I love them and I hate them.

I'm referring to birthday parties of course.  I love them.  My kids have fun at parties, they get to play with their friends and eat pizza and cake.  They take home fun party favors and candy.  They look forward to parties for days!

My happy 2 year old at her Mulan themed birthday party this year

I hate them.  They eat too much cake, they take home terrible party favors and eat crappy candy.  They obsess over parties for days and whine and cry when they end.

I love planning birthday parties.  Making the cute invitations is fun (although now a days I use evite), picking a theme is an adventure, putting together adorable goodie bags is great! 

I ordered personalized Mulan party decorations one month in advance

Etsy provided beautiful centerpieces

I hate planning birthday parties.  Making invitations is a pain in the ass, I feel like 1/2 the people invited don't bother to respond to evite invitations, picking a theme is torture, and I despise goodie bags.

But maybe I wouldn't mind birthday parties so much if they didn't cost a minimum of $1,000 to put together.  We usually invite 25 kids and about 25 adults.  The rental of the location is usually $300-500.  The food is another $250 minimum.  The party favors and decorations are easily $100.00.  The cake about $50.00 and now we've spent about a grand- for a 2 HOUR PARTY.  For a 3 year old. 

I present to you a $75.00 cake.  I think.  I don't even remember.

I hate complaining about it, because I love seeing friends and family get together and celebrate.  I love the look on my kids faces when they open gifts and enjoy cake with friends.  I hate the presents.  But then again I wish we didn't get presents, it just adds more toys to my already cluttered house.  But wait, I love the feel of the party and how excited all of the kids are.  But I still hate them.  And love them.  And hate them.  And love them. Now I'm off to plan another birthday party!  And don't you judge me for being such a scrooge, I know you feel the same way.  The End. 

My 3 year old at her birthday party last summer.  She was so happy!