“I want to invite my whole school”.

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Those are not the words you expect to hear when your kiddo says they want to talk about their next birthday party…but Miss Sarah had an idea.  She was working on a plan.

–>My first reaction was to laugh and say “yeah, right…”  seriously, what kid wouldn’t dream of 500+ kids coming over and all those presents?

The good parent in me said instead: “Help me understand this…what are you thinking?”

I quickly learned that I have a super cool kid. (well, I already knew that…but love being reminded)

She was thinking of a venue, like the movie theater…it would be able to hold a lot of kids. She knew it wouldn’t be cheap and offered up her $205 (she was saving for an iPad until she got a tablet from me).

But wait – it gets better: She didn’t want any presents.
“Mommy, I am really so blessed, can I get presents for other kids?”

(sigh, love her!)

“I was thinking, that maybe, the kids could bring a Birthday Bag for the food pantry instead of a gift for me. I know that we help the food pantry a lot but wonder if there are kids who don’t even get a birthday cake. That’s just not fair”.

(FYI: this is where I started crying…)

How utterly sweet is that? Trying to dream big and bring over 500 Birthday Bags to the food pantry, even putting up her own money (that took her 26 months to save) to help make it happen?

I couldn’t say “no” to that but we did need to scale it a tad…so, we made a little tweak to her plans…

We ARE going to do a movie theater birthday party, but in March, instead of Father’s Day weekend when school is out and a bunch of people already have plans. We are going to do a Saturday morning “kids winter film series” event and invite all the second graders at her school. That’s a grand possible crowd of 92 kiddos…and ticket prices are $2 instead of $7. I talked to the theater manager and can bring in cake/cake pops…and we might get a private theater to ourselves, as it’s basically a charity event.

We have a few more details to work out but Miss Sarah is NOT going to spend her own money unless we choose to get the kids all popcorn too…she can add $100 to that for large buckets and I will get the mini buckets from Oriental Trading to help them share it in the crowd.

Now, I know what you are thinking: what IS a Birthday Bag? 
Simple, you fill a large gift bag with:

• Cake mix
• frosting 
• foil cake pan
• cake decorations
• candles
• balloons
• plates
• napkins
• Additional items that can be included are: birthday banner, party invites, wrapping paper and ribbon, crepe paper, party hats, noise makers, small goodie bags items, table cloth, or small unisex toy or present (unwrapped).

It will be fun helping her take them all to the food pantry…just reason #3,244,553 that I adore this kid!

It’s going to cost us almost as much as her other birthday parties, all added together, but it should be a very cool moment in time. Pretty awesome for a soon-to-be 8 year old kid, isn’t it?