Birthday Party (x4)

With the kids' (ours and the Lowdens) all crammed so close together in the summer months (Audrey 6/10, Bridge 6/11, Parker 8/14 and Brennan 8/18), we spent considerable time the last two years trying to figure out a way to minimize the effort of holding birthday parties for all of them (I suppose the effort can't be considered minimal, but the point being we didn't want to duplicate effort every summer for the next 10+ years). Last year we had two combo parties, one in June and one in August, which worked ok, but this year we decided to centralize our efforts into a one-time "mega party" that we threw last weekend at the Lowdens  house.  The current plan actually works out pretty well, and allows for smaller, tamer, immediate family only parties for the kids on their actual birthdays. But it also means four cakes, lots of family and probably 30+ kids running around for most of the afternoon. But it was fun for all ages, and we're already looking forward to next year.