Hellobee Boards

Both girls got a big birthday party for their first, extended family and close friends. For DD1's 2 and 3rd we celebrated with immediate family. She's turning 4 at the end of the month and she's getting her first friend party. She is SUPER stoked! Now that she knows, I'm not sure if we will be doing a friend party every year or every other? I think some of it will depend on rules at elementary for inviting all or nothing in their class.

Yes, every year that they want one, they can have one. DS1 is very social and loves parties so I assume he will always want one, for now anyway.

I'm not opposed to one every year but it just depends on the circumstances. This year they are at a preschool where pretty much all the kids have been having at-school "parties" so we are going with that too.

I'm not sure my husband I are in agreement on this, but my ideal is a big party, but not a kids' party and with no or minimal presents. It's a chance for the people who love them most to help them celebrate, but those people are generally not kids. We've done this for birthday 1 and 2 with LO1 an with birthday 1 for LO2. Both kids love mixed adult/kids parties so far, so their birthday parties were certainly fun for them.

And nothing about hosting a kids' party appeals to me. But we'll see how it all shakes out!

Both kids had first parties just for me mostly.

Dd had one party at age 3 but that was really just a couple of family friends meeting us at the local pool

DS is only 2 so we haven't got that much experience yet. He had a big party for his 1st, which was also kind of a housewarming for us. For his 2nd, we had a small-ish dinner. We had 3/4 grandparents, 1/3 siblings, and we our closest friends with their 2 kids. It was pretty low key, just dinner and a few presents after.

DS's birthday is right before Thanksgiving, so our extended families usually want to celebrate. And our friends generally invite us to a lot of their events too, even if everyone else is family. I don't want to do big parties every year, but I think a few people for dinner, presents and cake is good until he starts asking for a friends birthday party. Which could be next year when he's 3, who knows .

We have had enormous, elaborate parties for DD for her first and second birthdays. I really enjoyed planning them and my mom is a huge help (plus we are both Pinterest nuts so parties give us a chance to use some of the cute things we have found).

The downside to huge parties is that DD gets SO. MANY. GIFTS. It is unmanageable, and then Christmas is two months later. Little kids do not need to receive 30 presents (and in fact, my daughter got upset at her birthday and on Christmas because she just wanted to play with her toys instead of having to unwrap them all).

This year, I will be 37 weeks pregnant on her birthday so we decided to do something low key. We are pretty close to DC, so I think we are going to drive up for the day and go to the American Girl store for tea and maybe go to the zoo. I'm going to gift her my old Felicity doll with her book 1 outfit and then make (or buy, depending on how gross I feel) an outfit for her and the doll to match. Only DH and grandparents will be invited.

I'll probably have another big, shared party the following year for DD's 4th birthday and the baby's first birthday since they will be 3 weeks apart and continue to share their birthday party until they start to complain lol. I am going to request that people don't buy gifts, especially because I don't want people to feel like they need to buy two things. If someone is really desperate to get my kids a present (like grandparents), I am going to ask for rec center classes or children's museum memberships or stuff like that.

It'll be up to her, but the default is yes, big party every year. But we might talk to her about doing something special with just one friend (like a trip to Dollywood, which is not far) if she's more into that.

My husband and I are major introverts and hate entertaining, so I can't imagine we'll be having any parties beyond our family until LO is in school/old enough to ask for one.

I love parties. We've had a party every year (though 2nd birthday was just a party at home with family). Her birthday party next weekend will be big and it's the first party that she helped planned and has school friends to invite.

We won't always go big, but will probably do a birthday party every year that she wants one. I LOVE birthdays & parties and I'm living vicariously through her since the days of me throwing parties for my birthday seem to pretty much be over (my birthday is exactly 2 weeks after hers).

Nope. Dd1 had a huge first birthday party (DH is Korean and it is a cultural tradition) and hasn't had one since (she's currently 3). She'll certainly have a party if and when she asks for one, but she hasn't yet and I'm going to wait on her.

they've both had parties every year. (5 and 3)
next year DD's bday falls during her spring break, so we'll probably skip the party and go on a family trip instead.
I say this now, but I get crazy emo when it comes to birthdays, so she'll probably have a party and we'll go on vacay too lol

We did a big one for one, haven't since and we'll throw a party w preschool friends in the fall for his fourth.

Probably same for DS2

Most, but we skipped DD1's this year and just did some family stuff.

Most years!

No, we only did them for their first birthday. I would rather put the money in their savings when they are younger.

For her first 3 years, we've thrown big parties for her- family, friends, lots of kids. For her 4th, and moving forward, she can have as many friends as her age, so 4 friends this year and have a smaller, activity directed party.

I did have some kind of birthday partie for DS when he turned 1 and 3, but this year (4th) we didn't do anything and just had a small celebration with a very close friend + his best buddy. We had a great luncheon with mimosas and real food (instead of a slice of pizza and a bottle of water if you know what I mean ;-)) and we went to watch a theatre performance show for the very young (0-5 years old) and it was a blast. However, I think I'd cave next year and give him a big birthday party because honestly, I think kids at this age are obsessed on throwing a big party to have all their friends there. We gave him our half broken camera which he could take videos and pictures if he'd like.

The other day we were looking at his pictures, and to our surprise, there was probably one night he didn't go to sleep immediately, and he shoot videos of himself and he goes somewhere along this line, "I love you, would you come to my birthday party? Oh ok, please come to my birthday party. Thank you bye bye". It was creepy in a way and made me sad that I didn't have a party for him this year.

I do them about every other year, alternating kids. On non party years, I take them somewhere fun for a day trip.

M just turned 2, and we just had grandparents over. D hasn't actually had a birthday party in like 3 years, so I told him this year we can do it. (He'll be 9)