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I know it's not even Christmas yet, and everyone is focused on that, but a discussion with a friend brought up Birthday Parties for our kids (all of toddler- kindergarten age). We had a pretty big one this year, at Gymboree (joint for all three kids, as all are born in February), the first one where they got to invite friends. My vague plan was to do a party with friends every even year, and just cake and close family the odd years (our local family is very small, no kids their age), both for financial reasons and because I don't want the kids to have an expectation of a big party every year. But my girl (turning 5 next year) is already lobbying for a party and deciding whether she wants a unicorn or princess theme *sighs*.
So- what have you done do you plan to do with younger kids regarding birthday parties? Do you let kids invite friends every year and if so, one or two or all the girls/ boys in the class or whoever they want...?
I have always gone by the old rule where you invite the same number of kids as the number in their age. So for this party she would invite 5 friends.
Just don't go overboard. They have so much fun just being together. You don't have to have ponies AND a water slide AND inflatables or the next thing you know, you won't have anything left to do on subsequent birthdays except charter a flight to Walt Disney World.
I have always gone by the old rule where you invite the same number of kids as the number in their age. So for this party she would invite 5 friends.
Just don't go overboard. They have so much fun just being together. You don't have to have ponies AND a water slide AND inflatables or the next thing you know, you won't have anything left to do on subsequent birthdays except charter a flight to Walt Disney World.
We usually did small parties at our house --invite the same number of kids as their age (maybe one or two more). Every couple of years we would do a bigger party at Chucke-cheese, YMCA, museum, etc,.
We always had a pinata for our home birthday parties, That was the big expense. You can have a theme and still have a simple, fairly inexpensive party at your house.
We did family parties ages 1-4. Age 5-7 we've done bigger parties with classmates and neighborhood friends every other year. The odd years we've either been out of town with family, or had family visiting. It was an easy excuse for not doing a big party. My oldest turned 9 this year. We invited 4 friends for mini golf, then brought them back to our house for cake. Now that I see it written out, that was only 2 "big" parties for each kid.
I love birthdays and birthday parties. I only have 1 DD, so it makes it easier. My family has always had big birthday parties though. I was 1 of 4 kids and our birthday was our special day. Even though we are adults now, we still have birthday parties at Mom's house.
For DD's 5th birthday, we had so many people coming that we had to have 2 parties on the same day because we couldn't fit them all into 1. Probably around 100 people total for the day. Her actual birthday was a couple of days later, so we took the weekend and drove to Orlando and stayed at Downtown Disney and did Disney World on her actual birthday. I admit that that birthday was a bit over the top. To me, 5 is a big birthday.
Last week, for her 8th, we invited 25 kids to an indoor bouncy house place. They have a couple of rooms filled with every type of inflatable you can imagine. They had a blast and I had to do no work. It actually cost me less money than if I had had the party at home.
When my children were that age, around 5, I usually gave them a party with friends every 2-3 years, and otherwise we had a small family party. There was often a theme even when we had a family party, all I did was buy paper plates and cups with the theme, blow up balloons and put them around the place and had that theme on their cake. As they got older we did not have themes, we just had cake and ice cream and presents.
When you say "lobbying" do you mean that you explained to her that the plan is to have parties with friends on even years and just family on odd? If you did, I'd stick to that plan.
I love birthdays and birthday parties. I only have 1 DD, so it makes it easier. My family has always had big birthday parties though. I was 1 of 4 kids and our birthday was our special day. Even though we are adults now, we still have birthday parties at Mom's house.
For DD's 5th birthday, we had so many people coming that we had to have 2 parties on the same day because we couldn't fit them all into 1. Probably around 100 people total for the day. Her actual birthday was a couple of days later, so we took the weekend and drove to Orlando and stayed at Downtown Disney and did Disney World on her actual birthday. I admit that that birthday was a bit over the top. To me, 5 is a big birthday.
Last week, for her 8th, we invited 25 kids to an indoor bouncy house place. They have a couple of rooms filled with every type of inflatable you can imagine. They had a blast and I had to do no work. It actually cost me less money than if I had had the party at home.
Oh My Gosh! 100 people! I'm an adult and I really doubt if I could find a quarter of that to come to my birthday party. I'm guessing that A LOT were relatives as I don't know any 5 year olds who would that many friends.
When you say "lobbying" do you mean that you explained to her that the plan is to have parties with friends on even years and just family on odd? If you did, I'd stick to that plan.
No, just that when we get an Oriental Trading catalogue in the mail she will look through it (and want everything...), and when we attend another girl's birthday she afterwards lists the stuff she wants and doesn't want at her party etc. We haven't told her anything either way.
My daughter at 5 had her bday at discovery zone (sort of like chuck e cheese without the video games). She invited her entire kindergarten class. All I had to buy was the cake.
She mostly had those types of parties. One or two at the movies, one at the bowling alley, one at Coney Island Aquarium, etc. By the time she was 12 or so she wanted to go to six flags and only took one or two friends. Once the teen years hit it was less about a party and more about doing something with a couple of friends. Once they went to AMNH, another at 15 was to see rent. Usually, the event was the major part of her birthday present itself, as my kid was never into toys much and more into doing things.
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