Deciding on what to do was quite a process for me. Timothy LOVES kids, but because of his sensory issues he gets overwhelmed by them a great deal. And I really wanted to go somewhere so that I didn't have to clean up after the party.
He had actually done well at a Chuck E. Cheese party earlier in the year (I know, shock!), but there were a few issues that made me decide against it. He had a really hard time with the giant animals that make noise. He found some Mario arcade game and watched it the entire time we were playing games. This is probably why he did okay-just blocked out all the other visual and auditory stimuli. And like I said, he just stood by the machine and watched others play-he's such a perfectionist that he has to observe something for a while to know that he can do it before joining in. He never played it once while we were there. I didn't want him tuning out everyone and everything at his own party. This game made him very unwilling to leave. And lastly, Samantha HATED it. She clung to me the whole time-Dan was gone, and it was awful.
For a while I was going to rent a bouncy thing and set it up at our playground w/in our military housing. But by early June it was hot here, and heat is a huge trigger for Timothy. Our playgrounds don't really have much shade, so I nixed that idea.
And then I was at McDs one day and saw a family having a birthday party, complete with presents and birthday cake. I remembered McDs birthdays were big when I was growing up. Turns out the McDs here don't "host" birthday parties, but the manager was quite willing for me to come and reserve tables, decorate, and she provided plates, napkins, forks, etc. I bought happy meals for all the kids, and they got to play on the playplace. Simple and fun.
It was NASCAR themed. Timothy doesn't have a "driver" or anything, but these 2 cars came with the cake.
Timothy actually got tons of presents. Here is his first $5 that is going to save for his Nintendo Wii.
The manager did give out frisbees...
And I did simple goodie bags (I printed the b-day cake on my computer and put each child's name on it).
The nicest part was had a few parents tell me THEY actually got to sit and have a conversation. There was plenty of room, and they didn't have to worry about where their kids were the whole time. It was nice!
4 comments:
Oh my gosh, your son is CUTE! Love his smile! I remember going to McD's birthday parties when I was a kid too. They were the height of cool. (And I avoid bounce houses whenever possible)
Okay, this is a GREAT idea for those of us with children who have summer birthdays!!!! We went to the zoo for B's birthdya on July 21st and almost died. One of the little boys asked if we could go home and have cake.....
I also think your son is a doll! I'm glad you found a great way to celebrate Tim's birthday!
Looks like a lot of fun! He's such a cutie :)
I had an "a-ha" moment reading this post, my son Cuddlebug often prefers to watch for a long time before he'll try new games, etc. too. He always has, and we figured out he was observing to learn b/c he'll watch for a while and skip the "trial and error" part. I figured that is just the way he learns, it never occurred to me it could be because he's a perfectionist and he's making a point to skip the trial and error. He IS a perfectionist so that makes total sense! Thanks for the insight.
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