We don’t work on a set schedule as to which year the kids can have a birthday party with their friends. If we don’t plan one where their friends will be invited, we always do an afternoon tea with the family, or offer a “drop in” invitation for icecream and birthday cake.
We do of course have birthday parties for the milestone birthdays. But this year will be a little different. DD12 insisted she wanted to have a birthday party last year for her 12th birthday so we said that if that happened she won’t be having one for her 13th birthday. She was fine with that so she got her Hawaiian Luau party. (I’m sure I blogged about it…go back and have a look if you like 
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This year DD7 is having a party for her 8th birthday only because when we were discussing different themes, she said she would like a pirate party. So after this party, her next one with friends will probably be her 10th birthday because we’ll be celebrating her reaching “double numbers”.
DS16 didn’t want a birthday party for his 16th so we got the family together and went out to lunch to celebrate his birthday. DD15 wasn’t meant to have a party this year but she persuaded DH to let her have some friends stay over and then, funnily enough, some more friends turned up and it ended up being a bit of a party anyway *insert rolling eyes here*
So, to get to the main purpose of this post, it comes down to how often should the baby have parties in her first 5 years. When the 4 older babes were between the ages of 1 – 5, we planned parties for them as our finances allowed but I would like to have a party for her each year with family and close friends. Of course, when it comes to birthday parties, DH’s opinion is different to mine and he says that we don’t need to do that.
So, my question to you all……..how do you decide which year to have a full-blown birthday party? Do you just do it for milestone birthdays or is there a different method you use? I’d love to hear your thoughts
