Max & Mila’s Double Birthday Party

I almost don’t want to tell y’all where we had their double birthday party because then the secret is out. Our regularly scheduled Saturday morning breakfast joint might get over crowded. I’m not kidding, we go to Hat Creek Burger Company most Saturday mornings.  They serve up a delicious egg, hash brown, and pancake breakfast platter plus all the Cuvee coffee refills you could want. (It’s a delicious local Austin brew.) Plus: playground. We discovered the greatness of the Hat Creek birthday party by witnessing one as patrons on a random Saturday morning months ago. I was sold. Max and Mila would have a joint birthday at Hat Creek. And did I mention, there is no charge, just fill out the party request form and you’re golden.

For the record, this blog post is not sponsored by Hat Creek or Cuvee Coffee. I did get free invitations via Minted.com, but I would have bought these cute pancake invites regardless. 

I hit the birthday jackpot with 2 March babies. Although, even if my kids were born a few months apart, we would likely still do double birthdays. What really made me re-think the big crazy party hoopla was Max declaring, “Mommy, look it’s a party! Can we go?!” as we drove down the highway and he spotted a car dealership with lots of colorful balloons. It made me realize how simple the idea of a party is to him. He doesn’t care about the hoopla. He wants his people, balloons, and a preferably a special treat.

5 Tips for Throwing a Double Birthday Party:

1. Breakfast theme: Not only are pancake invitations adorable and gender neutral, but you get to have a morning party! At least for my kids, mornings are their most reliable time. I can trust that they will act like nice tiny humans, and not grumpy no-nap monsters. I used these cute pancake invites from Minted.com. A double birthday means you get to splurge for fun extras like paper invites! 

2. Don’t have the party at your house: Hosting a party at your house instantly makes things more difficult. For one, you have to clean and who wants to do that? Like I said above, Hat Creek doesn’t even charge for parties. If you don’ve live in Austin, I’m positive you can find a local joint in your area to throw a kid birthday. You could always have a parking garage party, like we did last year! (It’s perfect for scooter riding.) Parks are also a great choice.

3. Food: No matter what location you decide to have the party, breakfast food is easy and less expensive. We let everyone order their own breakfast at Hat Creek and we provided juice boxes, oranges, and donuts galore.

4. Decorations: One word: Balloons. Balloons double as a party favor and kids love them. This was the extent of my decorations… balloons and black and white table runners. The back and white table runners came from the black and white baby shower my bestie hosted for me with Maxwell. I use them for every shin dig ever! I did whip out a few white cake plates for the donuts. I am so fancy.

5. Favors: See above.

For the record, Mila loved the slide. Ha!

My March birthday babies bowing out their candles…

I’m pretty sure the only kiddo looking at the camera was also the youngest one at the party! The birthday boy is playing with a tow truck on his friends leg and chowing down on his 17th donut, and the birthday girl is hoarding her friends shoe. We’re missing at least 3 other friends too.

I lied a little bit on the favor note, I handed these out but only because I had them leftover from the book launch party! I love these foam bathtub letters and numbers from Munchkin, but we did not need 12 extra hanging out in our garage. So, I added a cheesy pun because, duh.

Oh and the actual party was the day after the St. Patrick’s day, so the only sprinkled donuts they had available were green, ha!

I’m all for low key birthday parties. I’m also the mean mom who put “no gifts please” on the invite. We have more than enough stuff, we just wanted to celebrate turning 1 and 3 with friends! What do you do about gifts at birthday parties? Do you do joint birthdays? What about twins? For the record, I did throw one over the top party animal themed birthday for Max when he turned one. I’d love to hear…