I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around that, too. All I can say is I hope there was some consolation for the birthday kid in extra leftovers.

autocorrect or an early Halloween party? :lol:

Just finished tooth fairy duty over here lol

No, not just you. Because of the weather we've decided not to go to church where we normally go tomorrow. If I go to a closer church they are having a potluck. I might just bring something store bought from tonight's grocery trip. Church is so early. Good luck. Glad you don't have to be quiet!

Was there no cake/dessert or they forgot to sing??

when I was a bit younger I might have thought this was neat, but I guess as a parent I'm a lot more hesitant. Don't feel bad for asking! We're looking at it from a parents' point-of-view and probably all know some sensitive kids lol. I hope he can have fun decorating or something. Honestly, some of our house decorations might have been scary to little ones. We've had graveyards before and also a talking tree decoration! He was silly at least. He used a bunch of puns.

Whoa. I thought they told ds it would be weekly. I met a woman that said her daughter went twice. I didn't know some did that or even three times. Wow!

I think you can do any amount electronically. So basically you could do it discreetly via email if you felt so compelled. In general I think giving the gift card or gift to the hostess would be more awkward than not bringing a gift if it was written loud and clear no gifts.

I know some people (or maybe this was just in TV land) have two bowls. They first reach for the wrong bowl and it's got something weird in it. Maybe like plastic spiders or something. Then they correct themselves and offer the real candy bowl. That might be okay. I just worry about little kids breaking out in tears if there is something scary that happens. They might take a bit to calm down and the parents probably call it a night after that. That could ruin an evening.

Honestly, I don't get the charitable donation thing. Just because someone says "I don't want/need gifts" does not mean "I want you to spend money in another way." :confused1: There was some invite we got several months ago that was kind of vague. It said something like gifts were not necessary but it wasn't a strongly worded "No gifts, please" type thing. It's a family we've known a few years and had gone to each other's parties a handful of times. I ended up giving the birthday girl a pair of cat sunglasses because she loves jaguars. They were a few bucks. In hindsight I should have given the gift to them in the parking lot, but oh well. I used to work at a retail store that sold Amazon gift cards. I knew I'd only seen them in $25 increments. The only places I've seen them in smaller amounts is electronic ones. On Swagbucks ($3, $5 are avail.) or on the actual Amazon site you can order I think any amount you want. I find most gift cards in public places require a min. purchase of $25. But if you go into the retailer (if Amazon was a brick and mortar store, not just a warehouse) you can usually get other amounts.

I don't get excited about long flights but finding some people to chat with sounds nice. Dh is nervous about planes. He is going to fly on one soon for a work thing. First tijme flying for him as an adult. I'm secretly or not-so-serenely hoping this means flying for us in the future. Or, I dunno, he could hate it lol. Where ever you are going, I hope you have a great time! Edited: just saw the post with destination

Ugh. So who did that gf consult when she had her own birthday meal? Dh kept trying to change the location of my birthday meal this weekend. I just bought a gift card for the place LOL. Use it with me or I'm going to find a way to use it sometime.

It doesn't defray the cost because the Amazon gift card would be spent by the child most likely. Like, in our household, ds would spend it on digital movies most likely.

Dh did have to get up early to get fresh ones, but it worked out. We had another attendee pick up the pizza for us (the pizza place wasn't open when he got the donuts and it was quite far from the house).

As someone that is openly frugal maybe my reply with help. When I throw parties I am not concerned about gifts at all. Ds took forever walking around Target trying to find something to buy with his gift card from my sister. It was not really defraying any costs. It was just icing on the cake so to speak. He got a book and a couple other things. His first thought? "I'm going to buy donuts with my gift card." Some kids don't even care that much about gifts. Also, I hate to admit this, but he has gifts in their original packaging sitting in his room. An untouched building kit, etc. Some are from Christmas. We are trying to step away from tangible gifts more and more as our home is small and clutter is consuming us.

How does he feel about donuts? Ds turned 9 this summer and asked for a donut cake. You could have mult. choices. This was ours. I think dh got too many donuts!! They had a thing where if you buy X number of donuts you get another dozen free. It was overkill LOL. We had a million leftovers as we didn't have a large party and discovered one or two guests were diabetic. But you could figure out how many would be suitable. It would be easier than baking a cake.

Ha! It looked like it was a long ad for the game. I also learned some other things. I had no idea that when the game ends it will give you a chance to continue from the same level or not. And it will make sounds to tell you what level you got to. It all just sounded like annoying beeps to me. Ds may have figured that out already. I don't know, but I'll tell him if he doesn't know that yet.

Ds was gifted Air Simon. Maybe I should have him try it out again. It's quite annoying to me LOL The game is quite loud. edited: ha I just saw on YouTube there is a way to adjust the volume!

Sorry but this made me laugh

I consider us much better off than we used to be, but when we stress about how many trips we make with the car to town (e.g. larger city with shopping and homeschool events or even dr offices) each week it makes me feel poor. We have used WIC, EBT, and Medicaid/Chips in the past. We put almost all our purchases on our credit card. The bank account is for auto draft bills. I have to check with dh before I write checks or check the bank account. That is why when someone says "cash or check" I usually go to a grocery store and do cash back with my cc rather than write a check.

I have a fall birthday. I couldn't imagine celebrating it in summer and having people think my age changed. Adults may ask the kids their age. I would just feel fake. I love party planning, but try to do it on the cheap. When did had a Curious George theme, dh baked the cakes and I decorated. For favor bags I gave out monkey erasers, CG coloring sheets I printed, and CG gummies? You can stay on theme and not spend a lot. How do you feel about making things? If you plan ahead you can make decorations, etc. Maybe do a family only party if the guest list is too much. Plan it at a non meal time so you save, too.

I worried the toddler at the party I'm attending would feel left out. I got her some shirts from The Children's Place when they were on sale. One is a Halloween shirt and one is a sister shirt. I like the idea of books.

There are so many good ideas. Not necessarily mine, but just in general. I would want to have some centers closer to our town to help people with things like clothing. Also maybe a crisis pregnancy center. Donate new hardbacks to the failing schools. Help the failing schools in general. Open a grocery store nearby that has decent prices, enough selection, and decent operating hours. As I type this I get sad thinking that this place would probably be robbed right away. Sigh. See how I can help the churches I attend. See how we can help the surrounding community. Help people that don't have safe water. I think you can buy a system or donate so much a day to help. Build a good park close by or remodel the existing one. There isn't much there and things are broken. Pay adoption fees for animals in shelters.

I'm going to a baby shower tomorrow. I'm giving a few coupons for baby products with my gift. Ha. I know she uses Pampers. You can print online. You could maybe find out what they need/want that they didn't have with the first or got rid of.

My kid wouldn't do that/I wouldn't let my kid act like that in public is right up there. I used to hear my young childless coworkers say that crap when I worked in retail.