Tis The Season to LOSE My Dang MIND!

As if having a big family doesn't already come with it's own challenges...


We're presented with sort of a unique dilemma:

SIX out of the 8 family member in our house have birthdays within the next few months. These are the days I'll be planning for...
Halloween kicks it all off October 31st
November 8th is baby's 2nd birthday
November 26th my boys 10th birthday and he'll be nice and stuffed for his bday dinner because...
Thanksgiving is November 28th and we'll also be eating cake...
November 30th is a 7th birthday
December 13th my girl is officially a teen
December 22nd my boo thang turns 33
December 25th Christ was born
December 31st-1st PARTY LIKE MUTHA EFFIN ROCKSTARS! (Well... the kids will.)
January 7th an 11th birthday for another one of our girls.


We discussed somehow assigning each kid a new birthday and spreading them all evenly throughout the year so that way EVERYBODY wins... but it's just not the same without the legal documents to back it up. (We talked about changing those too but we're pretty sure it's illegal.) We always have the option of throwing ONE big party for all of them but then I feel guilty for cheating them out of their special day. Not only that but then it becomes a matter of... do we invite EVERYONE we know? Do we rent a place? If we do... Entertainment? Food? What theme fits ALL their ages? Which takes me back to... It's more important because there's so many of them and they have to share everything else, that they each be recognized individually on THEIR day. All this baring in mind that we have to coordinate all of this around visitation schedules for two sets of kids... possibly just one. *Exhale*

Last year we came up with the brilliant idea of letting the birthday kid choose an activity they wanted to do on their birthday weekend which usually included dinner and an activity. We threw a big bash to celebrated the little ones birthday since it was her very first birthday and that would be it. Now dinner and an activity for 7 people on all of the above days is easily SUPER expensive. And then because I didn't want their actual birthdays to go ignored even though we did an activity on the weekend. I baked em some cupcakes and we'd buy them a gift as well which defeated the purpose of doing the activity. So really, we probably paid DOUBLE what we would have paid for one big party or doing little individual birthday dinners.

This year I'm going with a birthday dinner for each child with a few decorations reflecting each kids personality. I want to aim for at least one DIY decoration project for each kid to add a personal touch to each kids special day.


A little ambitious ya think? Maybe. There's no guarantee we won't end up slapping a few candles on a Pizza Hut pizza and handing one of em' a few bucks and calling it a night.

(Hmm... not a terrible idea...)

Good thing is... they're all pretty damn cool kids who despite the over abundance of technology they own, they still appreciate the little things. I doubt they'd hold the pizza against us.

Anyway, I'll be keeping ya'll posted...

Comments

  1. OMG I laughed my ass off reading this! When I was growing up, we had only one big party-a kindergarten birthday party. Any others were ones we planned for ourselves. For our kids we used to do a dinner out for the whole family, until my oldest son's birthday supper cost us $150 between supper and ice cream out for 7 of us. Now, we take the birthday child out by himself for a meal and then one gift. I also make him a cake or cupcakes which we eat at home with a meal of his choice. The older kids have gotten pretty big presents the last couple of years and have agreed to 2 years worth of birthdays and Christmases (lets us off pretty easy for a couple of years!)
    It's just too expensive for us to do large parties for these kids.

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    1. Ugh! Thank you for commenting Melisa! You have no idea the relief just KNOWING someone feels me on this lil situation here lol... my fiancées oldest is the only one who lucked out with a summer bday and this year we took him to Six Flags (my two oldest were in FL with dad for the summer) so it was somewhat doable and even then we spent $230 on admission alone. The rest of the kids thank God haven't caught on yet since they get Christmas so close to their birthdays.
      I've legit learned to do everything for myself down to cake decorating to save a penny. Lets see how this year works out for us. Maybe next year we'll experiment with the one big party and depending on how THAT goes... These kids are gonna be faced with an ultimatum... Either Christmas or your birthday?! Choose wisely. AND y'all are passing down them costumes!

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  2. I've nominated you for the Sunshine Award :) You can read about it on my blog today. http://missyhomemaker.com/saturday-soapbox-2-blog-awards/

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  3. I love the chicken picture! My brother and I had birthdays 4 days apart and two weeks after Christmas. We never had parties after about age 5 (which we had to do together) and it was kind of a let down after Christmas. I think my mom must have just held out a couple of gifts she had bought for Christmas to give us later. I really don't remember birthdays being a big deal in our house. My little brothers was July 5th, so his didn't count either. Now, my two kids share a birthday, just 3 years apart. They've mostly hated that, but I've carried on the tradition of not making a big deal about them. Since they've been teens, we've just taken them out for dinner, which is a rarity around here, and the grandparents usually got them something nice. One year, my mom took them to have their picture taken. That was the best present I ever got and it was their birthday!

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    1. LOL funny you mention the one summer birthday Shawn. The one summer birthday we DO have in our house falls on July 3rd! Also a dilemma to plan each year when everyone either has plans or is gone for the holiday lol. I can def see their birthdays dwindling down to a pat on the back pretty soon cause it's super stressful. Their grandparents are actually the ones that always make it super special for them as well with the pricier gifts and showering them with attention. In two years is my oldest daughters Quinceanera (Latino version of a Sweet Sixteen)... I might just disappear to another country that year. I love the idea of getting the pictures done btw. You can think of it as your birthing day gift lol.

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