Birthday Party Question

2-Step · July 2013

My DS is having his 4th birthday in a few weeks. He has asked repeatedly to invite his friends from preschool to the party. I don't have enough space to invite the entire class, but I don't exactly know which kids he is friends with and I don't want to leave anyone out.

So, what is the etiquette for this? Do I go all or nothing with the invites? Or should I consider renting a little space and having a separate birthday party for him and all his classmates and do the family party a different day? I'm trying not to spend too much money. He wants it at the bouncy house, but I think $300 plus food costs is more than I want to spend on a 4 year old party. I wonder how many kids would actually come on a summer weekend though.

WBMom · July 2013

My 4 yo wanted a friend party also. We invited the whole class (which was only 12) and only 4 of the little girls who she plays with almost constantly came. Hopefully it works on in your favor on this.

IdigDirt · July 2013

We just has LOs second birthday and I wanted to invite his 1 friend but felt it was all or none so went with none but he is too young to ask anyways.
Do you have a yard? I bought LO a bouncy house from CL for 150 and used it for his party and will use it for every party until he is 10. It was a hit.

2-Step · July 2013

IdigDirt:
We just has LOs second birthday and I wanted to invite his 1 friend but felt it was all or none so went with none but he is too young to ask anyways. Do you have a yard? I bought LO a bouncy house from CL for 150 and used it for his party and will use it for every party until he is 10. It was a hit.

Oh that's a good idea. I found one in our town on CL for $60! I just need to figure out if it will fit in our yard.

Iblamethebeer · July 2013

I just dealt with this same thing. We invited the whole class, but scheduled it for 4th of July weekend in hopes that a lot of kids would be out of town. It seems to have worked -- we'll have about 1/3 of the class.

The other things I considered were (1) only inviting the girls (rejected that idea because she likes the boys better) and (2) just telling her that bringing cupcakes to school was a school party (rejected that idea because I decided I should suck it up and have the big party).

KL777 · July 2013

That's exactly why I bring the party to the classroom during snack time (cupcakes, favor bags, party hat, etc.). I know you can't do that because school is out, but if he's in some type of summer camp program, you could.

I then have a separate party for family and close friends at a "place" (as a walk in, not a reserved $300 party booking). This saves tons.

Also, at DS's school, it's invite all or none---which I think is only fair.

azuremama · July 2013

We usually do cupcakes at school to take care of the school crowd, then I think you can do either all kids or some, if you're discreet about it. At 4, they don't really catch on that some kids were invited and others weren't. We had a party on Memorial Day weekend and had terrible turnout. I think we invited 20+ and only 4 could come.