Community Voices for Health

By: Heather Desmond O’Neill 

“Mama, I want to have a rock star birthday party!” says my soon-to-be six-year-old.

I guess it would be a nice change from the Gymnastics place where everyone seems to be having his or her parties (including us, last year).

There is a small hall not far from where we live that would be perfect. There’s no way I could fit kids and their parents in our home. AND…The hall rental was much cheaper than the gymnastics place…#winning!

So we made it happen. And the kids … and parents … had a ball!

I asked the kids to dress up in their best “Rock Star”attire. We set up a red carpet, so as the kids entered the party they “walked the walk” to a photo area that my mom had decorated and littered with boas and sunglasses. (It pays to have a mom who used to own a dance studio). Check out Elvis as he struts his stuff.

Once the kids had their pictures taken they ran to the center of the dance floor to a drumming circle. Kids began playing their own rhythms, and smiles and laughter quickly ensued.

Family is a great resource to lean on. My sister-in-law is a music teacher and led the little musicians in lessons in dynamics, musicality and timing …. Although, I think they were just really happy to bang the drums as hard as they could. She then brought out Boom Whacker sticks and we had about 25 kids running around whacking these musical sticks on the floor. There was pure joy from the 6-year-old boys who were told it was ok to bang drums, whack sticks and run around. What’s better than that?

An extended family member, Uncle Pags (i.e. Rob Pagnano and his side-kick Chris Barone of Six Foot Sunday), were on hand to play for the kids and adults (it was so great to finally break away from the Frozen soundtrack). I think this was the part that the parents liked best.

We fed the kiddies pizza, cake and ice cream, printed out their rock star pictures (the VuPoint Solutions Photo Cube is amazing) and gave them inflatable guitars to rock out at home with. All in all, the Rock Star birthday party was a success!

Before going to bed that night, my exhausted, overjoyed, newly six-year-old said through half opened eyes, “Mama I loved my party, I just wish it didn’t go by so fast.”

The best things in life always do.