Birthday Connections

I LOVE a good birthday theme! And with 51 birthdays so far between our 4 children, I have had the opportunity to explore quite a few! Some that come to mind have been Bob the Builder, princess party, Elmo, trampoline parks, glow party, campout for chicks, fire house, circus theme, backyard movie, hiking, and 41 other birthdays. I love making each person in my family feel celebrated and loved.

I come from a family of birthday lovers. Growing up my parents would throw theme parties as well (I get it honest) such as cowboy theme with live horses, shaving cream fights, costume parties (because I was born the day after Halloween), and many more. Parties often included surprises which may have been the party itself or a scavenger hunt leading us to a special gift.

I, like my parents, love the thrill of surprising someone I love. My husband was no exception when I pulled of a surprise trip to NYC for his 40th. I secretly planned and saved for months and had everything ready to go, plane tickets in hand, and told him we were leaving. I think I enjoyed giving the surprise as much as the trip itself!

The goal of birthdays in our home isn’t necessarily to give awesome gifts. The goal is that the birthday boy or girl knows they are special and prioritized. We think of new ways often, but there are a few standing traditions we do every birthday. Here they are…

1. Birthday breakfast is always served on a special plate. The plate reads, “God thinks you are special today and everyday”. This plate is only used on your birthday and usually contains a stack of pancakes or chocolate chip pancakes with candles in them. Oh, and a morning picture which no one seems to be a fan of!
2. Birthday journals are journals I keep for each of our kids. I started the journals when they were born and write in them each year on their birthday. I write about their past year, things that stuck out, their favorite things, funny stories, etc. I remember every detail….. HA! Just kidding! I can’t remember if I took my vitamins this morning, much less the details of 4 children for a year. I keep a memo on my phone with each of their names and quickly type in things I want to remember to add to their journal. It’s fast and enough to jog my memory…most of the time. The kids have never read their journals. I’m saving them for a special time to give to them, but not sure when that will be yet.
3. Birthday photo book- this sounds a little redundant from #2. These little photo books are from a collection I sold for a short time with an MLM company. It has one picture for each birthday and it gets glued into an accordion style photo book. ONE picture- not a whole scrapbook page. Then we can stretch out the book and see each child’s birthday each year. This is an easy one to do and super easy to catch up on if you fall a few years behind!
4. Showing some birthday love! If it is your birthday at our house, during birthday dinner everyone at the table has to go around and say 2 things they love about you. This has been fun to watch the kids grow in the area of compliments. They have grown from things like “you are nice” to “you persevere and never give up when you try new things”. We all think about and compliment the best of each person. A funny side note: for years when the kids were small, every one of them would say about me, “she is a good cook” or ” she cooks for us”. I would look at Levi and say, “really!?? All I get is food??” We laugh about it now and cooking is off limits as the reason you love mom!
5. Food….of course! You get what you love on your birthday. For Marlee it is always crab legs and watermelon. For Gavin it is a cheeseburger, preferably from Midtown Grill. Garrison loves chocolate chip cake (which I will post about later). Mattie likes chicken alfredo. I just try to listen out for what they say they love to eat and make dinner about them as well.
6. There are birthdays that seem like significant milestones. So far, ours are 13th birthdays and soon to be 16th, as we will have the first one turning 16! 😳 13 is the age when our kids get a cell phone. They look forward to that of course, even though it is a phone passed down from Skipper to Skipper! At 13 for the boys, we asked people in their lives to write them letters to encourage and motivate them. We asked relatives, friends, and influential men in their lives. We put them in a cool wooden box to keep them in. We want them to know people are invested in them and wanting to see them grow into godly men. For the girls’ 13th they get a purity ring. A beautiful ring to remind them who they belong to and to not give away their heart quickly or easily to just anyone.

Out of 51 collective kid birthdays, none of us can name many gifts that were given. However, we can name things we did together for birthdays and the things we know we can count on when a birthday comes. What you can count on is that you are valued and loved because of the gift you are to us. Your birthday is just one day we get to remind you that!

I would love to hear your birthday traditions! Share by commenting below…

Please follow and like us: