Party Pooper?

Yesterday we attended a three-year-old birthday party. For some reason I was expecting an indoor party and I was unprepared for the reality of the situation. All the kids' activites were in full blazing sun. Luckily I had some sunscreen in the van or we would have been in trouble.

These are usually big affairs and this was no exception. I have been exhausted by these parties in past. Now that Micah is older I thought that it would be a little easier. It wasn't. It is hard to keep up with both kids by myself in a carnival-like environment. There was a blow up bouncer, a ball toss game, a face painter, a balloon guy, a magician and of course a piñata.

The kids did have fun playing, and Eva got her face painted. Micah wanted to as well but got tired of waiting in line. They got balloons and dollar-store type gifters in addition to goodie bag of candy.

I don't know how to make it work so we can all enjoy this kind of party. It starts at about 5pm, late in the day for us. The only food available is junk snacks and sugar drinks until close to 7pm. That is winding-down time in our house! I convinced the kids to leave at about 6:30. We were all hungry and tired. We had 2x1 coupons for a nearby restaurant which I thought had a buffet, perfect! We met Andrew there. Turned out there was no buffet, the service was terrible and so was the food. Probably just as unhealthy or worse than whatever we would have been served at the party. It was 9pm before we got the kids to sleep. Yikes.

I am sorely tempted to just graciously decline the next invitation. Anybody have coping strategy suggestions?