Brayden’s birthday party was much different for us this year.  We normally invite our closest friends, and their entire families.  In the past, that would be about forty people, when it’s all said and done–some of our friends have four kids, some have three, and well–that adds up pretty quickly.  I usually spend an entire week making things, printing, cutting, decorating . . . going insane.  Okay, not really, but I have in the past gone a little overboard–as you can see here, and here, and here, and definitely here.  It left me stressed out, and took the joy out of the thing that we were actually celebrating.

So for Brayden’s birthday, we toned it down a bit this year.  While he really wanted to invite SO many more friends, we kept it to six.  Three friends from school and three friends not from school.  I bought one party package from Target that included all the paper goods, the balloons and the streamers.  We made cupcakes only–and no fancy cake, which is a big improvement because in the past we would make cupcakes AND a very time consuming themed cake that used to take forever.  I printed off Mario characters and stuck them in the cupcakes with a toothpick–which is what we normally do.  James created a pin the mustache on the Mario game.  And then we did our very first piñata–which was the best part of the party.  Everyone loved it.

Brayden was thrilled the entire 2.5 hours.  He loved seeing some friends that he hasn’t seen in awhile.  We would’ve loved for the sun to be out rather than it pouring, as we had some fun outside activities planned.  But we did the most of what we had, and I’m quite positive that Brayden was happy with the simple decorations and the cupcake display, as opposed the the my mom is crazy and now needs to sleep for an entire week to recover from my birthday party party.

And in true Brayden fashion. . . he is already planning his sixth birthday party. . .