a bit annoyed, birthday parties/ mothers groups.

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?

Don't do em!

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 :ROFL:

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!

thats a great idea suse! :-)

I didn't do them. I went to them, and if I had a party for the kids it was family and friends outside of MG that I invited.

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.

Yep, we do a joint party and do a Kris Kringle type gift. We don't even draw names out of a hat any more, we all just buy a unisex present and sort it out on the day.

This year we're going to a playcentre so all catered for.

And you know what, DD is so young that I don't feel obliged to throw her a 'proper' 2nd birthday party. Maybe when she's older and has got the concept but now it would all be over her head. Having a joint birthday, though, makes me feel that I haven't ignored her birthday completely - obviously she'll get presents and made a bit of a fuss of on her actual birthday but I don't honestly think that a party would be for her so I won't have one.

in my mothers group there are about 7 original kids, but nearly everyone has had a second, and two have had a third, and they are all born around Jan/Feb.... there is literally a birthday every week for over 2 months.... its expensive and ridiculous... this year most seemed to have parties with family and friends, and invited us mothers group friends along too and those that wanted to come, came.... sometimes two people had parties on the same day, its just one of those things... you have to do things to suit yourself and your family and whoever can come can come, and those that can't can't.... to be honest i choose the date of my child's party to suit me and my family and i wouldn't really give it a thought if there was a party the day before, i'd probably only worry if it was on the same day..... plus people with small babies can just come for an hour or so if they want....

another idea is to celebrate the childs birthday at your mothers group, so bring a cake etc and sing happy birthday, and just invite family and friends to the actual party, and that also helps keep it smaller...

try to just plan the day for yourself and your child and enjoy it, don't worry about who can come and who can't, as long as your family are there thats the main thing.... to be honest i'd be glad if we all just had parties every 5 years or something, they become such a drag when there are so many people/kids to include...

good luck!

just wanted to add that people with small babies have an easier time than those with crazed toddlers high on sugar!!!!!!!!! they will have their feet up relaxing!!

I only invited about 4 of the playgroup kids/mothers to Jack's 1st birthday...they are the ones I am close to outside of playgroup. Oh, and one is my SIL, LOL.

My mothers group also did a joint party. We all met at one of the mothers houses on a Saturday and everyone brought their own meat and something (salad or dessert) to share. We also brought along a unisex gift to the value of $15 and then just took one of the presents from the pile when it was 'present time'. It was a great afternoon, inexpensive and all the parties were over with at once.

We did a joint party last week with all of us doing a "Kris Kringle" present and we each bought some food....one person a slice, one made a cake, one bought snacks for the kids, one bought chips and one bought a bottle of bubbly for us mums!!

Worked out great and the kids had a ball!!! We made it clear months ago that we were all just inviting family and close friends to our parties and that was enough...

In our group, our babies all recently had the first birthdays. Some of the mums just turned our regular session into the party for their child and the other mums organised their own thing, which is what I did. We did however, do the Kris Kringle thing which worked well. The mums that did their own party thing outside the group invited the group but there was no expectation for the other mums to show up.

thanks guys. i will suggest something like that for next year. myself and another girl have suggested in previous years to do the kris kringle thingy but a couple of the other girls had already started buying pressies for everyone so that has never worked out! we are the same too, most of us have a second and some are onto their third babies, i think there are 11 kids altogether now! so something is gonna have to give!! LOL