Every birthday in Finn's life ends up being a major stake in the ground for me. He is so excited about them, and they often are the primary social event for me every year.
His first birthday was a blowout, maybe one of the top social events of my life. We invited everyone in our lives and the turnout was amazing, people came from hours away. I wrote about it in an older post, but in retrospect the big take away was that right after it the COVID lockdown meant that was the only social event that year.
We didn't have another good birthday party until his fourth birthday thanks to COVID. The second birthday party was nothing except a Spotify playlist I made (that dominated my Spotify replay in 2021). For the third one the grandparents came into town and we road the city train three trains stops down and then back. Finn loved the train ride, but the only birthday part of it was a Paw Patrol cake.
For the fourth birthday we had a party at the house again, but it didn't have the turnout of the first one. We rented a bouncy castle and the kids who came had a blast. The theme was Mario Kart, and I had my Switch setup and some of the kids just played MK8 the whole time. Finn loved it because his friend David came, and felt like I did a good job with the theme. But honestly without Jessica and Tommy's kids it would have felt like a grown up party. I was most proud of the Mario Kart ice cream cake, the toppers for it were stand alone toys Finn kept for years.
The fifth one was the second best one so far, we did it big at Gattitown in Round Rock and all the kids had a lot of fun. It was another Paw Patrol theme, and we rented out a room and did it right. I was very impressed that Finn wasn't overwhelmed by how crazy the play room was, and I have good memories of spending time with my friend playing games with their kids. Also I have a funny memory of one of my friend's kids coming for the first time ever (out of all the parties) and the kid hate the theme and wanted it all changed. That was a trip.
Last year it was again at her house, kinda a remix of the third one. I had just moved out so I didn't lean in much to set the agenda for it. She rented a bouncy castle again and I bought outdoor activities like plastic throwing axes. I don't remember much of it, I kinda blocked it out because it was my last time back at that house after I moved out for a significant time. The trauma was too fresh.
This year was different, I wanted another big party. Lindsey asked me to take lead and I immediately felt overwhelmed by it and the discussions around where we are all living in the future. When these discussions got nailed down I had a new mission in life to soak up Leander as much as I can, and the birthday party got pulled into that mission. To that end I reserved a space at the park down the street, partially because I always wanted to do a party there (and it felt like my last chance), partially because I wanted to show off my "new neighborhood," partially because I knew the park well and so did her and her parents, and partially because I have built up good memories with Finn at this park in the last year (like us camping there) and I wanted to tie a bow on that. Banking on being outside in a park in February is always a risk, but most of Finn's parties have been on days with good weather so I went for it.
To that end, since I was choosing the location I let Finn pick the theme with the only restriction being it couldn't be Paw Patrol again (which was the one for the last two birthdays). He picked Numberblocks which was tough- the UK company that owns it sucks as licensing anything but toys. Luckily TEMU bailed me out since they don't care about copyright they were willing to sell me Numberblock plates and banners and clothing for him to wear on the day. This stuff took forever to get to my house but I was prepared and ordered it all in December.
A week before the party I got very nervous. A cold storm hit Austin the weekend before and the extended forecast was showing a very cold day was coming. I almost bailed out but I decided to be optimistic. And it paid off! Each day the forecast went up, and the actual day was a sunny day in the 60s- aka best case scenario. We ended up having a great turnout- a mix of her new social group, my friends and their kids, her family, and Finn's friends from ABC that came the year before. Finn missed the kids from ABC so that was a complete win.
I enjoyed people being impressed by the park, and I told stories of us camping there or me walking around it at night with River. I beamed about how it was cool his afterschool program was nearby and how much Finn enjoyed walking to my house every day. Rene brought the ping pong paddles and foosballs needed to use the tables at the park, and some people brought dogs and enjoyed how pet friendly the place was. Overall it was an ideal party, exactly what I hoped for.
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