A Birthday Dilemma

No, this is not about my birthday, which basically has been consumed by Coco's birthday for the rest of time. It's about hers! Coco was born two days after me, and two days before my mom, and coincidentally, two of her little besties have the same birthday as Coco. This makes it so hard to find a day for her party, and it also creates an internal dilemma for me every year - especially the last three years as her birthday has fallen on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, in other words, on good party days.

It feels really weird to invite a child to your own child's birthday party on their own birthday. But it would feel even weirder not to invite them! I really love that we have been able to have Coco's birthday on her actual birthday for the last few years (and not on mine, which is what happened for a couple years there!) but it is a weird reality that two of her close friends have the same birthday. Last year, one of them was able to make it and then we went to their party the very next day. In this particular case, the little girl's brother has his birthday the day before hers, so they always do a joint birthday party together. Another layer of complexity!

Planning is always a challenge, and there is rarely going to be a date and time that winds up working out for absolutely everyone, so I just make a plan and hope for the best. And here are some photos from Coco's party last year. All of the ideas, including cake design and candy kabobs for each guest, were her own. That girls knows how to throw a party!

Coco's chosen theme was donuts. She designed her cake (more below) and was then delighted to find a donut piñata that matched!

We took this drawing of Coco's cake design into the bakery and they worked their magic!

Coco picked out the table items. It all came together so well!

I loved that the bakery added the little donut rings around the outside! And that pink tassel decoration from Target has been the best. I keep it in the basement on our party shelf and get it out for all of Coco's parties.

Coco, ever the style maven, chose the black and white cake with raspberry filling inside! 

The party started with backyard games, including ring toss and pin the horn on the unicorn. Then after cake and presents, it was piñata time. All in all a super fun time!