Sibling Birthday Parties

[logan's mom]

Let me start by saying I hate the idea of combined birthday parties...but I am thinking about having my kids parties together this year...

My DSs are 2 years and 2 weeks apart. They will be turning 3 and 1 this year. We recently moved and have not made any friends here. DS1 is the only one at his "preschool" that is not a full time daycare kid-he just goes twice a week for three hours. Our "old friends" are an hour and a half away and we still see them frequently. 4 out of 6 of these "old friends" also have 1 year olds so there will be friends for both boys if the party is together and it will keep our friends from having to drive twice.

If the parties were separate-the entertainment would probably be the exact same....inflatable slide for bigger kids, smaller pools and splash pad for younger kids.

To compensate for combined parties, I am making each boy their own invitation, own theme and own cake.

Does this sound completely crazy? Any other suggestions?
(We had a big first bday for DS1 so I want DS2 to have a party too)

[ZeeBaby]

I am doing a combined party this year and my kids bdays are four months apart. The eldest will have a small party at daycare with cake for her actual bday, as will the younger one, but we are doing a joint party in between both bdays. It is lame I know, but we just have too much going on this summer and I didn't want to deal with planning two parties. All of this to say a joint party is fine, especially if you are trying to accommodate out of town guests and at 1 and 3 they won't know the difference.

[elephantmeg]

we have the same age range. But so far have managed to be able to do the same theme despite 2 years apart and gender difference (3/1 was a garden theme-dirt cake (with worms) for DS/flower cake for DD-and then the option for the guests, 4/2 was frogs-same cake for each but 2 different ones. 5/3 was Mickey mouse clubhouse and they shared the cake-2 candles that they blew out at the same time. 6/4 was Angry Birds. Next year I think the gig is up. DS is already talking Mario and DD is leaning Dora/Princess... But I have gotten 4 years out of combined parties! Including this one with DS' kindergarten friends!

I do do separate cakes and we sing twice. We do one party because my family is 5+ hours away and it just wouldn't work to do it twice in a month. They love it (especially since they each have their own pile of presents!)

They do have separate parties at daycare and I do their "theme" napkins/cake their.