A mixture of the three. Each year has been a little different. Our boys B-days are one day apart. Last year we let them each pick one friend and took them to a local "amusement" type establishment.
Well, we celebrated our three year old's birthday last night by having a few friends over to sing Happy Birthday and almost burning her birthday cake. (I knew there was a reason why I prefer to buy a cake at Costco). We celebrated my birthday a few days ago by going out to dinner, just the Cat and I.
Thank you! My actual birthday was pretty lousy. None of my kids remembered without me having to say something. I was feeling old. I had to work. It was crazy at work. I came home to finding the house a mess and was cleaning up at 10:30/11:00 at night. No one did anything I asked them to do. It was my sister's birthday too and we kept playing phone tag with each other. So I was feeling pretty sorry for myself.
I hear ya ponch, my b-day was Sunday, but I was working, so we had the kids presents for me and then my wife and I went out to a nice dinner with some friends on Wednesday. So I would say I had a good day. Hey, I got to take someone to jail for my B-day, how many people can say that!!!
We've thrown birthday parties for our children every year, but with a couple of caveats:
1) The number of friends invited over is the age they are turning. So for that first b-day party at the age of 4, they get to invite 4 friends. When they're turning five, it's five. No 25-seven-year-olds-destoying-my-house stuff for me.
Once my boys were ten, I gave them the option of a) their age # of friends over for a 3 hour party, or b) a small group of friends for a sleepover. They've usually chosen the sleepover.
2) I don't do gigantic theme things, or OTT decorating, nor will I spend ridiculous amounts of money taking them to Chuck E. Cheeses et al, although we've taken kids swimming a few times because it's inexpensive. As far as I'm concerned, having a huge group of friends over all at once is already a party in itself. They play games and run around and eat food. The "insert last name here" rollercoaster is always the favorite. If you want instructions on how to do it, just ask.
My younger siblings have started having families, and they'll throw gigantic parties for their two-year olds and invite all the extended family, but that's just not my style.
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They might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.
