because our babies are all born in the same month we tend to have birthday parties every week for a whole month which can get a bit out of hand. sometimes even one day each weekend. this year i suggested that we start thinking about organising the dates so that there arent two in the same weekend. DD's bday falls on a sunday so i took that one. however, a friend of mine is taking the saturday just before it! her childs birthday isnt til the monday. i am just a little disappointed because i have a feeling some of the other people will go to hers and then get too exhausted to go to ours the day after (some have new babies and i woundt want to go to two in a row with a new baby). we are hiring a party service this year so i dont want to pay this money and then have last minute drop outs. just a bit of a vent. how do you guys handle birthday parties in your mothers groups?
If I had to invite everyone it would get way out of hand. We have friends outside playgroup and family we want to invite - I couldn't think of a worse way to celebrate anything - 15 kids running screaming through they house *shiver (but that might just be me). We might invite 1 or 2 friends though.
I'm lucky the other kinder mums feel the same, no one cares if not every child gets an invite to every party. Most of us have more than 2 kids and don't plan on having a big party, every year for each child. One of the mums invited every child in the kinder class to her childs 5th - the poor girl reckons it took her 6 months to get over it
We have a joint birthday party for all the kids in our mum's group (there are ten of us), usually in a park, then do whatever we like for the individual ones, with invitations to all if that's what we want to do (or not) but no expectation that others from mum's group will be able to make it. It works well for us!
At my mum's group there's been talk of having a joint birthday day for the kids on the day we usually meet somewhere in the middle of all the birthdays. Someone came up with the brilliant idea of doing a kind of kris kringle type birthday gift too - where you pick a name out of a hat and buy for just that child. I'm not sure if we will still be in touch in a year's time but if we are I think that's what the plan is.
We have had just that drama in the last fortnight... three kids, one party each day for 3 days over a weekend!!!!! It was exhausting and there is always a squabble for dates! LOL
Happy to read some suggestions - or I won't be buying into it all next year!
I baked buns and took them in - didn't do a party. DS got presents from friends who also went to the group but not everyone which was good as he has too much stuff.
DS gets a "it's February" party for family - usually nowhere near his birthday though. But he gets gifts then.
We do a joint one where the kids all get a secret santa type present (we draw names out of the hat a couple of weeks before and have a $20 limit). We take a plate of food to share and do it on a weekend when the Dads can come usually a couple of weeks before the birthdays start.
People who want to have parties do and the condition is that if we go we don't have to buy a present because the kids already got a present each on behalf of our MG.
We have done it for 2 years now and it has worked out really well. It makes going to parties a lot cheaper and we all get to enjoy going out somewhere together a bit more often than usual.
We have had up to 3 parties over the one weekend (long weekend), but most of them have just been afternoon tea in the park so it is not stressful, the kids play happily, have some afternoon tea and go home. If it is too much we just go for an hour or so.
We really do have party season at MG though. We are a little worn out when it is all over but well worth it.
Now we all have second (and in my case third) children to think about we will have to talk about how it is going to work next year. Thankfully their birthdays are a little more spread out but it is a lot of presents if they are all going to get separate presents.
a bit annoyed, birthday parties/ mothers groups.
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