Party prep

I've been working on Dexter's birthday party for the last few days. I found these train die-cuts at the Dollar Tree (it's a train-themed party). Cute, huh?

Although I've been mostly enjoying the party prep, I've been thinking...how much is too much? I mean, I don't spend tons of money (really...not much at all) but I think that sometimes I decide to take on more than I can easily do (without getting sleep deprived and grumpy).

A few nights ago, as I was sewing the party bags together out of train fabric, Curtis and I had a little discussion about the whole party bag "thing." Neither one of us had party bags when we were kids...nobody did. Now, I feel like I'm not doing the party right if I don't have one. And I know I do this to myself; I know they're REALLY not neccessary in order to have a fun party. My kids have gone to parties where they have gotten cool party bags, and that think that's great, but they've also been to parties where there were no party bags and they never once mentioned missing the party bag. On the one hand, I think the party bags are fun; I like to make them, I think they're cute and I like to give the kids a little treat. On the other hand, I wonder if I'm over-complicating things and contributing to the glut of "stuff" that kids have these days. I have really tried to pare down the party bags over time, but I still wonder...

I don't know. I think my new philosophy (out of sheer necessity...I have four parties a year to plan, and will probably have five in the future!) is to only do what I need to do so that the kids feel special on their birthday and so that their guests have a good time. Anything I feel like doing on top of that will be a bonus. You know, if I'm not too tired and have the time and really want to do it.

In that spirit, I'll be serving pizza THAT I ORDERED FROM THE PIZZA SHOP at this party, and will never again attempt one of the extremely time-consuming and stress-inducing party menus that I have in the past. (Like when I made four different kinds of fondue at Viv's second birthday party - ????? NOT necessary.)