Hello, my trio just turned 7 and we had 1 birthday party for the 3 of them. I let them each invite 5 friends from their class. One of my daughters didn't have any of her friends come to the party. I'm thinking maybe it was b/c it was in the next town about 20 min away but that was the only facility I could get them all to agree on. I felt so bad for her. I'm wondering how you all handle birthday parties. Do you have 1 big party? Three separate parties? Invite their entire classes? Only invite a handful of friends? Thanks in advance for any advice!! I'm so excited to have found this "Elementary Issues Forum".

Beth
Dylan-14
Tommy,Karli,Abby- 7yrs. 32w 2d

Hi! Our kids just turned 7, too. We had one big party but we made the invite list together and we could have 12 kids plus family and neighbors. (I just used the number 12 to put a cap on it.)

We combined birthday and Halloween and kind of had an open house. Rather than parents dropping off their kids, we invited the whole family for a cup of chili and a piece of cake. Our intention was for the party to be more of 'stop' in their Halloween evening. We told anyone who wanted to stay for the evening and trick or treat that they were welcome.

We had a great evening. I got a little worried that it was getting too big or that there might be some kids left out . . . but it is what it is. The whole class is too big and a couple of friends was too small. Just an idea!

Stacy
Proud mother of
Ethan, Maizie, and Hunter
10/29/02

Our bbb are turning 10 and this will be the last big "birthday" party I think. We have tried it all over the years - separate friends, combined friends, school class. This year is a combined party again (max kids 12). I'm not sure if you struggle with the gifts and how to encourage people to not bring 3 gifts but this year we ended up choosing a charity and instead of bringing gifts the families are contributing to the charity. I hope this works! What do these kids really need and it is such a strain on people to have to buy three gifts!

Linda
Aeron, Ethan & Austyn
11-19-99

My kids turned eight last month. We did our first kind of separate party. My daughter had a sleepover and my boys had their own sleepover. It worked out really nicely, and we would do the same again. I have found that most years someone has fewer guests show up. I am not sure how to control for this.

good luck,

Lisa
Mom to Aidan, Christian, and Rachel (10.03.01 @ 36wks)

We have always done their b-day celebration together. When they were younger, my mom was still teaching so we had access to the school gym. Having a ton of kids wasn't a problem then! Once they started school and my mom retired, we cut the list down to 2-3 really close friends each. I made sure that the mom's knew their child was a guest of one child and only one present would be expected. Last year they each picked one friend and I took them to a local pottery place where the kids got to pick out something to paint and have ice cream. That ended up being the easiest, stressfree party yet. I am trying to talk the kids into keeping this year's celebration just as small and maybe even just taking a special family weekend trip. They are really liking the idea of a family trip

Shell~
B/B/G 1/7/2000

I think it is a great idea to assign gifts - so that each guest only has to bring one present. Thanks

Stacy
Proud mother of
Ethan, Maizie, and Hunter
10/29/02

My kids are turning eight next month. We are doing a combined party and they are each inviting 4 friends. Since their birthday is so close to Christmas we usually just have a family party. But this year they begged to invite friends. We are having their party earlier in Dec. though.

I thought of doing separate parties. But I honestly don't have it in me. Especially at this time of year.


Terri~
12/21/01 at 33 weeks

Hey, Beth!! So good to see you here!

I've always done the combined party for my kids, and the last time I had it at one of the big "bouncer house" play arenas. I invited all of our triplet friends as well as all of their classmates from pre-school and all of our friends from church. It was a large crowd, but it was really a lot of fun. As far as the combined party goes, my theory is that you get the biggest place you can afford, and invite everyone you want to invite.

One friend of mine had friends help set up carnival booths and held a giant carnival that was really wonderful. It was held in a park ($25.00 charge) and everyone brought their tail-gating tents to set up the booths. Costs were kept down by ordering prizes from Oriental Trading Company; and they "served" popcorn in cute little circus cardboard holders; hotdogs; and, home made cupcakes. The biggest costs were the park charge and table rentals. (Actually, the biggest cost was TIME. It turned into a lot of work and organization, but it was a wonderful party!)

I'm getting great ideas from the other gals on this forum. I'm still not sure what I'm going to do about this year and January is rapidly upon us...


Cat w/3 Kittens
Caidan, Carina and Caeleigh
Born at 31 weeks, 1/8/04.