You know how sometimes you do something slightly different to the usual way you do it and it turns out to be way better? You find yourself wondering “Why did I not think of this before? Why is this not THE way to do this?”.

Well, we have discovered a new thing and it is going to revolutionise the way we hold children’s birthday parties.

We had three invitations for today – a lunch, an evening adult birthday party and an early evening barbecue with the families in our neighbourhood. We also had a children’s birthday party of our own to throw.  Obviously we were’t going to be able to do it all. We know our limits.

The birthday party had to go ahead, that was certain. In the past we have been shattered after an afternoon of games, cake, controlling a load of kids and endless filling up of paper cups with juice, especially since that was preceeded by a morning of blowing up balloons, icing cakes, finding the birthday candles I know I put somewhere safe and calming down the already over-excited birthday child.

We decided that this year we’d hold the birthday party from 11am to 3pm instead of the usual 2pm to 6pm time frame we tend to choose. The logic behind the decision was that we’d be super efficient in the morning, rest in the afternoon and be fit for the barbecue in the evening.

Yes, we were taking a chance and no, I didn’t really believe that it would pan out as planned. But guess what? IT DID! It actually did! To say we are pleased is an understatement. It is now shortly after 5pm and it does not at all feel like we had a children’s birthday party here today.

OK, so there is a cake stand of leftover cupcakes in front of me (the number of cupcakes has decreaded by 15.38% since I sat down to write this) and if you looked in the bin you’d see Super Mario napkins, paper plates, cups and straws, but exhaustion-wise , nothing. We are all in good form. The kids are quiet and happy, the Bavarian has had a nap and I am blogging. So, a big fat yay for middle-of-the-day birthday parties.

In an hour we’ll saunter round the corner with our sausages, salad (already made, after the party!), beer and children, happy in the knowledge that even if the effects of the day do kick in and we begin to fade by 9pm, we’ll still have had a much better time that if we’d gone ahead with our usual birthday party time scale.

Cheers middle-of-the-day birthday party, you’re welcome back every year!