I don’t know about you, but the thought of planning a child’s birthday party can get to be stressful. There is so much to think about:
- Finding the right location
- Managing the RSVP list
- Buying the right amount of food
- Choosing food that most people will like (or can eat)
- Determining what my twins will both want to do
- What the kids will wear
Just writing this list starts to make me feel exhausted — and let’s not forget that I have to do this all within a budget.
The desire to create the perfect experience can take a lot of time to plan, and then to do it within a specific budget gets even harder. Then when I looked on Instagram and saw these fab children’s birthday parties, internally I felt even more pressure to make sure my twins’ parties measured up. I’m grateful that my kids aren’t in school yet to be able to compare their parties to their peers’ parties.
I share all of this to say that as a parent, planning your children’s birthday party can be stressful and trigger feelings of inadequacy. The good thing is that I recognized those feelings of comparison, checked those feelings, and then reviewed what I could afford to spend, and made a conscious decision to stay on budget. I challenged myself to plan a party that is unique, fun, and authentic to our family.
Last year, I had my twins’ birthday party outside at a park. It worked out perfectly (minus the aggressive bees) and the kids had a ton of fun. I thought about doing an outdoor party again this year, but given the time of year, I was concerned about the weather. Therefore, I was ecstatic to learn that Michael’s allows parents to host birthday parties in their craft room.
Michael’s has a couple of options for birthday parties, both of which allow you to bring in your own food:
- Pick a party from their pre-selected themes and Michael’s will provide the craft materials. The $125 fee will cover the cost of the materials, the room, and a staff member for the full duration of the 2-hour party.
- Create your own party. If you want to create your own party, then you are responsible for your own supplies. The $50 fee covers the room and a staff member for the full duration of the 2-hour party.
I decided to do Option 2 and create a party where we did 2 different craft projects. The first project was painting using the bingo dot markers and the other was slime. I chose these because of their ease and cost-effectiveness. Then, once I knew what projects we would do, I purchased the supplies when they were on sale so I could stack additional coupons on top of the sale price.
The twins and their friends loved their experience. Having a staff member there helping to provide direction and assistance to the children with their projects was such an amazing bonus. Michael’s is truly a gem when it comes to children’s birthday parties, so definitely consider it when planning your child’s next party!
