Homeschooling is a great responsibility of parents, yeah, and your wise should be a real magician to make it succesful:) I try to be her too;))
Birthdays are a family holiday for us. Friends can be invited another day later.
Cakes...no...we like quests! My son adores them, and he always asks us to create an adventure for him, he is 7 now, and since 6 he had quests as a gift, as one of the, and in the end of the quest he finds the main gift as well;)
Thanks for sharing about how you celebrate birthdays. It is nice that you spend time as a family first.
Having quests is a neat traditional. I hope you can have many more quests as a family.