Better than the NY TIMES Dad???

I read this article in Sunday's Style Section.

It made me think. We've been big on cool kids' parties since the first ones. Through the years I found a previously untapped talent for creative birthday eats. Tellytubby toast were made as over-sized chocolate chip cookies. Two years in a row N picked out which Thomas Tank Engines he wanted: Percy, Thomas, Edward... they have all been recreated in the kitchen using small bread pans as molds. He turned three - then four. I've also recreated Digimon, as well a Pokemon, as well as high heeled shoes and a "barbie cake" for my daughter. If I remember correctly, I only "outsourced" 3 parties in almost 12 years (had parties outside of our home). At the 2006 karate party, I made the R2D2, shown above.

C hasn't been left out in the coolness factor. She had one of the first big sleepovers in kindergarten where each guest baked her own mini birthday cake. It only went up from there. Every year has been a new gig. Some years we've had two parties. One year C slept with 3 friends at the Marriott but we still had a ton of girls at the house for a karaoke night. Another year she constantly used an expression "I like eggs", so we had an "egg-stravaganza". Games revolving around eggs, egg painting. This past fall each kid had a small sleepover for their birthday, but to compensate we invited a ton of kids for a post-trick-or-treating Halloween party. N's sleepover was supposed to be sleeping in a tent - too bad the kids scared themselves so badly they moved into the living room. Another year we had a surprise party for C when she earned her black belt. After all the times she couldn't have a playdate or missed a birthday party, we felt her friends and she deserved a payback.

This weekend we'll have a movie night, no birthday. The future is a vast open calendar of things to celebrate in a new way.

I am pretty sure the kids have long forgotten the actually Halloween parties we threw for the pre-school neighbors in 2000, 2001 and 2002, but I hope that my kids remember that Mom and Dad have always tried to give them the best of memories. And maybe we even did better than the self-appreciating New York Times Dad! OMG I've finally become my worst nightmare: a New Jersey Competitive Mother!! (At least I'm competing in the category "who gave their kids the most memorable birthday parties at home").