Birthday Parties

Planning is something that I have turned into a hobby.  I go into every detail of everything I can and I plan it all out.  Now, I may not stick to the plan since I do kind of live in the moment; but I like having one there just in case.
Birthday parties are one of those things that I love planning and hate planning at the same time.  I love researching ideas and coming up with something that is almost original (well, I do get my ideas online after all).  I hate second guessing my decisions and trying to get my husband to give me an opinion on those details that he really doesn't care about since I just can't make up my mind.
This year, I have something considerably smaller planned for my son's fifth birthday.  Last year, we went all out.  He was into superheroes in a major way.  We did a superhero training camp.  We set up inside our house with "pow" and "kachow" type signs we made.  We made each kid a cape (it was cheap and not pretty, but it worked).  We made Gotham City in our backyard.  I'm not kidding.  I went around and got several boxes from Walmart and Sears and I painted them black with yellow windows and made a Gotham City sign.  The kids had a blast running between them and knocking them down.  I even made my husband dress up as Batman and do photos with the kids.  He had fun though.
This year, we are doing Phineas and Ferb.  My son still loves superheros, and pirates, and Toy Story (previous themes), but I want to do something different each year.  This year, we're letting the kids do a craft; we're giving them funky colored fedora hats like Agent P, and we are going to do air guitar with the songs from the cartoon with plastic balloon type guitars.  There are a few other ideas, but I'm trying to keep it so kids from all different age ranges can participate.  Now, I'm just trying to come up with food, cake, and whether or not we will do a pinata.