David's Eighth Birthday Party

David Turns Eight

When the party was over and the clean-up was done, David said, "This was a great party. This was the best day of my life."

How could a parent ask for more?

After several years of having a smaller party, David was ready again to try to top his kindergarten party which was also a large event.

Twenty-six invitations were distributed. Twenty-one boys made it to the party, on a bitterly cold Saturday afternoon.

Boys came from David's current class, from "the other" grade three French immersion class, from the school playground, from the after school kids club, and from the Social Thinking Club.

So hard to choose ...

When the children arrived, music was blasting out of the inner sanctuary of the martial arts studio. For each guest David explained, your boots go here, your coat goes there, pick out a lego toy and head into the gym.

There were five different LEGO Chima toys to choose from. David’s mother had found a rare find. Lego on sale for half price. Not buy one, get the second at half off. Truly 50% off.

David’s mother said to each boy, “I am sorry, but it is an upside down birthday party. I hope you can handle it. We are starting with the treat bag. You know the treat bag you usually get at the end. You are getting it at the beginning. Take your LEGO set to Kari, the lady inside who has zip-and lock bags and a felt pen. She will write your name on the baggie. Make sure when you go back home, you have the whole toy with you. Keep track of all the pieces.” More than one boy said, "You mean we get to open the toy now?" with big wide-eyes of incredulity.

Shuswap Kids Club Staff photo of Kari
(aka Karate teacher and Party Planner)

The kids headed into the gym and the black belt Karate teacher Kari put a hula hoop around each of the boys so they would know how to stay in their space with their LEGO toy. Over the course of ½ hour the boys streamed in. Two boys came in / out / in /out as their parents whisked them off to their piano recital and then back to the party. No one wanted to miss the party. One of the father’s disclosed at the door, that it was hard to get his boy to the party because of the other responsibilities of the day. He had tried to persuade his son not to go. “How is this different than any other day of the year?”, said the father. “It is just LEGO toys and NERF guns.” But the boy insisted. He needed to be there.

The invitation specified, bring your own NERF gun or borrow one of David's. With 7 nerf guns to share, and one new one given as a gift, there were still five boys without guns. We had to find a way to share. Sharing is hard when you are in the biggest NERF gun war of your life. Sharing only occurred when a bribe was offered. Give up your lego gun for one round, sit on the sideline and eat an extra cupcake.

The cupcakes were provided by Marla Bjorgan.

Chocolate cupcakes iced with David’s favorite colours.

One half of the cupcakes had cyan-coloured icing, the other half iced with green icing. Every morsel of cupcake was devoured.

Note to self:   Next party, don’t leave the water bottles in the car when the weather is -12. They freeze at that temperature.

Second note to self: freeze at least a couple to take care of the injuries that are inevitable in such a great battle. At this party? Five near to the eye injuries, one fat lip, and one sprained finger. Whew, no eyes were lost. Forty-two eyes are available for the next event.

Frozen water came in handy. The boys were shown how to ice their injury with the frozen water bottles. Worked just as well as a bandaid.

Things to do again next year:

1. Invite lots of kids again.
2. Have it at the martial arts studio. There are lots of mats for building forts and bunkers. Kari and Jenna did stellar decorations including targets hanging from the ceiling.
3. Bring 100 bullets again. It was just the right number.
4. Again, have the party between meals to minimize the amount of food you have to cart into the venue.
5. Contrary to my expectations, include loud music. I thought David would be overwhelmed by the noise. Instead he was singing along to the pop music. Of course, using spoof lyrics from Minecraft YouTube videos.
6. The slider zip lock baggies and felt markers served their purpose. Each LEGO set contained 81 pieces x 21 boys = 1,701 pieces.  Remarkably, only one lego piece was lost. The boy assured me it is a common piece. He has one like that at home, so it is no problem.
7. About every 10 minutes, I said, raise your hand if you need help building your LEGO toy. Then David and Joaquim went around and gave help to people. This really worked.
8. In the NERF gun war, have 2 teams, but change the membership of the teams every 5 minutes, based on the colour of the shirt you are wearing, the month you are born in, the number your birthday falls on, etc. This really worked to keep the rivalry to a minimum.
9. Next year, again, include images in the invitation of things that will happen at the party. It was so cute at the kids club to see the boys carefully studying the photos of the legos and the nerf guns as they read through the invitation.

Things to do differently next year.

1. Write on the invitation, low speed bullets will be available and then have a photograph of a yellow or green bullet with a suction end. High speed bullets and weapons not allowed. Then have a photograph of the blue bullets with the orange hard end with a "no" image across them. Most injuries were from high speed bullets.

2. Have twice as many cupcakes. The kids loved the cupcakes.

3. Next year, anytime there is the need for a special helper, remember it is the birthday boy’s chance to be that special helper. He liked handing out plates, napkins, bullets.

Bonnie

Post script:. As a parent it is overwhelming to see your child receive so many gifts. Putting “please no presents” on the invitation, didn't seem the solution. Seeing kids have to sit around and wait while someone opens presents is painful. The waiting seems so unfair. Also, the public comparison of who brought what seems wrong as well. One boy pulled me aside and whispered, I didn’t get David a gift, but I made him a really nice card. That gave me permission to abandon the gift opening activity by gift number two and have more NERF gun warfare.Tonight I am left wondering if David will be old enough by Xmas to recognize birthday presents re-wrapped with Santa’s name on them.