Somehow this week, I've ended up in three different conversations about Elise's hotel birthday party. Considering it happened over a month ago, I figured it was high time I blogged about it.
Apparently to some, "hotel party" conjures up images of hoards of rambunctious kids running wild and unsupervised through the hotel, a keg, a trashed hotel room, and a pedophile lurking in every corner just waiting to snatch a birthday party attendee.
I think those people went to too many wild high school and college hotel parties. A 10 year old's hotel birthday party could be nothing further from that. It is fun, innocent, well-supervised, and no more expensive than your typical Build-a-Bear, bounce house, or ice skating party. Turning ten seems like a big deal, so I thought a hotel party would be a fun way to celebrate.
For kicks, I thought I would give a comparison of a hotel slumber party to an a typical at-home slumber party.
Days leading up to the party
hotel:
Make cupcakes, gather up party supplies, and throw everything in the car.home: Make cupcakes, gather up supplies, and spend hours cleaning, mopping, vacuuming, dusting, decluttering, and getting your house ready for company.
4:00 p.m.
hotel: Children arrive, put on swimsuits, and have a blast in the hotel pool while waiting for the pizza to arrive.
home: Children arrive and run around your house like complete maniacs while waiting for the pizza to arrive. (Don't believe me? Check out the video here from Elise's birthday party two years ago.)
5:30 p.m.
hotel: serve pizza in the lobby where the manager's reception is going on. The girls can help themselves to delicious warm baked chips and dip, lemonade, Sprite, or Shirley Temples from the reception.
home: serve pizza along with a bag of chips and juice boxes.
6:30 p.m.
hotel: After pizza, cupcakes, and opening presents, the girls hang out in the lobby looking at the fish swimming in the pond while the manager kindly offers to help you clean up the mess.
home: After pizza, cupcakes, and opening presents, the girls once again are running wild around the house while you are stuck cleaning up all the mess.
7:00 p.m.
hotel: It is back to the pool for another quick swim to tire out the girls, so they won't be up all night.
home: You have to plan, purchase supplies for, and lead the girls in a craft project to occupy time.
8:00 p.m.
hotel: The girls play musical pedicures and you apply glitter tattoos. Every time you apply one, you smile at the fact that the glitter is landing on a hotel towel, and you will not have to vacuum after you're done. (As a side note, the glitter tattoos were a HUGE hit. If you have a 7-13 year old girl on your Christmas list, I highly recommend them. Here's a link)
home: The girls play musical pedicures and you apply glitter tattoos. Every time you apply one, you groan at the thought of glitter being tracked all over the house.
9:00 p.m.
hotel: The girls organize a dance contest and watch TV in the bedroom of the suite. They go to bed at a reasonable time after being worn out from the swimming. You get a good night's sleep in the living room of the suite.
home: The girls organize a dance contest and watch TV in whatever room in the house you have decided will hold six girls. They stay up ridiculously late giggling despite your many warnings to settle down and go to sleep. Even though you are in your own bed, you don't get much sleep with the girls keeping you up all night.
9:00 a.m.
hotel: You and the girls pack up your belongings and head downstairs for a fabulous breakfast buffet - made-to-order omelets, bacon, sausage, biscuits, muffins, donuts, cereal, fruit, waffles, and any type of juice you could ever want. There is no complaining about the choices. Everyone fills up and thoroughly enjoys their breakfast. There is no clean-up because the hotel busses the tables.
home: You either get dressed quickly to run out to pick up donuts, or you dirty up a bunch of pots and pans making bacon and pancakes. Everyone gets fed, and then you get to wash dishes.
10:00 a.m.
hotel: Parents arrive in the lobby to pick up their kids. You load things in the car, check out, and you are completely done with project birthday party.
home: Parents arrive to pick up their kids. You spend the rest of the day washing dishes, cleaning up the clutter, vacuuming up glitter, and yelling at the birthday girl, "Get over here and help me clean up! It was YOUR friends who made this mess!"
All said and done, it was a fun, exciting, easy, reasonably priced way to celebrate ten years. I highly recommend it!
You've convinced me. The hotel party definitely sounds far better than the traditional home slumber party (plus, it's pretty special for the kids!). I love it!
Posted by: kerry | Sunday, November 06, 2011 at 12:55 AM