Your kid isn’t going to be able to tell the difference between a $600 cake/cupcake combo and ones you make at home using $6 cake mix. You did that to impress the other moms.

OP- Thank you all! I was feeling bad for being the cheap mom with all the lavish parties around, appreciate all the feedback!

I think home parties are easier with infants because they can nap whenever and you have all the supplies right there.

Anonymous wrote:OP here- Yes, it was a custom cake(small, 6 inches) and 40 cupcakes. I know, I felt terrible as I paid it. I assumed it was the NOVA craziness, now I feel even worse

Okay, no more custom cakes. Either a sheet cake from either Carvel or Costco or Wegmans, or cupcakes. Not both. You can have an afternoon party (after lunch, so like 2-4pm) and just hire sometime to do entertainment (magician or animal person or whatever) and then serve (cup/)cake and water/juice and call it a day. Then you don't have to serve a "meal." Hire a neighborhood kid around 12 or 13 to babysit the baby since you'll be there. They can do homework and text or whatever if the baby is napping then, and they can come get you if anything comes up they can't handle. Pay them $15 an hour.

We've done two birthdays at Bowlero in Tyson's. The kids bowl for two hours, the venue brings out unlimited food with a cookie cake, and the kids get cards for the arcade when bowling is done.

I think it's been like $400 all-in for 10 kids each time. A wonderful bargain with no home mess.

Anonymous wrote:OP here- Yes, it was a custom cake(small, 6 inches) and 40 cupcakes. I know, I felt terrible as I paid it. I assumed it was the NOVA craziness, now I feel even worse

Holy Sh!t you got hosed. I get a sheet cake from Wegmans. Done. 7 year old kids don't care that you spent $600 on cupcakes!!

Anonymous wrote:OP here- Yes, it was a custom cake(small, 6 inches) and 40 cupcakes. I know, I felt terrible as I paid it. I assumed it was the NOVA craziness, now I feel even worse

That math ain't mathing. Even if the 6 inch cake was $100, how do you spend $500 on cupcakes? That's $12.5 each. That's more than Georgetown Cupcake.

How about just a few friends come over? You can get a babysitter for the baby. Yes, people will go inside to pee and poop and get relief from heat. The thing about June is you don't know if it's going to be hot AF or raining.

OP here- Yes, it was a custom cake(small, 6 inches) and 40 cupcakes. I know, I felt terrible as I paid it. I assumed it was the NOVA craziness, now I feel even worse

WHAT?!? That is insane. I have 3 kids with birthdays all over the year. With warmer birthdays I tend to do home parties (cake+food and a bounce house all for under $1000). For the colder weather kid I either do a venue like a bounce house or something special with her and a handful of friends. I refuse to spend more than $1000 for a birthday party. That is nuts!

You paid $600 for a cake? Six HUNDRED dollars? Is that in US money?

$600 for a cake?? Get a Costco sheet cake and save yourself $575 right there. You can hire a backyard performer for $500 absolute max, or pay about the same for Skyzone or laser tag or something else. $2,000 for a venue is crazy unless you want 50 guests and their families.

How big is your yard? How many kids? When will this party be? We did an outdoor movie party for my DD's 8th and only let kids inside to use the bathroom, but it was mild late fall evening and we had all the food (smores and cocoa bars) outside, too.

RE: the cost, surely you know not all parties cost $2K+.

My kid is now 17 so maybe I’m out of touch, but we’ve always done at home birthdays. Until my kid was 10 or so he’d pick a theme (like pirates, or Star Wars), I’d make a cake, we’d play some themed games, run around the backyard like maniacs, and send them home happy and high on sugar. Goody bag usually something to do with the theme - make your own wand, or foam swords. I never spent more than a couple hundred bucks for everything.

We did a birthday party last year at NOVA wild, the old roer's zoofari. It was costly and not special. This year, I want to keep it simple as a backyard party, but would I regret it? its going to be in june, so I was hoping to have a low key thing but would the guests come inside? We just had another baby, do you think hosting at home would be difficult with the little one?

Last year, I paid 600 for the cake and 2000 for the venue. Is there a way to keep it lower than that without disappointing my kid?