This is the time of year it seems like I have a birthday to plan every 2-3 weeks. It wears me out and it's expensive!! Do you do a "friend party" for every kid? Just family parties? Both? We do dinner of your choice, cake and presents on their actual birthday. Starting at 4 yo a friend party. Dh gets a party too. Because he's, well, still his mother's kid and I found out last year that if I didn't give him a party she would. Big eye roll. I am in the middle of it and I'm already burned out!

Everyone gets a birthday party, but not DH (unless he's turning 30 - which I did do a party for) or me.

We do family only - no friend parties - but we're not in traditional school so they don't have a huge friend base. Plus, I think kid parties tend to be more of an obligation for parents, buying a gift for a dozen or more friends a year adds up so quickly. But, we do have a big family and we're very close, so our family parties have lots of cousins and there is usually anywhere from 30-50 people in attendance.

Tell MIL to go right ahead and do it ;). Let her pay for it and plan it and everything. You have enough to do with just the kids :D

last year and this year my kids are having a party together. we are doing a family/friend kind of thing. we don't have a lot of family though so it's more just a cookout type party for the kids. their bdays are a month apart and neither of them care about sharing.

jackson's bday just sorta got skipped (2 years) this year b/c we moved the day after his bday and i really didn't have it in me to plan a party for him.

i was planning on letting savannah have her first friend party this year and just invite 4 kids b/c she's 4 years old and have the parents drop them off. next year i suppose.

Right now each child has their own party - even the soon to be 2yo and I imagine that it iwll continue that way with the next one too. We move all of the time so no family - our military friends are our family so parties seem to be common in the area. THough for DD who is soo to be two I am invitin gonly those few friends who have someone close in age to her and then one or two families from our street that have known her since we moved her almost 2 years ago.

and julie think twice about having young kiddos dropped off. it can be hard on them, you, and the parents...FYI!

and julie think twice about having young kiddos dropped off. it can be hard on them, you, and the parents...FYI!

we have done that for other parties..it's quite fun actually when there are only a few of them and we all know each other very well.

We're doing a combined party this year for all 3. Lindsey and Leila's birthdays are 3 days apart, and we'll celebrate Josh's half birthday since he was dancing in the nutcracker on his actual birthday. Hoping people will do a gift certificate or something to share if they feel like they need to bring something.

We've so far done family only birthday parties. I think we'll introduce friend parties for the older kids (like 5+) next year because we've finally lived somewhere long enough to have friends to invite. That'll be tricky though, since two of mine actually have the same birthday. :)

i just found out that we got "hairy dawg" the university of georgia mascot to come make an appearance at the kids bday party. savannah is in love with him and will be BESIDE HERSELF!!! wahoo! *giving myself a high five*

Julie - that is awesome! She will be thrilled!

Makenna knows that she will be sharing her birthday with her new baby brother. Right now she is thrilled about it, but I'm sure it could wear off in a few years! But the other 2 will get their own parties and we usually only do family.

WE used to do kid parties but with so many children and 2 b'days in Sept, 2 in March and one on Christmas Eve... we decided to do family only!! It is easier and more fun when we just go do what we want! for my now 6yos 5th birthday we went and stayed at the Chattanooga Choo-Choo Hotel and did some great things around (museums, Ben and Jerry's ice cream, etc). It was a lot more fun than a friend party (for us anyway) and our children really don't care about friend parties anyway!

Every kid gets their own party. However, up to this point they have been family only parties. We have successfully avoided friend parties, but I think I am getting to the point where I am going to have to succumb. :lol:

.

We decided to do something like this for the 7-year-old this year too. She can take a couple friends to the movies. Mainly because we are in this in-between phase of not having seen the public school friends since Thanksgiving and not made too many homeschool friends yet. But I think it'll be fun. She gets to see Shrek 3 next weekend!

Everyone has one, but just a family party. Our older two want friend parties but I think this will be hard as they are homeschooled, they have friends at classes they go too, but not party friends.

We have a family party of the childs actual birthday and then the weekend beofre or after whichever is convient money/schedule wise we have a friends party. DH and I do not get parties for our birthdays we take the birthday adult out to dinner and give gifts/cake at home.