22 invitations for 12 boys and 10 girls.

That’s how many kids (not including their siblings!) we just invited to Stella’s 5th birthday party on Saturday. OhEmGee.

Below are the cards for the kids in Stella’s class, and I honestly just texted most of the parents of the remaining kids because we ran out of invites and I didn’t feel like running back down to the dollar store. She told me her hand hurt “really, really bad” after writing out her name on the invitations and the kids’ names on all of the envelopes last night. She was also really, really proud of writing them all by herself. My grown up kid.  <3

In the past we have always done low key gatherings at our house for the kids’ birthdays, but this year Stella really wanted to go to a big play center in the town 30 minutes away. It has giant inflatable slides and obstacle courses as well as a hands on “exploratorium.” Needless to say, it’s a good time for the kids (and the parents too!).

We originally intended to do a standard party rental which included admission for 10 kids + party table set-up. Well, clearly we are way over that number, so now we are doing the private party option from 5-7pm that allows for an unlimited number of people (up to 130) and we have the run of the place. It’s a little more expensive, but we decided that for this last year of pre-k, she could invite her entire class plus a few kids from other classes, AND we wouldn’t have to worry about excluding siblings since preschoolers often have young siblings and that just creates hassle for the parents.

Remind me of this “logic” on Saturday night when we are buying pizza and cake and ice cream for what might feel like half the town. 😉