Gymboree Birthday Party

[yhtking]

First of all, has anyone had their first birthday party at Gymboree? I'm debating whether to have DS' there. I don't want to have all the guests at our house, so thought jsut have them over at Gymoboree. Besides, DS' won't be interested in having a party more than 1.5 hours anyway. I was considering not having a party at all. But DH wants to have one for DS. Oh well, just thought a Gymboree party will be low maintenance. Any thoughts?

[Sarah1]

Well, we just went to a b-day party at My Gym, and it was a blast. For Audrey's next b-day, I'm definitely doing something like that. The kids can run/crawl around all they want, have food/cake/drinks, and you come home to a clean house...sounds good to me!

[NancyJ_redo]

We went to two first birthday parties this weekend. The one on Saturday was at Gymboree and was a lot of fun for the babies and the parents. Bubbles, balls, some songs, little slides and tunnels to climb over, etc. I had never been there before and was really impressed with the whole thing, so much so I'm thinking about doing DS' 1 year bday there in a month. At the end the parents packed up their presents and went home. No cleaning.

Yesterday we went to my nephew's 1 year bday party at my sister's house. Though it was just as much fun, my sister never really got to sit down and enjoy it bc she was too busy running around, making sure people were fed, babies weren't getting into things they shouldn't be, etc. And when we left the house was a total mess, so she had another couple hours of work in front of her. The Gymboree party was looking especially good at that point.

[khakismom]

We've been to 4 parties at Gymbo for Kathleen's little friends, and these parties are wonderful! Like previous posters said, they get all the kids involved and there's bubbles, climbing, crawling, jumping, parachute play--basically all the stuff they have in a Gymbo class. Then all the kids get together in the back room, have cake/ice cream and open up the gifts. At the end of 2 hours, everyone bails. It's wonderful for the moms--I LOVE going to these parties myself--because all the parents can hang out and shoot the breeze while keeping an eye on their kids. We were planning on having Kathleen's 3rd b-day party there, but they were already booked up that weekend. :(

Instead we had it at our house and I spent all afternoon running around, making sure everyone had a drink, or that the kids had something to play with. Then trying to relax while Kathleen opened gifts. And then dealing with clean-up.

Yeah, Gymbo birthday parties are VERY low maintenance.

[MinnieMouse]

We've gone to two Gymboree Parties... The first was for a first bday just a couple months after Bethany turned 1 and the second was for a sedond birthday around the same time frame a year later.

FWIW...I thought the first birthday was a waste. The kids were NOT into it at all. They were too small to do most of the things that the Gymboree person wanted them to. Mostly interested in walking around on their own. They tried to put each child in the center of the parachute and toss them in the air much to Beth's dismay. She started crying just looking at her friends getting tossed (and she's danger girl so we were surprised). I left there thinking it was totally inappropriate for a 1yo birthday. The only kids that looked like they were having a good time were the older ones...not the other 1yos.

The second bday party was totally different. ALL the kids had a blast, participated in the MUCH more appropriate group games and everyone had a great time. The kids could really actively participate whereas at one they were very passive and not really "into" it.

For us we keep Beth's birthday pretty low key. The last two years we've just invited a few important people over (FIL & his wife, godparents and 3-4 kids Beth's age w/ their parents.). Beth's birthday is in July so we just set up the kiddie pool, put up some balloons and order some pizza to have before the cake. For her first birthday we did grilled chicken but the pizza was a lot easier (and dh got to participate). We are going to do the same thing this year for her third birthday... mostly because we can get away with it. I'm thinking Bethany will want more of a say in the festivities by the time her 4th birthday rolls around :-).

HTH

Christine