Although we don’t give our kids big expensive parties every year, birthdays are special days at our house. If it is your birthday, then you are going to have your own special party regardless of what day of the week it is. And even though we don’t spend lots of money, our intimate family parties have all of the elements that make for a special birthday celebration with the entire family pitching in to make the day special.
We have cake. Sometimes we bake the cakes for the special birthday honoree. And since mommy (me) isn’t the best baker, the cakes don’t look that great. Sometimes…no most of the time..they are leaning because I can’t get them out of the pan without them crumbling and breaking. But they are oh so delicious because they are made with love.
Grandma picks up balloons from the dollar store. We serve the favorite birthday meal which is pizza for most of the kids except for our youngest who likes chicken nuggets. And a party is not a party without dancing in the kitchen to our favorite tunes on youtube.com.
And last but not least, there are the gifts. No matter what we give them, they are oh so excited and oh so appreciative of the gift. Our youngest just turned 4 years old this year. And her favorite gift was a recordable story book that we gave her. The book allowed Lamar and me to record ourselves reading the story. And she listens to that book over and over and over again with the most special smile on her face.
Although we don’t spend a lot of money on birthdays, the memories that we are creating are priceless. And if I can just get these pictures off of my cellphone and my computer and into a photo album, then my kids will be able to look at the pictures and remember being special and being loved!
BMWK Family – How are birthdays celebrated at your house? Do you go all out and spend lots of money? How were birthdays celebrated when you were growing up?
Each new day provides you with an opportunity to have special moments with your family.
Disclosure: This post is part of a series that is sponsored by Hallmark and the Life is a Special Occasion campaign. All opinions and editorial content expressed are my own.
Thanks for this Ronnie. You just confirmed for me that we need to get back to the real meaning of birthdays. FAMILY togetherness. My daughter had 3 parties one year: at school, at home, at play land. My fault. Not anymore. I got sucked into the party madness and pressure. All these darn goody bags and lugging balloons and gifts everywhere. Tokens and invitations to kids she rarely plays with. You see I am venting. LOL. Not this year. Her bday is in 3 days. Small party at school, and then family party with grandparents. That’s it. I love the family party with homemade cake idea. That’s what I remember most as a kid and that’s what they will remember as adults.
Thank you.
Dr. Michelle…it has been a learning process…but over the years I have found that it’s not about the money you spend, its about the experience. And the kids just appreciate being special for the day. So we only do big parties for the milestone birthdays. Our oldest daughter just turned 10 years old..and she had a big pool part last weekend at an Aquatic Center with her classmates. She enjoyed it so much!!! But she probably will not have another big party until she is 16. We do something special with her each year…but not the big party.
I like that. Milestones. That’s been my thinking too but I got sucked in. I was actually thinking about writing a post about it. Glad you did. I like yours!!
OMG, those smiles are the best present of all!! Happy Birthday! (and wait, dad is just 33???? LOL)
Such a great post and reminder that you don’t have to spend a lot of money to celebrate another year!
We don’t do big birthday parties, however, we do celebrate each of our 4 children’s special days with family, friends and their individual classes, so birthdays tend to last 3 days at our house. Now I’ll have the “Party rocking in the house tonight” earworm for the rest of the day. Which isn’t a bad thing, really. Great post, Ronnie!
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