Stephanie Pedersen: Planning the perfect kids party

For most people, the fall means college football, maybe a few weeks of beautiful weather, barbecues and a lot of time spent with friends and family.

For my family, it means chaos. That's because it's birthday season, and I've quickly learned that birthday parties can easily get out of hand before you know it.

Aubrey, my 5-year-old, turns 6 in a couple of weeks. The guys at work joked a day or two ago when I was having a moment because I haven't planned anything for her party yet.

That's when I realized that they don't get it. They don't get the pressure because they don't know the unwritten rules of being a mother and what goes into birthday parties and the right etiquette.

So allow me to put together my list of completely ridiculous tongue-in-cheek rules I've learned from my mother, grandmother and, of course, Pinterest. (If you've never heard of this website before, pretend I never brought it up. It's a land of beautiful outfits, people, food and perfectly decorated houses. You'll go mad.):

-Birthday invitations must go out at least one or two weeks ahead of time in order for other perfect moms to plan their weekends ahead of time. "The Little Mermaid" is our theme this year. I try to be a creative mom, but I'm not very good at it. I let Party City handle these.

-Her outfit must be something that no one else has ever seen. Thankfully my mother can sew, so instead of feeding my children at a reasonable hour Tuesday night, I drug them out to a fabric shop.

-You must decorate the party like it's a fairy tale and have every other mom "oooh" and "aaah" at how brilliant you are. All the while, you've been in your "new" house for six years and have hung two pictures. We do birthdays at my parents' spacious house that sits on five acres so the kids can play outside. If they played outside at our house, they'd tumble down the hill and get run over.

-How dare you buy that screened grocery store cake! Aubrey likes to scroll through Pinterest and pick out the craziest concoction she can find. I, meanwhile, talk her into something a little more manageable for both the bakery and my wallet.

-The food has to be as creative and beautiful as the decorations. Watermelon and cantaloupe will be in the shape of pearls. Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches will be in the shape of starfish. And, of course, we'll use "dinglehoppers" to eat the beautiful cake.

-Games must be as creative as everything else. Thankfully, this one doesn't apply to me. You see, her cousin, who is six months younger, had a pinata earlier this year. I'm sure you know what that means. This one's a win in my book.

Or you can scratch all of these ridiculous rules. They aren't important, and that's something to keep in mind when you're trying to make everything perfect.

All that matters to me is that she's happy, healthy and enjoys spending time with her friends and family. Don't get me wrong, I do enjoy creating a big day for her.

But we have to do it all over again for her brother four weeks later.

Stephanie Pedersen, senior editor, spedersen@ledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published September 30, 2015 at 8:02 PM with the headline "Stephanie Pedersen: Planning the perfect kids party ."