?Birthday Parties - Dayton,OH

We had family parties when the kids were infants and toddlers. We do kids parties when the kids have their own friends to invite. We have a special immediate family celebration on the actual birthday. We get together with extended family informally to exchange birthday gifts. I wouldn't expect grandma, aunts, uncles and teenage cousins to come hang out at the bowling alley with a bunch of seven year olds.

I have one party for my child. Family (both sides) and friends are invited. PERIOD!

1 party per child :) If you have a kids party, then your fam, then hubbys fam, you could be looking at 3 parties! That is a lot of time and effort for YOU!

For 1st birthday and 2nd birthday, I do a small family party and invite just grandparents and close aunts/uncles/cousins. Most of my hubbys family is out of state - grandma comes but we dont send invites to the aunts uncles down there because they we would have to host a party of 20+ out of town guests, and they then feel sort of obligated to travel 6 hours for a 3 hour kids party. But if they were closer, they would get invited to the same party as my family.

At 3 we started kids parties as there were now preschool friends to invite and the kids are now more able to understand and appreciate the joy of birthday parties. I still invite the grandparents and close aunts/uncles that have children that would be interested in the party. If they dont want to come to a kid party, thats fine, we are not offended, but I wont be holding a seperate party just so those adults are happy with the venue. I think it should be about what the birthday kid wants more than about accomodating a ton of extended family.

We've always done one party, and guess what? The people that care and wanted to be there somehow figured it out. It's not your issue, if they don't want to "share" your child on your child's special day. It's not your issue if they don't want to go to a kid's venue. If they want to come and take your child to do something special, they are most certainly welcome, but parties are way too expensive, to bend over and cater to everyone's preferences.

We have one huge party and everyone is welcome.

family parties are for both sides. kids parties with school friends are separate

One party, everyone's invited. I cannot exhaust myself more than once :)

My daughter is 10. When she was younger, we'd ALWAYS have cake on a few presents on her actual birthday. Close family would come. Then, on the weekend we'd have a big party with friends and family. This past year when she turned 10, she no longer wants the "big huge" party. So, we still did our small , cake and presents "party" with close family. Then for her friend b-day party she had 4 girls spend the night. Loved it! lol
Oh and I want to add- her Dad and I are divorced and him , his wife and their kids always came to the small family party on her actual b-day as well as when we had the big friend/family bday parties. Everyone put aside their differences on her b-day.

My child is probably going to be a very spoiled child when it comes to birthdays.

He is young enough that we celebrated his birthday at daycare, then family the day of his birthday and he had another birthday/Christmas with my family later.

I should also say his Birthday is Dec 23, maybe that helps to make sense of everything. He has a cousin who is 12 days younger than him so often we do a joint birthday/Christmas party with family sometime between the two birthdays.

Some might say that's a bit much, and maybe it is, but my husband and I wanted to be sure to make a fuss over his birthday and not let it blend into Christmas. So no matter what he always does something special on his birthday.

For now its a combined party - 1 for everyone (school kids and family). It's too much trouble at this age to do separate birthdays. In a few years we will probably separate and have a birthday "Dinner" with the family and either go out somewhere to have a special request dinner at home. We will always save the "party" for the kids because even now the kids stay involved and the family usually just sits around.

I have 4 year old twins.

For the 1st and 2nd birthday parties we did a combined friends and family.

For the 3rd birthday, we did a kids party and then invited family over for something casual on a separate day.

For the 4th birthday, we did a kids party and then did family when it was convenient. We celebrated with my in-laws at Thanksgiving since we spend Thanksgiving with them and my kids are born in November. For my family, we tagged it onto my sibling's birthday who is also born in November. The celebration was really for her birthday, but my Mom and sister had a couple gifts for my kids so they opened them first.

In the future, we'll probably just do a kids party and then do whatever is convenient for family but not really make it into a separate party. When my kids get older, we might try to arrange for a dinner out with my family. My in-laws tend to get together regular once a month or two and celebrate whatever birthdays happened during that time anyway.

And eventually, I may have to give my kids separate birthdays, but I'll take combined ones while I can. :-)

We never do/did "family" parties. Our family is HUGE (mostly my husband's side) several aunts and uncles, close to thirty cousins when you count all the step cousins, so if we had family birthday parties we would literally busy with these functions close to every weekend LOL!
Before the kids started school the "party" generally consisted of our immediate family and a few family friends and their kids. My MIL would try to come if she was free as well.
Once they started K they invited their friends, and throughout the elementary years it was anywhere from 3 or 4 kids up to 12, depending on what we were doing. We mostly had pretty low key parties at home, snacks, punch, cake and presents, maybe a pinata and sometimes a bounce house.
I think so much depends on your space and comfort level, so you should REALLY do what works for you. I would imagine having one big party would be easier than trying to host two or three smaller ones, but that's just me!

I have two kids and their birthdays are exactly one week apart, which is a blessing and a curse! ;) For my older child, the 1st and 2nd birthdays were huge bashes that had all our friends and all our family, both sides. She started having more friend parties at 3 although there were some family members there that wanted to be there.

My son doesn't have a ton of friends that are just his own, so he's had the huge combo bash for his 1, 2, and 3rd birthdays. Maybe next year or at 5 I'll switch him to a "friend" party.

Ultimately, my wish is to give each of them a friend party and then have all (both sides) of the family over on a weekend afternoon for cake and presents. Because their birthdays are so close, I feel like this is feasible for us, but it is a lot of a partying!