Cool birthday parties are not my forte. (Yet?)
In fact, my kids collectively have celebrated 14 birthdays and we’ve had just one party. It was awesome, though, and apparently I’ve been just coasting on the memories of that party for a few years now. 😉
But I am a sucker for traditions and my kids love that we do birthdays a certain way:
– The birthday person sleeps with a birthday pillowcase for a whole week!
– The kitchen gets streamers with a balloon at each person’s seat, and I even have a rad Happy Birthday banner on the wall now thanks to a crafty sister-in-law.
– The birthday person eats all meals on super special colorful dishes I picked up at the dollar store years ago.
– “Happy Birthday to You!” by Dr. Seuss is always on the kitchen table, ready to be read to the birthday girl or boy by their person of choice. The parts where the boy in the book “shouts loud”, we have the birthday person at our house shout. For example, “I am I and I may not know why but I know that I like it! Three cheers! I am I!”
– The lucky birthday person gets to choose breakfast and dinner. Mackenzie’s breakfast is always bagels. Scott’s is usually cinnamon streusel coffee cake, mine is fancy steel cut oatmeal made Scott-style, Caitlyn’s was Breakfast Sushi this year. (Sliced up bananas with the outer edge smeared in peanut butter and then rolled in chopped nuts, toasted coconut, raisins, or chocolate chips)
We decided to surprise Caitlyn by sneakily making coffee cake in addition to the sushi and the look on her face was priceless. She has told approximately 11 strangers all about the BIG BIRTHDAY BREAKFAST SURPRISE this past week. 🙂
– We also make a special “number” card for our kids on their birthday where we each record a number of things we love about them, so Caitlyn received a pink construction paper 5 (did I mention I wasn’t crafty?) with a list from each parent and sibling on it.
This year she received the following gifts, recorded as a snapshot of what delights her at this age:
– A helium Minnie Mouse balloon, which has not left her side more than a handful of times since. The balloon sleeps next to her at night, comes to meals, etc.
– A roll of scotch tape that she can use for whatever she wants, in whatever quantity she wants, without asking.
– A set of twistable crayons/colored pencils of her very own (which she was SO excited about, and has since freely shared with her siblings every single day.)
– A silly picture book.
– Strawberry flavored toothpaste. She’s been pining for this ever since we switched to bubblegum.
– A kid-sized rolling pin and a couple of play pans for playing kitchen.
– A package of heart shaped beads to string.
– A beautiful and fancy white lace dress from cousins.
– Baby doll clothes and a bracelet from a Grandma.
I love how easy kids are to delight at this age, particularly when they don’t see any commercials and have no concept of “asking for something” for their birthday. Half of the above gifts were free or from a thrift store and Caitlyn doesn’t care a bit.
This girl is spunky, friendly, thoughtful and has a grateful heart. She shook our family up in wonderful ways when she joined us, and she continues to stretch me as a parent every day. She has an endless fountain of joy and enthusiasm inside her and does things with her whole heart. Happy Birthday, Bug!
