Birthday Party Advice

mrs.bridgettkay

DD's birthday is in December and she'll be four.  In the past I've done the party in our home and have invited her cousins so we have about 10 kids (including my kids) and parents at the party.  It's been managemable.  However, it seems she's getting invited to a lot of her daycare friends' (and other friends - neighbor kids, gymnastic friends) birthday parties.  So I'm at a loss of who to invite to her birthday party.  I thought it'd be fun to have it at the place she does gymnastics but if I invited friends and family we'd be at 15-20 kids (including my kids), plus parents (I want to give the parents the option to stay).  I know her cousins would love the place as would her friends.  Do I just suck it up and spend the money?  Who do you usually invite to your LO's birthday parties?

jc&cat

It's tough when you start to add up all the kids from various parts of your LO's life. Good advice I received here is that you don't have to of course invite any child that has invited her LO to a party. We're still at the stage of inviting our friends' kids. Some of that will eventually change since new buds will be made that they will see alot more that our friends' children.

We are keeping it small to about 12 or so kids since we're having it at a moon bounce place. We went to a friend's little boy's 4th birthday in September and it was mayhem with 22 kids. All well behaved but it was too overwhelming for the birthday boy (who knew everyone) and for the attendees such as my DS who didn't know anyone else. My LOs cousins are all much older so I can't really help with that but I would think cousins come first on the list, before school pals.

shellybird101

This was the first year that we did a friends party for DD and I let my DD pick 5 friends that she wanted to invite. I think that was the perfect number. Too many and ppl start to feel leftout and games/activities take too long. In the end 3 friends showed and it went well. The next weekend we had a family party with cousins and other family members and I did other activities with them so DD had something else to look forward to. I think you should give your DD a number of how many children you will invite and have her go from there. You might be surprised that she doesn't want to invite Jane or Jill, and then that's two off your list.

jlw2505

Can you ask your DD who she wants at the party?  15-20 kids is a lot especially if you think the parents will stay and at age 4, I would stay.  I woulds decide on a number and go from there.  If you really want to include all the cousins, I might consider doing 2 small parties or just do a family party again this year.  I did one party that we invited the whole class and about 20 kids showed up and my DD hated it - way to many people and just too overwhelming for a lot of the kids.  You could also just do a family party this year and when she starts kindy, stop the family parties (or keep doing those at home) and do a friends party.  I think combing the 2 if you have a large family gets hard.

brewcitybride

Same situation here - DD will be 4 in December, her past parties have been family/close friends at either our house or grandparents house.

This is my thinking - 4 is still really young to have a "big-girl" party. Tantrums can still happen, naps might still be needed. To throw in 15-20 kids into that mix is ridiculous. I think I read somewhere that the number of kids invited to a party should be the same age as the child - like 4 kids at their 4th party, 5 kids at their 5th birthday party, etc.

This year, I'm sticking to myguns, and still doing a small, more family-centered party. We are still her entire world, yes, she has "friends" at daycare, but 4 is still pretty young to have any sort of important friendship outside of family. Just my opinion.

 

Court0026

I have a friend whose DS in in my DS's class and they are buddies with birthdays 2 weeks apart.  We are going in on a party together at a gymnastics place.  I am sure we will not do something this crazy next year, but it is awkward with the beginning of the year and knowing/not knowing who to to invite.  We are inviting all 20 kids in the class plus some other friends.  1 hour of gymnastics, 30 minutes of pizza and cake, split the bill, etc.  I hope it goes well.  Otherwise we were going to skip it altogether.