Silent Quitting A Friendship?!

Help!

My husband and I are new parents & find it really hard to make time for friends like we used to. We are super selective about who we spend time with because it’s been so hard to get out with an newborn/infant.

We have a married set of friends who always wants to spend time with us. They are very sweet, but as we’ve become parents, we have realized we no longer feel connected to them or have interest in the friendship. They don’t have much motivation in life and tend to view things negatively. We don’t want to be friends with them anymore, but we are struggling since they are overall nice people.

How do we quit this friendship? Do we stay friends and tough it out because they are nice to us? Do we ghost them?

Any advice would be much appreciated.