One Party or Two? :)

My latest dilemma is what to do for my children’s birthdays this year. I am presented with the moral dilemma of rather or not to throw separate parties for my twins first birthday and my son's 4th birthday, or if I should just throw one big party. I have always been all about everyone getting to have their very own birthday, even though i have never thought twice about the girls sharing a party since they actually do share a birthday. In our family though, our son's birthday is just 6 days before his sisters'. So I have been presented with the question "One party or two?"

I have done a little research on the subject and some people even recommend throwing separate parties for all three children, but since they are so young, really all of the same people would be invited for all three children and I would hate for one party to have an awesome turn-out and the other one not-so-much. Also, my son will hopefully be in preschool next year and at that point he will have friends of his own that he would like to invite, so I figure this will be the only year we can really combine parties anyway. As I hate to make decisions I asked my 3-year-old if he wanted to have his own party or if he wanted to share his party with his sisters and the response I got was too cute. He said "I want to share my party with the whole house, and then everybody can get presents, you and Daddy and sisters and ME!"

So, while I know that a 3 year-old should not be allowed to make such big decisions, I think I may let him make this one. Honestly the girls are too young to ever remember if they got their very own birthday party when they turned one, and if Aiden is willing to share his special day, and even seems to want to, why not let him. My next decision will be where to hold the party, since there will be some friends and lots of family to invite, and since it will be early March and cold, I am thinking we will need a place other than a family member’s home to accommodate everyone. The kids are small enough that I am not sure that I want to try for anything too fancy like Chuck-E-Cheese or Pump-It-Up, but I am thinking about maybe going someplace like Chick-fil-a or McDonald's and getting one of their birthday specials so there is a indoor playground for the kids. I have decided that I will make one cake for the guests to eat and make 3 small cakes for each birthday child.

What would you do if your children’s birthdays were so close? Have you had to deal with this before?