Courtesy of the authorWe skipped the expensive play-place birthday party and hosted our son’s fifth birthday at home instead. Rain turned our unfinished backyard into a giant mud pit, but we leaned into the chaos. We questioned the expensive birthday party formulaWe had previously conformed to the birthday party routines we kept witnessing all around us — trampoline parks, gymnastics studios, indoor playrooms. We’d sign up for their conveyor-belt-like process of planning a birthday party. The author hosted a birthday party with a muddy pit for kids.