least one or maybe two group activities before the kids eat a meal. After the kids eat, we have another group activity while there is a little bit of cleanup. I always make sure that I have adult helpers at the parties.

All of the parties we have ever thrown at our house have a fabulous cake. I try to get a theme related cake topper and we always have cookies. I make rolled sugar cookies for the kids on their birthdays with the cutter that has their new age. I look forward to this every year. One of my son’s friends looks forward to these cookies so much, that he calls ahead to see if I’ve made them.

Birthday parties are actually less work as kids get older. I think that the most effort, on my part, has been for the kids’ fifth and sixth birthdays. Those two birthdays in particular seem to be the ones that had the cleverest themes.

I keep trying to talk my kids into crafting parties. I think it would be fun to set up a lot of different tables and lots of materials and let the kids just go crazy making whatever they want. My son was mortified and thought it was a terrible idea. My daughter has just politely declined this suggestion every time I’ve made it.

I have gotten so many ideas for parties on the internet. It makes me want to have bigger and better parties every year and try to outdo the previous year. I was unable to pull off a party at home last year and took the kids to Chuck E Cheese’s. My son was happy, but I was really disappointed. I really dislike those kinds of parties.

My daughter is the next one with a birthday. She has been going to more parties lately and has started having a lot of ideas about how she might like to have her party. She has been changing her mind almost daily, though. A couple of weeks ago, she was sure that she wanted a Disney princess party and now she is thinking about a butterfly party.