Double Birthday Party's

My son and daughter are 7 days short of being exactly 5 years apart. My son is the oldest, I have always done birthday parties together except for my daughters 1st birthday since that is a big deal. I have done parties at home and one at Chuckie Cheese for the both of them at the same time. It makes it much easier on myself and family instead of having them come to two separate parties within a week or two of each other.
My son does not mind this, they each get their own birthday cakes, and own decorations.
As the others have said though the baby will not remember but I prefer to do big parties such as, 1, 16 and 18 separate. They are both in school this year and I also do allow them to have friends over from school for their birthdays.

I wouldn't do a joint party. Your 7 year old will want a party with his pals from school, not a baby party. The baby just needs the close family to come and have cake. My opposite gender kids are 4 years and six days apart. When they were little, we had joint family bbq's to celebrate their birthdays but never mixed celebrations with their friends.

For this birthday, I would concentrate on what your 7 yr old would like as
your 1 year old won't even notice. That's more for the parents.

For this party, I would ask what your 7 yr old son what he would like.
Parties at that age are more memorable.

Does he have any friends at the new school? If so, invite a few. If not, then have your family and/or a few neighbor hood kids he may be friends with.

For the 1 year old, I would buy a mini cake (or make a cupcake) for her to demolish/smash/eat in her high chair.
Take pictures of that. So fun!

In the future, have their parties either one day apart or a one weekend apart concentrating on their own likes/age appropriate things at the time.

My son is 2 years and 1 week apart from his older sister, not as big of age difference. But since both their birthdays are a week apart we have always had them together. My daughter this year will be 7 and is in first grade so I was actually thinking of having seperate ones for them. Last year since they were a little older on my daughters birthday weekend we let her have couple friends stay the night and then the following weekend we let my son do the same thing, but since its your youngest 1st birthday I would have something special like you did for your son when he turned 1. When we had my sons it was together with his sisters 3rd birthday party but we made sure we did a lot of the samethings that we did on her first so that they both had pictures the same. You could do one together with your family to really celebrate their birthdays and then so it would be a little bit more special let your son invite some of his close classmates that same day or on a seperate day (like following weekend) for a sleepover. Hope this helps! Good Luck!

I don't think it's going to go well this year either. Your family is big on first birthdays and your son is at the age where he may want a small "friend party". I know that it's a pain, but I would do two separate events, but maybe on the same day!

My husband is a twin and my MIL did a really genius thing during the years when the boys had different friend groups... one had a morning party (10-1) and the other had an afternoon party (12-3). Note the overlap... that's when the pizza and cake were served. Twin A's friends were picked up at 1:00 and Twin B's friends were picked up at 3:00. The family knew the arrangements and were invited to join for any part of the day.

In this case, I would do something for your son early in the day with his friends at your home (think cake and party games) and then put out new papergoods and invite the family over at 3:00 for dinner and cake.

No kid likes to share his birthday, especially with a "baby sister" who will be the focus of the cake event.

The 1 year old will not really remember. The party for her is really for the adults. Is your 6 yr old having friends over or has he not had time to make any? If he isn't having friends, then his party is for the adults too. Just make it fun for the birthday boy and have 2 small cakes. Sharing a cake sometimes is an issue for the older child. And you are right, in the future, this will not work, so be prepared. Have Fun.

I do joint parties all the time since my two are 13 days apart (and three years) BUT only when it's family. I make two cakes; give them each separate times to open gifts, etc., so they each have an opportunity to feel special and the attention is on them. Just makes it easier combining them since we live a couple hours away from family so they just have to make the trip once.

But if it's a party for their friends from school, then I NEVER combine the two. I let each of my children invite no more than 10 kids and just have a small party at our house. I have cake, ice cream, a few games, open gifts, then out the door they go!! If it's a milestone birthday (turning 10, 13, etc.) then we'll make it a little different and add pizza but I've never bothered with the big parties at a Chuck E Cheese or something like that; gets way too expensive!! My kids love their parties the way we've always done them. And I've ALWAYS involved them with their parties as to what type, etc.

Good luck!!

I agree that I don't think it's going to go well this year for your 7 year old. IMHO he will be "pushed aside" by the family who is "big on first birthdays."

I don't know, no I KNOW I could not handle two parties on the same day so I would do your son's party with just friends one weekend and then a bbq and 1st B-day party for your daughter the next week.

Let T take a snack or whatever to school or have a school friends party with just classmates and no family.

Let T and C have a joint party (zoo theme?) on a different day with just family. Make sure you have a seperate small cake for the 1 year old.

Just don't make the party... at nap time, per your youngest child.
Or the younger one will be too tired or fussy or the noise/hustle and bustle and crowd, might bother her.
And state a start time, and an end time, for the party.

I always do double parties. I have 8 and a bunch of them are within days if not less then a day apart. My older 2 are 11 months and 20 some days apart. Boy/girl, when combining we stuck to a theme that could go both ways. so say super hero's my son would pick spiderman and my dd catwoman. One year dd wanted cat's so we did kitty cats and big cats. It took some thinking outside the box.

Like someone mentioned, they got separate cakes and sometimes opened their presents together and sometimes at separate times. When in school, he invited his friends and she invited her's....they could be pretty big, but it was done and over with very quickly. Instead of spreading it out.

For yours find what theme he wants and figure a way to make the babies fit into that theme. You could also do the babies from say 1-2 and your older son's from 2-4.