Party Time

If there's one thing I like more than playing travel agent, it's playing PARTY PLANNER! I've got the big September double birthday party coming up - Brendan's turning 7 on the 15th and Amanda's turning 9 on the 21st. Since they're only 6 days apart, the "family" party is ALWAYS a combined affair. I always worry that we won't be able to come up with a good "unisex" theme that will be fun for both of them. But this year it was easy. My little "girly-girl" Amanda is suddenly a die-hard Mets fan - so SHE suggested a Mets/baseball theme for their party. Of course that works for Brendan too, so I hurried up and printed off these invites before she would have a chance to change her mind. I think they came out kind of cute!

So now I'm in full-fledged party-planning mode. I think my menu will revolve around typical "baseball stadium" food - hot dogs, popcorn, cotton candy, maybe pizza or nachos? and of course a baseball-themed cake. Of course I'm going to need some "real food", too, for the adults, so I guess I'll expand it to a BBQ menu (burgers & chicken to go with the dogs??), and add a few salads or something. I have some baseball-themed decorations left from Ryan's last birthday party (which had a general "sports" theme) - recycling - gotta love that! And games/activities should be pretty easy with this theme.

Now I'm just trying to decide if I'm going to do separate "kid" parties for the two of them, like I've done in the past. Amanda wants to have a sleepover, but Brendan would be happy to just invite a couple of friends to the "family" party. I should probably just go with that - it would save me some time and money - but I feel a little guilty cause he's never had a separate "friends" party yet. Ryan and Amanda have both had at least 2 big "invite-the-whole-class" type birthday parties in their lifetime - and Brendan has never had one.

Well, I guess I'll sleep on it and decide tomorrow.