The birthday party: The day my kids took matters into their own hands.

As a father and parent, I knew at some point my kids would arrange a party at home without my knowledge. Possibly at the age of 16 or 17 when they’re trusted with the house on their own for the first time. Well, my kids have done way better than this. I’ve just had to intervene to stop them organising a sleepover birthday party at the age of five and nine.

Yes, that’s right, they’d hatched a plan to have a load of friends around for a sleepover at the start of the summer holidays. While I’d heard mutterings about this birthday party, they’d gone much further than simply talking about it.

Helen, you see, had handwritten a load of invites stating date, time, address and listing a load of items participants were to bring such as a torch and sleeping bag. Oh, yes, and each invite featured my mobile number so people could RSVP.

Izzy, meanwhile, had persuaded a teaching assistant the invites were genuine and managed to get this individual to put them in the kids’ school bags. The first I knew about this was when a kid came running up to me in the playground brandishing his party invite.

A few moments later, a kid I didn’t recognise strolled past. Clearly in receipt of an invite herself, she wished Helen a happy birthday.

Now this was embarrassing. I asked to see the first child’s invite and my mouth fell open, practically hitting the grey, warm asphalt of the playground.

It was very lovingly produced and as I’ve mentioned, went into great detail. I could see why no one would question its authenticity. To my astonishment, however, this party was going to start at about 3pm on Day One and wouldn’t finish until 10am the following day.

What’s worse (or more amusing, depending on your opinion) is that I can’t say for certain exactly who has received an invite. Oh, and there’s the small matter of goodness knows how many parents wondering what on Earth we’re doing hosting a sleepover party for reception-aged kids.

There is a little backstory here. Helen’s ninth birthday was a while ago. It happened to clash with a significant event and so we held a small celebration at the time with the promise of doing something bigger in the summer holidays.

Helen’s wish was to have a sleepover party. A few of her friends have had them and so we tentatively agreed to this request, thinking she could have two or three of her friends to stay over. Having only moved to a new house a few days ago (more about that on the blog in the very near future) we hadn’t got around to progressing the idea any further.

Helen had a list of friends to invite, but not wanting little sister to miss out on the fun, decided to invite a few of Izzy’s friends as well. As you can tell, they’ve been very efficient as getting the invites out!

What have I done to remedy the situation? I’ve done the only thing I could think of and hit the school’s Facebook page to make clear that no party will be taking place. Thankfully everyone’s seeing the funny side.

While all a bit awkward, I have to say I am impressed at my kids ingenuity and enthusiasm. Their organisational skills have also impressed me. Yeah, okay, I’ll admit it. I do also find the whole thing very funny.

It is also a bit of a wake-up call. In fairness to Helen, her birthday party needs organising. Having been stuck down the house moving rabbit hole for so long, it’s clear Mrs Adams and I need to get on and make it happen.

Nonetheless, I am bit worried. If they can do something like this while their ages are in single figures, imagine what the parties are going to be like when Helen and Izzy are teenagers.

Have you got a good party story to share? If so, please leave a comment below or track me down on social media where I can be found on most channels as @dadbloguk.