Jessica, we actually got away with doing that with both Owen and Olivia this year--both their birthdays fell close to weekends were were travelling and so we ended up just taking them out for pizza and to Toys R Us and magically, it worked! NO PARTIES this year!

I don't think it'll work a second year in a row but damn, it was nice not going through the nightmare that is planning a child's birthday party.

We also found out yesterday's that he got a public pre-k slot, which was a total shock to us.

Wow! Yay! Maybe you could hide Aeryn in his backpack?

I only had birthday parties every fourth year. And Emmett's parties declined in size and partyness as he got older.

And Emmett's parties declined in size and partyness as he got older.

That is another blessing of aging--they desire less sizable parties. Until they get older still. Why doesn't someone plot a birthday party size versus age graph?

For avoiding kids' birthday parties, I recommend having them at awkward times. I only had occasional parties, as far as I remember....

I think I had a birthday party until I was only 7 or 8, then it was family only birthday parties. But, I don't recall all my friends having birthday parties that much after that date either, so I don't think there was a lot of pressure for reciprocal invites.

Yay Gar! Great news!

Poor Isaac missed out on a party this year because of the timing of my MiL's passing, but we may throw a yay!summer! party and pretend it's for his birthday. He did have his birthday celebrated on 3 separate occasions, so it isn't like he wasn't feted.

I want that Diagon Alley like whoa. Want Hagrid's Hut and Hogwarts Castle too. Forget about my son, I may have a Lego problem.

The nice thing about having Aeryn with a babysitter instead of in a group daycare is that we'll avoid the "invite everyone in the class" trap for at least the next few years. And when she's old enough to know about birthday parties, I fully intend to enforce the "number of guests = year of age" rule. Ah well, the lessons you learn with the second kid.

My mother got out of much in the way of birthday parties by having 3 children born in the span of 5 days. Also there was less of this Must Have Big Birthday thing then. The big one I remember was a surprise 1/2 birthday party one March (age 10 or so).

Dillo turns 5 next month, and he is convinced he will be having his party at Pump It Up. Which would remove any planning from me, but cost $125 at a minimum, so probably not. I need to work on talking him into a family potluck at the lake.

I want that Diagon Alley like whoa. Want Hagrid's Hut and Hogwarts Castle too. Forget about my son, I may have a Lego problem.

Emmett's got Hogwarts and Hagrid's hut. They're really fun because there are all sorts of little fiddley bits - hidden doorways, and things that open and move.