My Kid Has a Birthday Party

Let me begin with a brief history of my son's birthday parties.

When he turned one, I was kind of in a bad place, and I just didn't have it in me to put together a big birthday bash. We had one other family over, and my mom flew in, and we took a picture of Nathan smashing a cake so that someday it would look like we had a big party for him.

By the time he turned two, I kind of had my shit together, so we had a party at home with a Thomas theme. This was the party where I learned that I never, ever wanted to have an at-home birthday party for him again. Our simple, no-frills party was so expensive and so much work. We decided to serve hot dogs and chili. This necessitated purchasing all the condiments and add-ons associated with those particular foods, because God forbid I use the half-full crusty container of mustard I already had in my fridge. I bought a few simple Thomas decorations from the party store and put together goody bags. The total cost of this relatively simple party was around $500. Five hundred dollars. And I know there are stories of people who go crazy for their kids' birthday parties, but I swear I did not do anything special for this party, unless you call purchasing themed paper goods special.

When Nathan turned three, we had his party at a train restaurants. These types of restaurants are popular in the Chicago area. The main feature is an electric train that brings you your food, and then there's usually some type of ride-on train (either the stationary kind that you put quarters in, or else one that goes around a little track), train decor, an interactive electric train display, and a soundtrack of train-related songs ("Runaway Train," "Midnight Train to Georgia," "City of New Orleans"). Anyway we had Nathan's party at a train place, and they provided food, drink, and entertainment for almost half of what we had paid for our at-home, DIY party. All I had to do on my own was get a cake and make goody bags.

It seemed like I couldn't top my own personal laziness for Nathan's fourth birthday, but somehow I managed to. We had it at Bellaboo's Play and Discovery Center, which is a children's museum. These people provided everything: food, drink, paper goods, cake, ice cream, goody bags, and some pretty kick-ass entertainment.

Okay, so the party got off to a bit of a slow start. Apparently Bellaboo's standard party format is to play first and then do pizza/cake/presents in the party room second. However, I threw a major wrench in things by asking if we could eat first, because, hello, the party started at 12:30. Wouldn't you think that if you got the 12:30 time slot, they would just assume you wanted to eat first, and not wait until 1:45 to feed lunch to starving children?

Anyway, the "party buddy" was pretty uneasy about this whole lunch-first setup. Many times she asked, "Why did you want to eat first?" and made references to how she didn't know how to handle things like food packaging and ending the party when we weren't eating after the playtime. Come on, people. If you wanted us to eat second, you should have had a party package that started at 11:00 a.m.

The situation was made more awkward by the fact that, at the onset, 1/3 of our party guests were crying. I was like, Oh crap, I am throwing the scariest birthday party ever.

Somehow everybody rallied. Everyone was fed (well, except for poor Carolyn) and the gifts were opened. The party buddy armed the kids with instruments for a birthday parade through the museum, stopping at each room to play for 10 minutes.

(NOTE: I am not posting pictures of every activity, because of my policy of not putting pictures of my friends' kids online. Random stranger kids in the background are not included in this policy. That's their own fault for being in a public place. And they don't know me to get angry with me.)

Nathan's favorite area is the Pretend Play Village, so the parade stopped there first. The Pretend Play village has three rooms: a kitchen, a mini pizzeria, and a grocery store. The following pictures are from a previous visit to Bellaboo's in the Pretend Play Village:

Delivering mail is a popular activity

Mini pizzeria: Cutest thing ever!

Toy kitchen

After Pretend Village, the kids painted their faces. And then they went to the art room, where all the kids made birthday cards for Nathan.

Nathan in the art room, displaying his handiwork from the face-painting room

Then they went to the train room:

This picture is from March 2010, when the train room had a few more trains in it. I think some of the trains have gone missing since then. Speaking of runaway trains.

And the construction room:

And the water play room:


And the ever-popular Soft Play area, which is just a giant indoor climbing structure and ball pit. This is a picture of my kid peeking his face out of the spaceship at the top of the structure:


I think everybody had a good time. And I was happy with the size of the party: 9 kids and their respective parents. I knew all the parents well, and so none of them got my kid a really obnoxious toy. BTW I took this picture of the present/coat bins because I thought they were cute:


A couple of Nathan's friends stayed after at the museum, and they all went crazy once again in the Soft Play area. Then we took them to the little cooking class that the museum offers. The recipe of the day was pretzel stick "Lincoln logs" with cream cheese mortar, complete with a lesson on how Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves.


It's going to be hard to find a venue for his fifth birthday party that requires me to do less work than the Bellaboo's party did. And the price was about what we paid for the train place last year. Cheaper than DIY and waaay easier. Win-win!

And since I know some of you readers are raising kids in the Chicago area, I just wanted to let you know that Bellaboo's is in Lake Station, Indiana, near Gary. Although you have to go through some pretty colorful Gary neighborhoods to get there, the facility itself is nestled in a nice county park and is a clean, safe building. (For those who aren't from around here, don't think Gary is the picturesque town referred to in The Music Man. It's pretty gritty.) And you might get to go past Michael Jackson's childhood home during your trip. Fun bonus! The admission price is a little steep, but now through April 26 you can get one free adult admission per paid kid admission if you bring in two cans of food. (I love how they specify that the cans have to be non-expired. Ahh, Indiana.) Also some of those freebie magazines like Chicago Parent have Bellaboo's coupons in them sometimes. Just my little plug for this fun facility!

Anyway, phew, Nathan's birthday party is over. Though his real birthday isn't for another week, and I still have to classes to provide cupcakes for. He's so spoiled.