There was a great article in the New York Times on Sunday written by a dad, Michael Winerip, who threw awesome summer birthday parties for his children. I have to admit that I was a little jealous – my kids are both November and there is little prospect of an outdoor celebration at that time of year. Nonetheless, I really enjoyed reading about the joy both he and his children received from these “home grown” parties. So many people today spend an enormous amount of money trying to create what they think will be an amazing celebration for their chid, but reading Michael’s column makes me think that maybe our children are actually happier with simpler celebrations we create using our own ingenuity and resources. His party ideas are the most creative I have heard yet – and they sounded incredibly fun!

Below is an excerpt from Michael’s column. To read the full piece, click here.

“What parties. We’d invite two dozen of their closest friends and do pirate scavenger hunts full of hidden clues where they got to use actual shovels to dig up buried treasure at the beach at the end of our street. I’d run relay races until they collapsed. For the Big Cookie Relay, I’d have the local bakery make two chocolate chip cookies as big as Frisbees. The kids had to take a bite, show me they’d swallowed, then run carrying the five-pound cookie and hand it off to a teammate. We’d finish up with the How Fast Can I Run in Dad’s Clothes Relay. (Not very.)

Back at the house, I’d get Sam to dress in goggles, a swimsuit and flippers, and stand in the middle of a chalked bull’s-eye on the patio. Then Annie and her friends would take turns leaning out a second story window and throwing water balloons at Aqua Man.”

Excerpted from “Hire a Clown? Not This Dad” by Michael Winerip, New York Times, June 19, 2009.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 10:23 am by lisa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.