I'm excited about how we're doing DS's birthday party this year -- we're having a low-key family barbecue this weekend, and on Thursday I'm taking him and 2 friends out to play mini golf and have pizza. So stress-free for me -- I love it! :joy

My question is, should I try to do the whole cake/candles thing in this setting? I don't really see how it would work. They sell ice cream there (just from a freezer case, so it's stuff like ice cream bars and popsicles), so I was thinking about getting them each a frozen treat, but it'd feel weird to sing "happy birthday" and all that with a popsicle.

The other way I could do it would be to drop off a small cake or cupcakes at my friend's house when I pick up her boys, then sing and have cake when I drop the boys back at their house. But that might feel kind of rushed.

Should I just not do that part, and just do the mini golf/pizza and have that be that? DS will get a cake/candles at the barbecue over the weekend, so he probably doesn't need to have one with his friends too, right? Maybe we could just do a silly toast to DS while we're eating our pizza or something? What would you do?

I'd probably skip the cake and singing or arrange with the other boys' mom to do cake at her house for 20 minutes or so when you drop them off.

Cup cakes would be smaller and more portable, and also eliminate a need to cut and serve.

I would just call ahead to make sure they don't have restriction on outside food. In my area, the most common restriction is that the item must be kosher.

We did a mini golf party for ds this year, and everyone first stopped by Baskin Robbins and we got a small ice cream cake (and did the song, etc) before caravanning to the go to mini golf place.