the same thing happen with no RSVP's. One parent did RSVP about an hour before. All the kids showed up except for one, but it makes it so hard to plan how much food to have, goody bags, etc. It's so rude.

I'm glad he enjoyed himself. That's the most important part.

 

[Hound dog]

Exactly why I was never a big birthday party sort of person.

My kids had to take turns on big parties. One year it would be easy child's turn, the next Travis', the next Nichole's. Parties were limited to no more than 8 kids, but averaged 4-6 not counting sibs. I didn't care if teachers at school didn't like it. (they used to make a big deal about it)

Ours turned out ok except for easy child's sweet 16 that was an utter disaster. Wouldn't you know it, it was the one party we went all out for. sigh And the reason Nichole begged me not to give her one. easy child had 2 out of 30 kids show up. I couldn't believe it. These were her friends. And of course no one called.

I was lucky though. When the kids were small we lived in apartments filled with other kids their ages. If school kids didn't show, we filled in with neighborhood kids. Presents were never required, so it was no fuss.

Glad it turned out well despite the no shows.

Happy birthday thank you!

Hugs

 

[Wiped Out]

I'm glad he had fun even though only one person showed up. Every year difficult child asks for a birthday party. We never do because I'm not sure even one would show up.

Sorry he went into meltdown mode last night. I hope today was better.

 

[Lothlorien]

That really stinks! I'm sorry to hear that only one kid came. Makes a kid feel self conscious. Tell him we were all partying with him in other states and that we wish him a happy birthday!

 

[JJJ]

That is the #1 reason we don't have parties. Too big a risk of heartache...

Give thank you a hug from us.