birthday parties

There is a laundry list of things I get wrong when it comes to parenting: veggies at dinner…sometimes, too much iPad time, and always eating my kids’ dessert when they aren’t looking. But there is one thing I always do right, and that, friends, are birthdays. Birthdays in this house are a big deal. A BIG, BIG, BIG deal. I’m a firm believer that if your Mamma doesn’t make a huge fuss over your birthday, then who will? Now I’m not talking about some crazy party that the final bill could rival a wedding, but a day that is filled with so much joy that the birthday baby is just ready to burst with fun, love, cake, and pure birthday bliss. It’s cupcakes for breakfast, being sung the birthday song at least 25 times, and blowing out candles on a really fabulous cakes while wearing a special birthday outfit, and a party that screams “It’s My Birthday and It’s All About How Awesome I Am!” After all, this fabulous girl is three!

When my gal was nearing the end of her ~~terrible twos,~~ twos and we were looking ahead to three, it was time to start planning. One thing that I love about my fun, fearless, and fierce Little Mamma is that she loves what she loves. While she can sing every song in Frozen (just ask her and she’ll do it), her first loves are Mike and Sulley from Monster’s Inc and the Minions from Despicable Me. Three is a big birthday, so there’s no need to pick just one–so we went with all three of her favorite characters as the inspiration.

And what would a party be without a cake? When we have birthday cakes, we go for fabulous and delicious from the amazing Whitnee at Cake to Crumbs Bakery. She creates extraordinary and super yummy cakes every year for my kids. We didn’t have a single cupcake or piece of cake left–bummer, right? But that just shows how delicious her cakes are, and seriously, can you stand how adorable! Usually the birthday girl gets an icing flower on her piece of cake, but my gal requested Sulley’s eye–gross but fitting.

Always knowing exactly what she wants, she wants, she picked her party location at Pump it Up where kids jump for joy on six HUGE inflatable. As soon as we arrived for her party, she was off and bouncing away, but Hubby and I did get to sneak a quick picture of her

Early on in our birthday party circuit, I learned that party favors can be a bit of a waste and simply annoy the parents of the party guests. So this year I went for simple and found these adorable Sulley hats. I wasn’t sure if the kids would even like them, but couldn’t stop laughing when I saw all of the party goers eating their pizza and wearing these adorable hats. Here is my main man who worked up a sweat jumping and needed a little apple juice.

The best part of this birthday party was my birthday girl’s face the entire day. Pure Joy! She bounced her little heart out, blew out her candles on the first try, and crashed the minute she hit the car on the way home. Always a good sign of a great birthday party.

Since my gal loves to jump and bounce, she was thrilled when the nice people of Brown Owl sent her the Elephant Animal Hopper to bounce her little heart out and in celebration of my gal’s birthday, they are giving away an Animal Hopper to one of my readers!

As soon as we handed her “Rocky” the elephant, she was off and bouncing. She even started singing a little song all about “Rocky.” The toy was really easy to inflate and watching this crazy lady play proves it’s durable. Added bonus, she can even play with “Rocky” outside, and since the cover is removable and washable, we don’t have to worry that “Rocky” looks dirty and gross. What a perfect gift for a kiddo on the move!

Want one of your own? My readers will a get 15% off when buying (they are normally $39.99) by using this code: OLJFRZFJ

Click here for Rocky the Elephant or here for Carlos the Frog

Find Brown Owl Toys on Facebook too!

You can win one too! Enter here for your chance to win. The contest ends 8/10/14. Good luck!

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The blaring music hurts your ears and you have to scream to talk to the person next to you. The bright lights are flashing strobes that make you dizzy when you walk, and some girl is crying in the corner. No, this isn’t a scene from a trendy club on a Friday night; this is a four-year-old’s birthday party at a bouncy house, and if the ambiance isn’t enough to make you feel a little trippy, the effects from the party will.

Our first visit to this assault-on-your-senses-birthday-party-venue happened when I was über pregnant with Mimi. I was ecstatic to sit for a few hours while Monkey bounced his little self into a birthday party induced coma. I watched my little guy scamper off into one inflatable contraption after another, but it was an ominous one called “The Gauntlet” that should have come with a warning

The Gauntlet was different from the rock walls or round bouncers he happily bounded across during the party because once a kid climbed into a little tube, you couldn’t see them until they reemerged sliding down a huge incline. Honestly, you would have better luck sending your kid into a crack house hoping they coming out with less baggage and trauma.

Once Monkey disappeared into the tubes of The Gauntlet, I started talking to another party-goers dad. After a few minutes I couldn’t be sure, but I thought I heard faint cries above LAMFO’s Party Rock Anthem.

Do you hear something?

Am I imagining things?

But after a few more cries, I realized it was Monkey panicked and screaming for me! Because I was the size of a whale, climbing in and rescuing him wasn’t an option so I sent the dad I was chatting with in to fish him out.

When Monkey emerged, he was terrified, tear-stained and wanted out of the bouncy house hell. After a while, he bounced a little in a safer inflatable, but he and I never forgot that dam Gauntlet

After that episode, every time we received a birthday invitation to that bouncy house, I sent up a silent prayer he wouldn’t remember getting stuck or be big enough to conquer the Mount Everest of inflatables.

At the next few parties I kept a close eye on him and put up a mom sized roadblock in front of The Gauntlet. This plan worked until I had to wrangle both kids solo at a party and they both took off in different directions. I chased after the little one because she was likely to start a pint-sized revolt and overtake the cake table.

It was like Déjà vu: the music and lights were so bright and loud, someone was probably sent into a seizure, and behind all the ruckus were faint, panicked cries. He was stuck in the dam Gauntlet again. Crap…

This time he knew to get out the way he entered, but he was still upset. I told him he was brave and so smart for getting out when he was stuck. I even offered to join him in The Gauntlet so he knew he could make it through unscathed, but he wanted no parts of that solution.

Two weeks later, his best buddy had his party at the same place, and I was fully prepared to bring a pair of scissors. You know, in case The Gauntlet looked at me the wrong way. The party was in full swing when Monkey booked it over to The Gauntlet. I panicked, but this time something pretty awesome happened.

He conquered The Gauntlet all on his own, and his face when he came sliding down to the bottom was priceless. I imagine this is what a Heisman Trophy Winner’s mom feels like. OK, that’s a bit much, but it was pretty awesome. My pal Coco caught this photo of Monkey and I celebrating his success.