Forgot to add to the disaster sleepover, my D loved the movie Hocus Pocus and wanted to watch it, but several of the other girls thought it was scary so we stopped it. I felt like a pretty bad mom for letting my kids watch such “scary” stuff!
We lived in TX when the kids were young and BIG birthday parties were a thing. The best party was ponies in the park for my daughter. Thinking back, I’m kind of surprised we could bring ponies to a public park, but we did. We had a few parties with tense moments, like when a magician almost caught the drapes on fire, a boy announced that no black children were allowed on the raft during a swimming party, a child cried when Spiderman showed up., and D knocked over her soda twice at her party. The worst party was bowling in 2nd grade. Because three children shared the same birthday, we decided to combine and invite the entire class of 40. I never realized so many had never bowled before and didn’t know you had to wait for the pins to reset. It was a disaster. To top it off, I made 3 bowling ball birthday cakes. They were beautiful, with swirls in the frosting, just like a bowling ball, but transporting them was a nightmare. That’s all I’ll say.
We did only home parties except for once. We had just moved to where we are now and my oldest son, who was in fifth grade, loved pinball machines. I found a very small local place that had a couple of dozen pinball machines and skee ball and offered birthday party rentals. We invited his class and a couple of neighbor boys that were his age. It was a hit!
My daughter loved birthday parties more than her brothers and had numerous sleep over parties that involved dress up, scavenger hunts, karoke, and strange games. I was in charge of making the food and chaperoning but that was about it.
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The worst birthday party was the surprise party we had for my youngest son when he was turning 10. All of the guests were gathered in our basement. I had told him that we couldn’t have a party that year but he could have one friend over for a sleep over. He was unhappy but understood. On the day of the party his friends job was to make sure they went downstairs as soon as his parent dropped him off. That would not be unusual because that’s where the kids played. The friend however, took the lead down the stairs and everyone shouted, “Surprise!” at the friend. My poor son was at the top of the stairs and missed the moment. He was really disappointed and mad at his friend.
I started out with elaborately-designed homemade parties with themes like Pirates or Egypt or Miniature World (this one was fun, complete with a tiny door made from a cardboard box inserted in the front door, tiny games and of course tiny food). Eventually, except for the dreaded sleepovers, we graduated to the boring commercial venues.
Some memorable moments:
- discovering that the adorable little princess was systematically biting everyone at the party, including the adults
- the Egypt party that culminated in wrapping one another in TP and leaving us with two foot tall TP drifts in the living room
- Quidditch played on broomsticks tied to trees in the backyard
- when the preschool teacher actually showed up for the 3 year old’s party and the kid sat with her in the kitchen ignoring the other guests
[Quidditch played on broomsticks tied to trees in the backyard
[/quote]
WINNING. 
@CIEE83 Those kinds of parties always seem like they’re more for the kids then the parents. I attended one like that too.
At my kid’s parties most of the parents would drop their kids off. Usually D’s best friend’s mom would offer to stay to help and I’d take her up on that. Sometimes parents would stay to help for a while and then head out or they’d come help out for the last half hour. H and I didn’t expect it, but it was nice that they offered. We’d usually try to reciprocate.
I was never a huge fan of sleepovers…everyone would be tired and cranky the next day. Luckily, my D only had a sleepover for her birthday twice and S only twice too. D did go to several sleepover parties though…
Our kid’s school never had the rule where you had to invite the entire class. You just couldn’t hand out invitations at school UNLESS you were inviting the whole class. We just mailed our invitations. Being a teacher and knowing teachers…if you hand out invitations at school, some kids never bring the invitation home or it gets shoved to the bottom of their backpack and the parent never finds out about the party. Easiest to mail them. Our kids never invited their whole class, just their friends.
Most of our birthdays were of the happy, informal backyard type but we did do a scuba birthday when my son was 10 and newly certified. The kids talked for weeks about underwater frisbee. It was surprisingly affordable, I think because the scuba organization hoped it would lead to business among the attendees.
Poor daughter had 3 years of horrible birthdays in a row.
Year 1 - the whole class was on a 3 day wilderness bonding trip. A cake wouldn’t have made it so I sent specially decorated birthday cookies, with extras in case of emergency. Unfortunately the counselors insisted that she pass them all out to her friends and the staff before she have hers, and there were more camp staff than I had accounted for so the birthday girl got…nothing. I was incensed (as were her teachers) when I learned about it.
Year 2 - in the hospital with mono.
Year 3 - Daughter was at boarding school and mom having major surgery for newly diagnosed cancer. We sent a cake, as did her roommate’s mom, but Dad couldn’t even make it there to give her a hug.
Best was son’s party in 7th grade at an indoor paintball place. The set up was you would alternate between paintball games and hanging out in one of the party rooms eating the food we had brought. My husband and I participated in the first game. As we were waiting in the party room for the next game to begin, we noticed that next door, sharing the same parking lot, was a brewery tasting room with outdoor tables that afforded a view of the party room as well as the back and front doors of the paintball place. We sent the boys back in to play their second game, and ducked out to the tasting room to enjoy a beer and a lobster roll from a food truck. Spent a couple of hours that way, going back to the party room only at the end of the party to cut the cake. Don’t judge me . . . I think the teens were adequately supervised and we limited ourselves to the one beer so no impaired driving. 
My son went to a couple of paintball birthday parties. He had a great time.
When my nephew was a sophomore in high school one of the girls invited the entire grade to her sweet 16. Her parents were renting limos to take everyone to a club in LA (we live about an hour south of LA) and the party would last until very late (midnight or later) and the parents would not be going. This is a club that celebrities and the young and hip LA crowd frequent. My nephew didn’t really know or like the girl, so he and his friends didn’t go. We later heard there was underage drinking and the like. Seems a bit over the top for high school…
My favorite party I threw for DD was an “escape room” party. The kids had a blast and DH and I got watched it all on camera. There was a party room where the pre-teens had cake afterwards. DD would do that one again in a heartbeat.
Least favorite party was due to a miscommunication. I booked a few nail stylists at a fancy spa considered by DD and friends to be an upscale “treat” destination. The idea was that they would get their nails painted in animal prints (think zebra or tiger), and then we would take all the girls to Rainforest Cafe for lunch. The woman who took the party booking was completely on board with the “animal print” theme, but when we arrived at the spa, suddenly none of the manicurists understood the “animal print” idea at all, claimed they didn’t know how to do that, etc. I was baffled and ultimately really ticked I paid that much money for what amounted to ordinary manicures. Then one of the girls plated about 3/4 of that Rainforest volcano dessert for herself, leaving literally spoonfuls for the other three girls, including the birthday girl. Good thing we didn’t order a whole cake.
We had or went to the bowling , ice skating, gymnastics, movie parties.
I had a karate party at my Club, where parents were invited to a separate brunch.
A new entertainment center was opening a few weeks before son’s BD. I met with the planner in her trailer, and signed a contract for miniature gulf, boat ride, pinball games, and ??? Well, they didn’t want to honor this contract, so I showed up with my lawyer (& BF). I was providing the food, but they had the room. It was the only party that had 100% attendance, plus all the siblings.
Foolish me, but we went with a boys only sleep over when he was 10? Each kid was given a scavenger map when they arrived, which ended with them finding a flashlight. They got gifts for bringing the best scary story, for going to bed first, and all sorts of things.
Well, I had made pancake mix prior to party. Needless to say, it seemed every kid was up at some time thru the night. I doubt I had 2 hours sleep. (On the couch, as they had full use of my bed). My mom showed up at 8a.m., with donuts. (:so no other breakfast served.). We took the kids outside to the hot tub, got them dressed, and by 10 a.m., the parents arrived? BEST EVER PARTY!
At least, that was what we heard.
I forgot about the 3rd grade friend’s birthday party at a specialty kids’ hair and nail salon. The kids had a blast. Not so all the parents who got a call halfway into the party telling us we’d have to pick up our girls at the shop instead of the birthday girl’s house because the girl’s mother had been arrested for drunk driving as she pulled into the salon with all the party guests in the car. 
@Sue22 oh dear!
We did not have the money to organize birthday parties at commercial venues when the kids were little. By the time we had the money, they were not interested in giant parties. Cake, pizza, water balloon fight in the yard, maybe a sleepover and movies. One time we bought a piñata, and the kids worked hard to crack it open. It was bombproof! They decided that it was not worth the work, lol.
We couldn’t afford them either. We had one of those Intex pools with the inflatable rim. We would also run water from a hose down the slide we had in the yard, and the kids would slide down it into a long kiddie pool on a gym mat. We got away with this setup for each kid for several years.
@Sue22 Yikes! What was the fallout from this?
Luckily the arresting officer was also the elementary school’s resource officer and he knew the kids from DARE. He allowed them to all go in to the party before he arrested mom.
Unfortunately this was a third offense (the other two happened before I knew the family) and there was an additional charge of child endangerment. She was sentenced to a year and a half in prison. The school community and the families of the kids’ friends rallied around the kids and this was the wakeup call the mom needed to get sober for good. Our kids are still friends.
My D’s birthday is January 1st. That can make it tough, but kind of exciting too.
Our little town has a cute downtown of striking old buildings. Every year the town stages a mini-version of the NYC ball drop! With all the Christmas lights shining, people flock downtown and huge crowds wait it out while local musical groups entertain. The year My D was turning three, the YMCA also had an open house for the entire community with many free activites on New Year’s Eve that we went to, then later downtown. She loved the whole festive thing, sitting on dad’s shoulders during the ball drop. We counted down the seconds for her to turn three. Shortly after midnight, the crowd dropped away quickly and she was dismayed. “Where’s everybody going???” She thought the whole thing was her birthday party!
We had a tropical swimming party at a hotel pool when she turned five (she looked just like Dora and had a Dora hula bathing suit) but the water wasn’t the warmest in January. We had a roller skating parting and a ballerina party. We had years of no parties, instead traveling to cities to see professional ballet performances (she was very into that!) Some years small New Years Eve sleepovers were perfect. It freed up parents for their own plans.
The worst? Early evening of one middle-school sleepover just after the girls had arrived my sister called to tell me my elderly mother with dementia had gone into the hospital with a bad infection and she thought this was the last time. I said “I’ll get in the car right away.” It was normally an eight-hour drive. She said there was an ice storm extending a few hundred miles. “You’ll never make it.” It had taken my sister and husband a couple of hours to cross town to get to the hospital. It was all could do not to break down that night. I didn’t want to ruin my daughter’s party, so I didn’t tell her, as there was nothing anyone could do. My mother died late that night, (thankfully) holding my sister’s hand. I didn’t want to break the news to D with her friends there and I didn’t want to rush them home. I guess I was in a robotic state. But one mother (not a close friend) wanted to come in and talk and talk and talk when she came to pick her daughter up around noon. Which, usually, I’m happy for. It took all my self-control to act normally and not push her out the door.