Birthday season

It's that time of year again, when all of us Cooks get a little bit older. We kick things off with Chad's birthday on Saturday, then Mallory turns 3 on April 9th and Liam turns 5 on April 13th.

We decided to do a joint party again this year... because we can. Until they each want to do their own thing, it just makes sense. Rather than doing one joint theme though, we have a specific girl theme and a specific boy theme that 'go together'. We'll have similar but slightly different activities for the girls and boys (and a few for the whole group to do together). Pirate balloons at one end of the table and meraid balloons at the other. Separate cakes but the same meal (fish sticks, anyone?)

Even though some of the girls are Liam's friends, and some of the boys are Mallory's friends, we split things down gender lines to keep it easy. Maybe not very PC of us, but it was just easier that way. And I like the fact that everyone was invited to either Liam's party or Mallory's party but not both, because last year we invited ten kids over and most brought a gift for both Mallory and Liam. It was a lot; I wouldn't have let either Liam or Mallory have 10 kids over if the party had been for them alone. I think this way is better.

Unfortunately, last week we got our first 'no' RSVP, from Nicholas and Sophie. They will be on vacation while we have our party and Mallory cried when she heard that Nicholas can't come. If it makes her feel any better, I heard that Nicholas wants to stay home from Mexico now so that he can go to her party. Those two really crack me up. I also heard that Nicholas has a birthday party in the near future, and we will do what we can to make sure Mallory can go!(This was just a draft version of Liam's invitation. The final one was slightly different, but I can't find it anywhere right now.)