Birthday Party - Belleville,MI

I do a party every year. Some years its just the grandparents for dinner (2nd b-day), other years it is bigger. It just depends what is going on. We had big 1st b-days, for 3 my son had a party at a bounce house (mostly b/c I was pregnant and didn't want something at the house), for 4 we did a big party with family at the house (I had just had a baby and wanted my 4 year old to feel recognized). For 5, we are having 5 friends over for a Rock and Roll party at the house.

on years we do not have parties, we let the birthday boy or girl invite one friend to dinner and a movie.... dinner is usually kid friendly, like at Taco Bell or McDonald's, etc. and a G rated movie to follow makes a sense of occasion.
L.

N., for the past 3 years (maybe longer) I started only celebrating (numericaly specaking)milestone birthdays only. Everyone birthday is a milestone to me, however, it was just too costly and my son even started saying that he'd just prefer to have "all" of the money that I'd be spending on a party spent on him/given to him (he was about 9 at the time, he just turned 12). I've been doing it long enough that now my sisters are doing the same thing and it works great. My family is basically the same way including my sisters and 14 neices/nephews so it's just hard and taxing on the body.

We celebrate golden birthdays and milestones such as birthdays: 1,5,10,12,13(getting off of the clock as we used to say), 15/16 (depending on if it's a boy or girl and what they specify), and 18. In between those years we just have dinner at the parents house with cake and ice cream. If anyone wants to shower with gifts, we do and if not, we don't! It's all about celebrating their life for the past year and the next year that's prayerfully to come.

I hope this was of some assistance. Best of luck to you and take care.

A

My aunt has two kids 5 and 7 and she has birthday parties every other year for her kids. For instance, her son will be 8 next month and for his bday he gets to pick 4 friends to go to a Pistons game with (it will be my aunt, uncle and their 2 kids and then his 4 friends). Birthday parties can get expensive and I really don't think it's necessary to have one every year. For the off years they just do cake and ice cream with their family. When I was growing up I had a party when I turned 13 and 16 and those were the only "friend" parties I ever had. I grew up just fine =) Good luck!!

Hi N.,

My husband and I decided to only have birthday parties at ages 5, 10, 13, 16 and then a grad party. We would go all out on these events and have a great celebration, but thats it. All the ages in between we would just have family and cousins (which are alot anyways, so we felt it's a smooth transition). My son will be 5 this august so it's our first real b-day party with all his buddies and cousins. It should be a blast. I just didn't want to get into the whole having a party every single year. It gets expensive and I dont want to spoil them either. Lord knows they get enough from family. :)

Greetings N.,

Happy Birthday to your daughters and your husband.

I know exactly how you feel. We have eight consecutive months of births to celebrate. To make birth celebrations eaiser we celebrate birthdays with a special dinner. The special dinner consists of what ever the celebrant wants to eat and drink. I inquire as to what they want any where from a month - two weeks in advance and write it down and post it on the frig. Sometimes its carry out food, other times I make their favorite meal.(If they want a lot of food or something elaborate I make it in advance and freeze it.) Sometimes we use our best dishes and sometimes we go the paper party ware route. We have cake and ice cream or some other sweet treat request. Pictures are taken. We sing Happy Birthday to the one being honored, and give them cards and gifts. (That are usually purchased and wraped in advance.) Whenever we want to have a really special and big celebration we just invite other family members and friends.

What ever you do make it special, full of joy and fun for the person being honored.

Best wishes and Happy Birthday to all!

Love, peace and joy,
S.

This may help with some of your party ideas... You may want to take a look at The Royal Party Room. They have great reviews and several options for kids! www.theroyalpartyroom.com

N.,

My son's birthday is one week before Christmas, so having a party can be a challenge. This year he invited 7 of his classmates from school (only three were able to come) but I clearly marked on the invitation "please no gifts". I think birthday parties should be about spending time with your friends and enjoying the day, not about who gave the most expensive, and coolest gift.

My son picked a pirate theme, so we had the following games and put their winnings in white lunch bags with their names written on the front.

Treasure Hunt to find the pirate coins - I hid enough coins so each child could take home 4, after they found their 4 they had to sit down on the carpet and wait for everyone else to finish. If one child was having trouble, the rest of the children had to help him/her out without touching the coin. This showed true cooperation.

Pin the Treasure on the Treasure Map - I found this game at Party USA for $10. Each child had a treasure chest sticker with their name written on it and they had to try to cover the X on the treasure map with their sticker. We actually had two ties, so I let the two closet children pick out 2 coins each from "My Treasure Chest" and the other two children were allowed to pick out 1 coin each.

Decorate the Christmas Ornament - I purchased a set of inexpensive markers and wood ornaments from Michael's Craft Store for the kids to decorate. They had a ball!

Cup Cakes and Ice Cream - I didn't want to make an entire cake, because my son has food intolerances and his cake mix is really expensive, so instead I made chocolate and vanilla cup cakes. It contained the mess and I lit a pirate treasure chest candle on the top of my son's for him to blow out.

We also had a family birthday party with the grandparents and his aunt and my son received gifts that day.

I don't think we'll have a kids party next year, probably once every two years, but we will do something fun. A friend of mine does not give her daughter gifts for her birthday, instead she takes her to a water park for the day and the entire family spends the day together.

I hope these ideas are a help. Good luck!

-C..

We do a family party every year (that's the birthday childs siblings, parents, grandparents, and if the family is near, then we invite aunts and uncles, that makes about 17 people. We just have cake and ice cream, not everyone attends.

We have big parties on special years 5 yrs, 10yrs, 13yrs, and when they get older they just like to do movies or bowling, it's not really a party, they would rather be with their friends and we switch back to cake and ice cream.

I have heard that if you do a kids party, it should be the number of kids to match the age of the birthday child.

Personally, I had a big first birthday party for my kids and then won't have another big one till they have another 'big' birthday, like 10,13,16,18. I keep it easy with just family aka. grandparents (and usually not on the same day). I just find a weekend that works for them around the child's birthday and we celebrate it. It doesn't seem like a party, because I don't do anything special. On the child's actual birthday we celebrate just as a family, no relatives. We have a 'special' dinner, of the child's choice (we had peanut butter and jelly last year) and then cake. We don't do a lot of presents either. Our rule is, however old you are is how many presents you get.

Our family has many birthdays from Sept thru January. Some families celebrate quietly as a family, usually going out to eat or to a game or something, every other year, then do a party with the whole family the other years. Some pair 2 of the kids' birthdays every other year. One had a half-birthday party one year with his friends since his birthday is on New Year's Day.

Hi N.,

We have a party every year for each child. Growing up I always had a party so I never thought of "not" having a party. Even if it's just games and pizza and cake and ice cream at my home.

My suggestion for you is to have one BIG party for your girls. As an adult, if my child's birthday was close to mine, I would put them first, I don't want to be reminded of how old I'm getting, lol.

And believe me, the kids will remember. I have a neighbor who's daughters birthday is in December and she has never had a party and whenever she is over it seems that is all she can talk about. So in my opinion, no matter how small, celebrate your daughters birthday's with her friends!

Good Luck!
J. in Macomb

We have several birthdays right around Christmas and New Year's as well. We have birthday parties/celebrate every year though still. Even though it is a ton of work, I figure it is worth it because we are building memories for our children which will last a lifetime. To us it is worth the work during a chaotic time to build fun memories for our children.

We celebrate with a party for years 1-5, then we do 10, 16, and 21. For other years, we go out to dinner and let them choose the restaurant. We let family and friends know when and where. They are welcome to join us but they pay for their own. Hope this helps you out.

Melody

Maybe you could do one girls birthday each year and so then you just have one party then the regular holidays.
My family never did parties but would have cake ice cream, and presents with my parents and siblings so it was just our immediate family and small.

If they are so close together that cake and ice cream get old, just tell them you will make them their favorite meal for dinner and they can pick a dessert and do a few gifts after wards, that is what my husbands family does.

N.,

We celebrate our childrens birthdays this way. We have immediate family over for gifts, cake and ice cream. We open the gifts before everyone else gets here, or after everyone else leaves. But everyone shares in the cake and ice cream, and depending on what we have planned to do, (sometimes in the winter we go sledding, or in the summer we play outside) we make food too, just simple food like hot dogs or sloppy joes and chips, and the kids love it!

We let the kids invite a few friends over to play. We request that the friends bring no gifts, I want my children to focus on having fun and enjoying the company of those that they care about. We try really try to downplay the stuff, and since they aren't expecting "things" from thier pals they aren't disappointed.

I do a "big" party with about 8 friends, favors, special cake, etc. for my daughter (she's 4) every other year. Her birthday falls right after Christmas so it's a really hectic time. Plus I'm not really comfortable with all the gifts she gets when we do this - even when we request no gifts. This year was a party year so I decided to put some of her gifts (crafts kits mostly) away for a little while until she gets tired of some of the other things she's gotten. In the non-party years, we just do a little celebration after dinner with a mix cake and a few presents from family. For her next birthday, I'm thinking about doing a mid-year party (6 months after her birthday) at a park in the summer with her friends - a cookout and playtime at the beach. It would much less hectic and probably more fun for the kids to be outside. Again, I'd request no gifts and maybe have parents each bring an inexpensive craft supply that the kids could use to make a favor.

N.,

Thanks for asking this question? I actually have a similar problem. All in one month is my nephew's, son, (daughter and husband on the same day), father-in-law and dad's birthday. March is a crazy time for us. My son's 13th birthday is coming up exactly a week before my daughter's 1st birthday! And my husband is turning 35 the same day as my daughter's 1st. I got some good advice from the people that responded to you. Although, I'm still not sure how to incorporate my husbands birthday in with my daughters :( Good luck!

My son just turned 6 last week and we did not have a party this year for the first time. We chose not to because his birthday fell during the Christmas break from school and this is alreday a very hectic and expensive time to expect parents to come to and bring gifts to a birthday party. What I did was give him a day where he could do whatever he wanted and his little brother, my husband and myself went along with him. He chose McDonalds for breakfast (aaargh), Chuck E cheese during the day and pizza for dinner then a movie at home. He also got to choose a cake. When he went back to school a few days later he got to take cupcakes for his class so he still felt like they had a part in his celebration. You just need to do what works for you, don't be pressured by your children or other adults to throw all these parties, they can have just as much fun and still feel special doing something different.

We didn't start giving birthday parties until they were 5. The adults don't get a party with friends. For our younger daughter and us parents, we prepare the meal of choice (or go out for dinner) around their birthday and open gifts. I'll also bake a cake for them (although my husband didn't want a cake this year). We keep it simple. For our oldest daughter who turned 5 this year, we just invited five of her friends over for about 90 minutes, did a few fun games, opened presents, did cake and ice cream and let the kids play for a little bit.

We have a similar situation, so we began having "kid" parties every other year instead of every year. My girls were both born in the winter, but one summer we had a combined birthday pool party and it worked out great.
On their actual birthdays, they get to pick their favorite meal and cake (which I decorate) and we just invite the grandparents. We will do a fun activity of their choice and it works well. We keep it simple so it's not overwhelming at all. I have a Thanksgiving husband, a Christmas daughter and a Valentine's daughter, so obviously, we have to plan ahead or we'd go nuts!
As my girls have gotten older, the "kid" parties have become sleepovers with just a couple close friends, which they really enjoy. I have found that they don't really require big parties as long as they feel special on their birthdays.

We have three kids and decided that every three years they'd get a party. So when they're 1, 4, 7, 10, 13, and 16 (which also happens to fall on the "big" years: 13 & 16).

It just so happens that the age difference between my kids would also give them each a party on the same year, which can be exhausting & expensive if their b.days are all around each other, but they don't understand why one would get a party and the other would have to wait until the next year...ya know?

On the "off" years we celebrate with family (like the grandma's & grandpa's, and aunts & uncles). Everyone helps out with food and it's nice to spend an afternoon or evening together.

We did our first "invite your friends" birthday party for 5 - and that was friends only, no family. We went bowling, and they had a blast! However, we have a HUGE family, and a nephew who gets a big party every year (overkill, I think, but it is what it is). So, we do CiCis pizza every year for the family. The family (aunts, uncles, grandmas, etc) know that if they'd like to attend, they have to pay their own $5 to eat, but cake will be provided. It's easier than trying to cram them all into our house. :)

Growing up we always celebrated birthdays - with as many of our immediate and extended family members as possible. We did have a few parties where we invited lots of guests, did party games and such, but that was kind of hit and miss. I don't ever remember feeling deprived.

It shocks me how much money parents blow on the party these days, I'd rather have an extra gift or two myself. My bro and sis in law have gone out of their way (and had to borrow money) to host huge parties for their son - because they felt it was necessary. They're inviting tons of kids that my nephew didn't even know, just so he'd have a party. Kind of silly and wasteful in my opinion.

One idea would be to celebrate the half birthday...just so its at a different time of year. Its important to have a special day for your child on their birthday, maybe their favorite food and a cake. But don't feel pressured to make a huge deal about it either.

Best wishes