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issue with very late (day of party!) and lack of RSVP's.  Our experience in the past had been you end up with fewer kids than you invited, so we usually invite a couple more than ideal and we didn't stress about the late/lack of responses. Except that last year, all of them ended up coming  and it was a zoo because we just weren't expecting that many. The one area where it really showed was with the pinata, as I had not stuffed it nearly as full because I was expecting vastly fewer kids than I ended up with on the day. There was a lot of grousing about the small take, and I didn't have any extra to supplement bags with. I know better now! I ended up making the psycho-aggressives share with the ones who hadn't gotten much. Yeah, that went over as well as you might imagine. One of the late RSVP's also had food allergies, which no one told me! Luckily one of the other moms helped in the school lunchroom and knew about it, so she took over responsibility for checking ingredients for me. (We are vegetarian, and I always mention this when I RSVP, which I do immediately upon receiving the invitation. I offer to send something similar to what is being served if what will be served is something he can't eat.) This year we're doing the party at the science museum, and they need a final head count a few days before, so I'll have to make some phone calls. Luckily we get a class contact list. I'm starting to get burned out on parties, and am thinking of switching the older one to inviting a few of the child's best friends out for a movie and pizza. His birthday falls around Memorial day weekend, so there's always some big kid movie opening for the summer. But I still owe the little one a few more parties. I got fed up with the little-kid birthday party thing, too.  I usually hired out to some venue (a pizza-making one being the  most successful IMO) and pinyatas wasn't the big deal they seem to be now. So, since it's just him and I, when he was eight or nine we started doing birthday trips - three years in a row.  Since then the kids are old enough so that parties get smaller more along the lines of inviting a a friend for a movies or something like that.  Which are much easier to handle and more like how celebrating a birthday really should be IMO. Maybe there's some way to drag your feet to slow down this little-kid party merry-go-'round?  Its all a matter of expecations escalating. Banty

KLE says... With my son's 7th birthday party last year, I experienced a similar issue with very late (day of party!) and lack of RSVP's.  Our experience in the past had been you end up with fewer kids than you invited, so we usually invite a couple more than ideal and we didn't stress about the late/lack of responses. Except that last year, all of them ended up coming  and it was a zoo because we just weren't expecting that many. The one area where it really showed was with the pinata, as I had not stuffed it nearly as full because I was expecting vastly fewer kids than I ended up with on the day. There was a lot of grousing about the small take, and I didn't have any extra to supplement bags with. I know better now! I ended up making the psycho-aggressives share with the ones who hadn't gotten much. Yeah, that went over as well as you might imagine. One of the late RSVP's also had food allergies, which no one told me! Luckily one of the other moms helped in the school lunchroom and knew about it, so she took over responsibility for checking ingredients for me. (We are vegetarian, and I always mention this when I RSVP, which I do immediately upon receiving the invitation. I offer to send something similar to what is being served if what will be served is something he can't eat.) This year we're doing the party at the science museum, and they need a final head count a few days before, so I'll have to make some phone calls. Luckily we get a class contact list. I'm starting to get burned out on parties, and am thinking of switching the older one to inviting a few of the child's best friends out for a movie and pizza. His birthday falls around Memorial day weekend, so there's always some big kid movie opening for the summer. But I still owe the little one a few more parties. I got fed up with the little-kid birthday party thing, too.  I usually hired out to some venue (a pizza-making one being the  most successful IMO) and pinyatas wasn't the big deal they seem to be now. So, since it's just him and I, when he was eight or nine we started doing birthday trips - three years in a row.  Since then the kids are old enough so that parties get smaller more along the lines of inviting a a friend for a movies or something like that.  Which are much easier to handle and more like how celebrating a birthday really should be IMO. Maybe there's some way to drag your feet to slow down this little-kid party merry-go-'round?  Its all a matter of expecations escalating. Banty Yes, I thought I was doing myself the favor of hiring out the party to the museum, but now I see that it could just escalate expectations for the future and I'm seeing that I don't want to go there except for a big milestone birthday or graduation. We always do a family party with grandparents for each child, and at those parties we also recognize all the adults whose birthdays are close to the child's. Only the children get gifts, but usually I get some little cakes for each adult, or the adults names also on the big cake. For my 4yo, we were able to do his party on his actual birthday. My parents came over for a birthday lunch, then a few nursery school friends/parents/siblings came over for games and crafts. My dad stayed for some of the kid party, my mom stayed for the whole thing, and the neighbor and her two older boys came over for pinata time. It was an easy, fun, casual day. The first year we had a kid-only party separate from the family/neighbor event for the older one was the place where I see now it started to escalate, so now that I know better, I'm planning to keep it low-key for the little one. I just need to figure out how to sell it to the older one for next year that a few friends for a movie and pizza is a *great* idea. Karen

blindfold, and we use a plastic whiffle ball type of bat. You do have to sometimes physically hold them back until it opens all the way/dad rips it open and dumps out the rest of the loot. At this year's 4yo party, we put an old play rug on the ground under the pinata because the area was a bit damp and muddy, and it worked a treat for giving the kids a clear boundary for not getting too close. We also had a few bigger kids (7,8,12; mine plus next door neighbors) to help actually get the thing open or I figured we'd be there all day. I told the big kids before hand to let the little ones do the scramble and that I had bags made up for them already, in which I left out the trinkets but put plenty of the cheap candy as well as a couple full-size candies each. Karen From my childhood back in Texas, but long before pinyatas at birthday parties became (apparently) de rigeur - doesn't *one* child have a whack at the pinyata while the others stay back, then he and the rest scramble for what falls? Banty (no tilde, what to do...)

In article < This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it , KLE says... With my son's 7th birthday party last year, I experienced a similar issue with very late (day of party!) and lack of RSVP's.  Our experience in the past had been you end up with fewer kids than you invited, so we usually invite a couple more than ideal and we didn't stress about the late/lack of responses. Except that last year, all of them ended up coming  and it was a zoo because we just weren't expecting that many. The one area where it really showed was with the pinata, as I had not stuffed it nearly as full because I was expecting vastly fewer kids than I ended up with on the day. There was a lot of grousing about the small take, and I didn't have any extra to supplement bags with. I know better now! I ended up making the psycho-aggressives share with the ones who hadn't gotten much. Yeah, that went over as well as you might imagine. One of the late RSVP's also had food allergies, which no one told me! Luckily one of the other moms helped in the school lunchroom and knew about it, so she took over responsibility for checking ingredients for me. (We are vegetarian, and I always mention this when I RSVP, which I do immediately upon receiving the invitation. I offer to send something similar to what is being served if what will be served is something he can't eat.) This year we're doing the party at the science museum, and they need a final head count a few days before, so I'll have to make some phone calls. Luckily we get a class contact list. I'm starting to get burned out on parties, and am thinking of switching the older one to inviting a few of the child's best friends out for a movie and pizza. His birthday falls around Memorial day weekend, so there's always some big kid movie opening for the summer. But I still owe the little one a few more parties. I got fed up with the little-kid birthday party thing, too.  I usually hired out to some venue (a pizza-making one being the  most successful IMO) and pinyatas wasn't the big deal they seem to be now. So, since it's just him and I, when he was eight or nine we started doing birthday trips - three years in a row.  Since then the kids are old enough so that parties get smaller more along the lines of inviting a a friend for a movies or something like that.  Which are much easier to handle and more like how celebrating a birthday really should be IMO. Maybe there's some way to drag your feet to slow down this little-kid party merry-go-'round?  Its all a matter of expecations escalating. Banty Yes, I thought I was doing myself the favor of hiring out the party to the museum, but now I see that it could just escalate expectations for the future and I'm seeing that I don't want to go there except for a big milestone birthday or graduation. We always do a family party with grandparents for each child, and at those parties we also recognize all the adults whose birthdays are close to the child's. Only the children get gifts, but usually I get some little cakes for each adult, or the adults names also on the big cake. For my 4yo, we were able to do his party on his actual birthday. My parents came over for a birthday lunch, then a few nursery school friends/parents/siblings came over for games and crafts. My dad stayed for some of the kid party, my mom stayed for the whole thing, and the neighbor and her two older boys came over for pinata time. It was an easy, fun, casual day. The first year we had a kid-only party separate from the family/neighbor event for the older one was the place where I see now it started to escalate, so now that I know better, I'm planning to keep it low-key for the little one. I just need to figure out how to sell it to the older one for next year that a few friends for a movie and pizza is a *great* idea. Karen See, I think just having immediate family celebrate, having a good friend or two of hte child's is the way to do it.  Sweet, simple, related to the kid who is celebrating. The more relatives to be entrained, the more it moves away from the actual birthday, the more other rigamarole there is.  And I hate rigamarole   One time an acquaintance from my son's Montessori school and I were going to do a joint birthday party for our boys who were friends and whose birthdays were nearly on the same day.  Then she wanted to move it out by two weeks to suit two of her sisters who couldn't make the original date because they had won ticket to a cruise.  Nothing against the aunts going on a cruise, but that to me was just too far from it being about the boys celebrating their birthdays, and the plans hadn't gone very far at all, so I backed out. Banty