Party Planner

Max loves to keep track of the birthdays in our family. He loves to ask about what each person wants, and what kind of a party they want to have. When Mike mentioned that he really didn't need anything, and didn't really need a party, Max went into action.

"Mom, we have to do a party for dad. I need to get him a gift. I know exactly what he wants. He'll just love it."

Translation: Can we please go to the store and pick out a bday gift for him that I secretly want so I can totally play with it?

Here's where I hit the mental mom-debate. Do I let him spend money to buy a toy for dad that he'll actually just want to play with, or do I insist that he buy dad a true dad-gift, like socks? Maybe it was his genuine excitement, or the fact that he was going to pay for part of it with his own money, I caved, and went with it.

Gift picked. He came home and planned the rest of the party. Decorated balloons, hung them himself throughout the house (including one on the garage door so dad would see it was a party as soon as he came home), found the birthday banner to hang, and made sure we had cake to eat. He was a rock star helping me clean the house to get it all ready for when dad came home.

His favorite part? Hiding the gift from dad. Location decided by him, with a hot/cold game to find it.

My favorite part? When he and Alexis sang the happy birthday song they'd been practicing all day. She was awesome.

All in all, it was completely worth it. There's just something about the enthusiasm of little people that turn an otherwise simple day into a memory that Mike and I will keep in our back pocket for years to come.