My baby girl turns four in two months. I've begun full scale obsession on the topic. I like to do this every year. Sometimes I like to start three months ahead of time. This year I've been distracted so I've opted to limit myself to two months.
Right now, I'm currently fixated on theme. Because you have to pick a good theme before you can obsess over anything else. For example, what's the point of surfing the net for the cutest cake design in the history of cake designs until you know what kind of design you're looking for?
My soon to be four year old has informed me over the last month that she would like a Dora cake, a Disney Princess cake and a Spiderman cake. My soon to be four year old does not actually know anything about Dora, Disney princesses or Spiderman except for what she has been told by other children at the daycare or seen in stores. Marketing for children is impressive. That Dora chick is exceptionally insidious. My kid's never even seen the show but she once tried to talk me into buying her a fugly Dora table and chairs set. And she knows Diego's name too. For that matter, I know Diego's name. What the hell.
Needless to say, I'm not into Disney anything. Especially not a peer pressure induced Disney anything. Luckily she's still young enough to be open to suggestions. And she likes animals. We're planning to take her to Sea World so an underwater fish related theme seems like a possibility. Although I can go ahead and let you know, no one sells underwater fish related birthday crap in pink. Pink is the soon to be four year old's signature color. This is a problem. I guess I could cut out a few pink goldfish shapes and tape them to the wall. Although pink goldfish taped to the wall are not what I like to envision in my head when I obsess two months out from the event. I prefer to envision super cute and available on the internet with free shipping. Maybe we'll keep brainstorming.
Right now, I'm currently fixated on theme. Because you have to pick a good theme before you can obsess over anything else. For example, what's the point of surfing the net for the cutest cake design in the history of cake designs until you know what kind of design you're looking for?
My soon to be four year old has informed me over the last month that she would like a Dora cake, a Disney Princess cake and a Spiderman cake. My soon to be four year old does not actually know anything about Dora, Disney princesses or Spiderman except for what she has been told by other children at the daycare or seen in stores. Marketing for children is impressive. That Dora chick is exceptionally insidious. My kid's never even seen the show but she once tried to talk me into buying her a fugly Dora table and chairs set. And she knows Diego's name too. For that matter, I know Diego's name. What the hell.
Needless to say, I'm not into Disney anything. Especially not a peer pressure induced Disney anything. Luckily she's still young enough to be open to suggestions. And she likes animals. We're planning to take her to Sea World so an underwater fish related theme seems like a possibility. Although I can go ahead and let you know, no one sells underwater fish related birthday crap in pink. Pink is the soon to be four year old's signature color. This is a problem. I guess I could cut out a few pink goldfish shapes and tape them to the wall. Although pink goldfish taped to the wall are not what I like to envision in my head when I obsess two months out from the event. I prefer to envision super cute and available on the internet with free shipping. Maybe we'll keep brainstorming.
12 comments:
I second the no Disney sentiment. I hope this princess thing is over with before my 9 mo. old is old enough to jump on that bandwagon. Gross. I don't have it in me to act interested in that.
I am guilty. Soooo guilty of raising a Dora loving, Disney princess!
In my defense they were my Disney movies and she stole them from me. As for Dora, well she looks like her.
I'm guilty right along with Christy!
I love to obsess about my chidren's birthday parties! Each year around their birthdays we get the Birthday Express catalog and they go through it and pick which birthday they want. Pretty much since she was 2 my daughter has known which birthday she has wanted (2 was Hello Kitty, 3 was Disney Princesses - oh, it HAD TO BE THE PRINCESSES as she is completely obsessed with them, and 4 was a tea party - which through me...I expected Dora or Princesses again). My son turned 2 this year and he knew he wanted a Thomas the Train party.
I always make and decorate their birthday cakes, so once they pick a theme, it's time for me to obsess how on earth I'm going to make a beautiful cake that incorporates it!
Good Luck!
Someone else who obsesses over birthday parties/themes (although maybe not in the same way I do). Yay!
I am the epitome of geek when it comes to that.
When the twins turned turned three we did a Dora/Diego party and of course I had to make custom invitations with their picture on them and of course I made it so they were holding hands w/Dora and Diego...
For there 4th we did a cowboy/cowgirl theme and did pony rides.
Who knows for 5...I guess they'll tell me. No more of my shoving my wants on them. Damn :(
Good luck w/whatever you decide to do.
I never really had a theme party growing up...hmmm, I'm starting to feel neglected. A 30 year old gripe to my Mother is on the way! :) Good luck deciding!
I'm so glad I'm not the only one that obsesses over parties! Once I finally decide on a theme I'll be sure to share what a total idiot I am about making birthday cakes myself for my kids.
christy - I have my own collection of Disney movies too. Little Mermaid's my favorite because she has red hair (like me!). I'm not really against Disney. I think the over commercialization of kids is what annoys me. Dora is on literally everything. It's nuts.
I was driving myself nuts over my daughter;s 3rd birthday theme back in June. Finally, I settled on "Birthday Party" as a theme.
I'm not into Disney either. I see no reason to teach her to like something. Like (puke) Princesses.
Although if she comes home loving barbies and princesses, so be it. But why condition her, you know?
I totally agree about not conditioning them. There are plenty of outside influences that already do a really good job of that without my help.
Ha! I obsessed for weeks about my daughter's 4th birthday too. She has been fully sucked into the Disney marketing (despite only just having watched her first Disney movie about 3 weeks ago) and is a full-fledged princess addict. She could not care less about Dora though (I take whatever small blessing I can get).
My daughter is like 3 minutes from complete Disney princess obsession. She recognizes them on shirts now. She saw one in Target the other day and tried really hard to talk me into buying it.
Well hello from the UK, nice to meet you all. I'm in birthday party mode for an almost 4 year old too. Found your blog while googling castle cake designs. Small virtual world, isn't it. Anyway, my little soon to be 4 year old is keen on disney & Dora but not obsessed. No, she's caught the "Barbie" virus. Barbie is BANNED in my house, only tipped in the most-invidious-negative-conditioning-tool stakes by Bratz: fish-faced, big-footed bizarre creatures obsessed with image. She's been infected at nursery.
The theme this year will be simple girly and beautiful but non-specific castleprincessy stuff. I'll show those other mums!
I LOVED Barbie as a kid! How cute. While shopping for cake ideas, I saw the world's cutest castle cake design on the Wilton site. I guess they're selling a new cake set that includes castle turrets. You should check it out for inspiration. Super cute.
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