The Monster’s belated birthday party is this weekend.

Because R is two, his birthdays are lightly themed, but are moving in the direction of having some kind of actual structure – we’ll probably have to have a “real” birthday party for him next year.  The Monster, at six, still is getting what is really an overglorified playdate with a BBQ… for a lot of good reasons.

Ordinarily, I might feel guilty or like I’m being unfair about how we’re not “doing anything” for the Monster’s party.  We’ll have some craft tables out, and if the weather holds we’ll throw a sprinkler, water table and pool out in the back yard… but by and large, we’ll probably let the kids play with the toys in the living room and enjoy themselves in the back yard, rather than plan something.

On the other hand, I think that requires the Monster to like something and have a preference in that regard.  To date, he’s not really shown any care for what it is – he’s wanted a cake, and that’s really about it.

But the point of a birthday party is to be fun, for everyone.  The Monster doesn’t really have any friends that he talks about when he comes home from school, nor does he go on many playdates or to a lot of other birthday parties.  (The only parties he generally gets to go to are our friends’ kids’ and his cousins’ parties.)  Plus, last year seemed to be a big hit, and a lot of the same people are coming this year.

We’ll see how it works out, really, as the kids are all a year older and bigger, and if my sanity can take what looks like two dozen-plus folks roaming around the house..