Kid's Birthday Parties

I am a total freak when it comes to birthday parties, ok well, parties of any kind. In my family I am known as the "outrageous" one.  I don't do anything simple, I am not capable of it, it's a sickness.  I know it and I'm aware of it.  I am trying to be better about it.    I always tend to go a little overboard with my kids birthday parties and it annoys my husband to no end.    This year, I have  been really good with the boys parties -  granted they have both had two each, but at least they were small ones right?  

When Olivia turned one, we were living in Roseau which is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere about 10 hours away from our hometown and family in Michigan.   So, this was pretty much the first time a lot of our family met our dear diva.  I went crazy for her party, probably also because she was my first.    I had custom invitations made and a special "year of Olivia" collage (made by my friend Karyn) to put in each one: 

We rented a hall back home and invited over 50 people to this party.   Her cake was amazing, it was actually a wedding cake, it was light purple stacked presents with a huge white bow on the top.   She had a small smash cake for herself (which she barely touched because heaven forbid my little princess get her  hands dirty - HUGE disappointment for a first time mom anxiously awaiting her child to "smash" into her cake) and a gorgeous pink party dress (that was more like a flower girl dress).   We had a ton of food and a lot of family and friends came to celebrate - heck I didn't even know a bunch of them because they were people my parents invited.   I took a ton of pictures and have them all in a beautiful album but of course Olivia is NEVER going to remember this party.   Here is a picture of Olivia in her outfit:

I did basically the same thing for Jackson for his first birthday - rented the hall, invited the world, had a huge cake, etc.   Jackson did not disappoint me in the cake department, I knew he was a good eater and would love sweets so I ordered him a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting in hopes that he would smash his cake all over the place.  Being so mellow and mild mannered, it took some coaxing but he eventually did it - it was everywhere.  He smeared it in his diaper and his hair.  

Anyway, for The Beast this year I just did two small parties - one in Michigan and one here.  There was nothing fancy about them, not a ton of people and both done at houses.  It killed me, I felt like I was treating him differently than I did the other two by not throwing him a big party.  But, it was fun and we had a great time and he didn't know a thing that was going on.  Well, other than he got cake and he loved it. 

Now it comes time for my little princess to have her birthday party again this year.  When I asked her what she wanted to do theme wise - she tells me that she wants an African Safari in our backyard.   I guess there goes the idea of cutting back and making the parties smaller hey?   Off to figure out what I'm going to do to hold an African Safari in our backyard......