Need advice! Re: DD's 3rd Birthday

bls27

November is a crazy month.  It's my DH's birthday, DD2's 1st birthday, and DD1's 3rd birthday.  We are having a large birthday party for my DD2's first birthday and inviting about 50 people and then was planning on doing a small birthday party for my older DD with just our immediate families at the end of the month.

Now, that my DD is in preschool, we are starting to get invited to bday parties of kids in her class (there are 9 kids in her class).  Of course, they are all at indoor playground type places which cost a decent amount of money.  With all of the birthdays, and Christmas coming up, we are a little tight with money.  I wasn't planning on having a friend party this year, but now I wonder if we should since we are getting invited to some.

 What would you do???

1.  Just do a family party and leave it at that.

2.  Have a kids bday party too and pull together some money to have it at a playplace.

3.  Have a small birthday party with friends right after preschool.  It could be on DD's actual birthday (on a Monday) and be from 11:30-2:30.  We could do pizza, cake, and an activity. 

 4. Other?

katie277s

If money is tight, I would do #3.  Honestly, kids don't care where they are, but care more about having fun.  Having pizza, playing a game and eating cake will be a blast for them. 

Bellisimo

Hmm, I'd probably just do one big party for all three. Or, I'd take cupcakes or something to school so they can celebrate her bday with her school friends. Parties can definitely get expensive which is why I'd do just one or something small at the 3 yo's preschool.

Angela814

We had DD's 3rd birthday party at a bouncy house place and invited all her preschool classmates. Only 3 of her classmates came; the rest of the kids there were her cousins.

We just went to a 3rd birthday party for DD's classmate. It was a Saturday evening at their house. They had pizza, snacks, and cake. They had some activities set up for the kids, but the kids mostly just played with the toys there. It was combined with the parent's friends and family too. Only 2 classmates actually came, and then the other kids were friend/family's kids.

Unless you really expect all of her classmates to come, I'd probably just invite them to whatever family party you were planning.

npeacock

You have a busy month! What we did for DS was have just a family party. We brought treats for school on his actual bday, and will have a friend party next year.

Littlejen22

I am not sure if I am going to invite DD's school friends because he has not been invited to any yet but at least 3 of the girls have June birthdays so that might be why (his class is June through December kids only.)  But I will tell you that we have DS' friends from outside of school from October through December and started the parties already and they are ALL at play gyms places and since he is shy and is not a big climber he has not really had much fun at them even though he is very happy but he is not really doing what they are intended to do.  So, save your money and have a smaller party, like other said, the kids can have fun doing anything.  Oh and honestly I would not have it for 3 hours, most of the play gym parties are only 1.5 hours and they are very young so I would have them come over and play for an hour and then serve lunch and cake and maybe open presents and go home...so 1.5 hours to 2 hours tops.