I made it about 6 years before I threw in the birthday party planning towel.

I love celebrating birthdays, especially my boys’; however with kid’s birthdays, it can be quite the ordeal. Not just the planning, inviting, decorating, etc. But the logistics of birthday etiquette (who to invite, gifts or no gifts, etc.).

My lack of birthday planning motivation is what basically led to this new family tradition I decided to implement.

FAMILY BIRTHDAY ROAD TRIPS!

I proposed the idea to Sawyer about four weeks from his birthday. I was already having anxiety because typically by this time I would have had his invitations out and cake ordered. But, I just wasn’t into it this year. I felt like his ideal birthday party meant everyone he knows coming to his party and them all bringing him gifts…Yes, this is age appropriate behavior, but I needed to fix it.

So, I said “Hey bud, what if instead of a birthday party, for your 6th birthday, we get in the car, take a road trip to somewhere fun and stay in a hotel for the night?”

His answer “I want to do that!”…win!

We picked Bentonville, AR, about two hours from our house. They have a kid’s museum, the Amazeum, that we had heard was top-notch so it was easy to sell to the boys. My parents joined us for the trip as well. We really didn’t plan much to make it easy on all of us.

Here is how weekend looked:

We arrived at the Amazeum around 10:30 a.m. We played until around 12 p.m. and took a break for lunch. We went downtown Bentonville on the square and had brunch at The Pressroom. It was very yummy! I had avocado toast, but the real hit was their hushpuppies!

Afterwards, we stopped into Sam Walton’s original Wal-Mart “Walton’s 5 and 10” which connected to the Wal-Mart Museum. The boys each picked out some goodies (Sawyer a compass and Scout a doctor’s set) with their own money. Then we went next door to the Spark Cafe Soda Fountain for hot chocolate. It was like we stepped back in time! We headed back to the Amazeum (admission is good for all day) for round two of playing and stayed until about 5 p.m.

For dinner, we decided to visit Rogers, AR, just a few minutes down the road; we picked the Parkside Public. It’s a burger joint that has a large menu of burger choices. We loved it! To end the night, we drove back to our hotel to swim in the pool and hot tub.

Easiest birthday party ever! The boys were exhausted.

We didn’t get to make it to Crystal Bridges Museum, another Bentonville hot spot, but plan to on our next visit.

We are still having a family birthday dinner for Sawyer this evening but we are already planning Scout’s 3 year family birthday road trip. If you have a suggestion for us…we’d love to hear your favorite road trip locales!

Here are some more fun photos of the weekend…