& besties- I’m going to give you a second to sigh your I told you so.

I have come to terms with the fact that I am always going to throw over the top birthday parties for my kids (for as long as they’ll let me).

Carissa and Natalie- cue your eye rolls and sighs.

So probably like midway through planning my daughters 4th birthday party (which I started planning about 3-4 months after her 3rd birthday party lol) I told- nay, VOWED, to my best friends and my husband, that Avery’s 4th birthday party would be my last hoo-ray (other than obviously throwing my son a first birthday party). To be honest, I had Avery’s first 3 party themes picked out in my head when she was born and just hoped that when the time came, she would enjoy the theme just as much as me and thankfully it panned out that way. And then when the thought of throwing her 4th birthday party came around, it honestly was just meant to be and I knew I had to go BIG. I threw Avery a Nightmare Be-FOUR Christmas party. She started to get into the movie the Halloween before turning 3, so like literally 3 months before she turned 3. It dawned on me that it would make a perfect 4th birthday theme (she was born 2 days after Christmas so her party is always around Christmas time, Halloween is mine and now her favorite holiday, and we both live for all things pumpkin- so it was almost like the theme was made for us), I was hoping she would stay in the Jack Skellington phase long enough for her to love the theme of her party. Spoiler alert, she obviously did and still loves the movie and asks to watch it to this day (in the middle of May mind you). Because I wanted to make that one extra special for the multitude of reasons, I swore that this would be the last big party.

No one believed me. Everyone laughed and said yeah, we’ll see. Even my husband. But I felt very confident in my decision at the time.

My son’s first birthday party is about week from the date this post goes live and well, in the plot twist everyone saw coming, I am definitely throwing more parties.

In the midst of planning my son’s party, Avery has been so excited for her NEXT party and has already picked the theme (which is great because I was really out of cute pun themed parties).

Because of the excitement that Avery now has, I’ve realized that I was crazy for ever thinking I would stop throwing birthday parties for the kids. I live for her surprise and excitement of every party she’s had up to now and seeing her think and be excited and say that she wants this or that, just makes it MORE worthwhile for me. I’ve also realized that these parties are really my love language. I love the planning and creating and realizing that one day (hopefully when the kids turn 18, or 30 😉 ) this will all be over, makes me want to cry. So I’ve given myself permission to rid myself of any guilt over throwing an over the top birthday party for either of my kids. It is SO fun for me and SO fun for them and I’ll never apologize for that.

I am also blaming my mom for always throwing me special birthday parties growing up, which is definitely where I get it from. I’ll never forget my 12th birthday party that my mom planned as a joint party with my best friend Natalie. We had a luau at my house and my parents set up the whole thing- we had tiki torches everywhere, tents in my backyard where we all camped out for the night, floating lanterns in our jacuzzi, we played limbo, and everyone dressed up with Hawaiian skirts, shirts, and leis. Natalie’s grandma made the most delicious cake for us that looked like a beach with little hula dancers on top (I think Natalie’s nag for baking stems from her grandma always baking the best treats too).

Anyways, here’s my public confessional that I am going to continue to throw birthday parties for as long as my kids will let me. And while I’m at it, I will also admit that I do have Jaxon’s 2nd and 3rd birthday themes picked out already 🙂 But as far as my daughter goes, she will be picking the themes here on out for sure.