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March 26, 2014

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Poetry

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Birthday Parties

Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.
– Mae West

IMG_5950

We’ve had big parties, and we’ve had small. We’ve had tea parties, tumbling, laser tag, jungle gyms, hikes, fairies, butterflies, sleepovers and even a party bus that pulled up out front. One thing I’ve learned from having parties for my kids: they all make me smile, and are moments to remember.

Candles on cupcakes,
Lungs filled with air,
Wishes outnumber
Cares, on kids’ birthdays.

As the number of kids we have increases, and the number of kids’ birthdays celebrated has passed twenty, I look back with most appreciation on the smaller parties. The greater intimacy allows for capturing more of that reflected joy, bottled forever in my memory. (And fewer numbers of presents to find places for.)

For me, March is the month of spring and birthdays (two of my kids and my dad).

packages wrapped
explosions of colorful paper
expressions of love

Copyright 2014 Brenda Davis Harsham

Inspired by the Ligo Haibun Challenge (Quote week) and Paint the World with Words (Naani poetry prompt). Thanks to the talented people volunteering their time to help motivate complete strangers to write.

39 thoughts on “Birthday Parties”

  2. Pingback: “The Be Inspired Weekly” Writing challenge #22 | Paint the world with words

  3. Brilliant! Brenda, you give out your soul for writing! You shared so much of imagery with this. I indeed loved your party thought and it gave out so much of happiness with your words and I felt so nice after reading this. I must say, this was an overall excellent write and a great naani poem in between! Thank you for your participation!

    Regards 🙂

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    • Thanks! Those were death by chocolate cupcakes, triple chocolate batter, extra dark chocolate chips, and chocolate frosting. I feel myself gaining weight just thinking about them. LOL

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  6. I agree, smaller parties are the more memorable ones for me too! I remember the bigger the party, it seemed the bigger the upset between some kids at the party was. Children tend to compete with each other a lot more in larger groups, and it can all end in a lot of tears. A friend of mine had that problem too when her daughter was little. The trouble is, when everyone else is having big parties some kids feel embarrassed and left out if they don’t have one too. Can be a real problem for some people today, and very expensive too, if your children get invited to nearly every party happening. I really don’t know what I would do if I was a mother having to make those decisions – tear my hair out, probably!! 😀

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    • You’d spend and spend some more, most likely. Or be the party grinch. Not a desirable thing, in my book. I like reasons to celebrate. Emotions can be high, tears can happen, but they don’t ruin it for me. I just focus on the good memories as much as I can. 🙂

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  9. I love organizing kids’ parties! My kids were (4 years and) 6 days apart, however, so after my youngest was born, when I tried doing separate parties, the people that came to the party the weekend before didn’t want to come back the following weekend. 😦 So, from them on, I had to combine their birthdays, which was something I never wanted to do. 😦

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    • My kids have very different pools of friends, and I let family members off the hook, generally. The parties are usually their friends only. Only the first birthday party and maybe age 2 were family parties. Once they were in preschool, friends all the way.

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  12. I hope that all of the three have excellent celebrations and happy days ahead. You know I like smaller parties but sometimes it is fun to see the crazy interactions of larger groups, especially children! Smiles, Robin

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    • It is a good way to meet the other parents during the preschool years, because they tend to hang around. But I usually start smaller parties in the elementary years. 🙂 My kids love them no matter what kind of party it is. I guess their preferred party is out of reach — I don’t do arcades and soda. So that’s the gold ring for them of course.

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