Birthday Time: How We Celebrate as a Family


We are in what I like to call “Birthday Season” in our home. We have one birthday in February, 3 in March, and then 2 in May! Although it is busy, it is a lot of fun and a homeschooling schedule gives us lots of room to enjoy ourselves. Here are some ways we celebrate:


small and low-key
Our large family "selfie" worked. . .
For my daughter's 13th birthday.
We tend to keep our celebrations small, low-key, and family oriented. We celebrate as a family:
Daddy, Mommy and the kids. Other family members are welcome to stop by as they’d like, but no
invitations are sent, no reminders to announce the day or any of that.


Back when our oldest children were little, we tried the traditional, “invite every kid you know to a
cartoon-themed party” and it just didn’t fit. While those types of celebrations can be fun, we
noticed our children were overwhelmed or uninterested in what we just spent loads of time,
effort, and money on. More importantly, we also realized that were teaching our children to have
unrealistic/unreasonable expectations on what they were entitled to because it was their
birthday.


So we scratched that and haven’t looked back! Burden lifted.


decorations


I got this idea from friends in college. When there was a birthday, we’d decorate each other’s
dorm-room door with balloons, streamers, posters, etc. So, I do that to my children’s chairs at
our kitchen table. I decorate that person’s chair with a balloon or sometimes I’ll hang balloons
from the ceiling over the place they sit in. We also decorate the kitchen area with birthday signs
and balloons and flowers.


favorites

 
Birthdays are day full of favorites: colors, movies, songs, meals, games, snacks, etc. We let the
birthday person pick those things for the day and it is such simple fun! Meals get really
interesting, especially when the younger children are choosing, but who doesn’t love pizza and
ice cream for breakfast?! Lately, we’ve been dressing in the birthday person’s favorite color
without saying anything about it, and we just wait to see if they notice it--a simple way to say I
love you.


no school zone


Homeschooling means you get to set the schedule. Some birthdays, we say school is off and
that’s that! Other birthdays, we’ve had some goals to meet in one or two subjects, but then we
cancel the rest of school to do whatever “favorite” thing is on the list. Every child, even the most
studious of children, love a day off from school or away from the routine. That is a gift that’s easy
to give.


giving and humility
My oldest daughter received a huge bottle of bubbles from one of her little sisters (#6) for her 15th birthday.
She was so sweet and gracious about it! 💖😊

Having a lot of kids around means every moment is a teachable one. So, birthdays are a time to
practice celebrating someone else, and giving them our time and attention. We take our children
to shop for each other for birthdays at the Dollar Store, encouraging them to really think about the
person, what it is they like, and how the gift would benefit the other person. It is a fun challenge
that the kids look forward to every year.


On the flip side, the birthday child learns a lesson in being humble and grateful. Being able to
receive gifts and tons of attention in a gracious manner is a learned skill that goes beyond mama
making the child say “thank you”. We try to teach our children to truly be grateful for whatever
they receive, to look for the beauty and kindness in each gift, no matter how great or small. No
one owes you anything and so, when you get a gift, be thankful.


cake and presents


Some cakes are homemade, other are ordered from a bakery, still others have been selected
right off the grocery store shelf. . . it just depends on what’s going life at the time. One year, a
birthday celebration took place in the hospital because I’d just had a baby the day before! Two
of my children have birthdays one day apart, and we celebrated with cupcakes from the grocery
store.


So, we always have cake and it is our custom to celebrate and open presents once the
entire family is together. If my husband is at work, or one of the older children has an obligation
outside of the home, we always wait until we’re together before we eat cake and share presents.
Sometimes, that means we’re having cake for breakfast, which the kids love to do. Most times it
means we do it around dinner time, but the key is that we celebrate as a family. My husband has
a very special way he sings “Happy Birthday” to each of the kids and they get a huge kick out
of it and look forward to it each year.


pictures

So, my kiddos know every birthday means a mini-photo shoot. I take tons and tons of pictures.
If you hang out with me on Facebook or Instagram, you know it’s true! I usually take a “last” and
“first” picture. On the day before my son's or daughter’s birthday, I’ll snap a few pictures of their
last day at that age. Then, of course their birthday is their first day at the new age and I’m
snapping pictures all day. It’s what happens when you have a mama who blogs.


So that’s how we celebrate birthdays. We are grateful for each life God has placed in our home
and we have learned that showing appreciation doesn’t have to be costly, time-consuming, or
overwhelming.

How do you celebrate birthdays in your home?


Comments

  1. We also keep it relatively simple. We allow the birthday child to pick one friend to invite over (that usually means the friend's family, too) and grandparents are always told when the party will be. I don't decorate; it's not my thing. I do make a cake and a meal of child's choice.

    We, too, have two birthdays a day apart. I was in labor on one child's birthday, but before we left in the morning, I made certain to have a special time with birthday boy.

    Oh, I know what I do that the children look forward to. . . at bedtime, I tell the birthday child his or her birth story. It's our special alone time, the story that we share.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Jody, I love the idea of telling the birthday child about his/her birth story. That is such a good idea. I may begin to incorporate that in our celebrations. Thanks for sharing!!!

      Delete
  2. This is how we celebrate as well we have 1 in March and 3 in May every weekend in May to be exact. We Love celebrating each other together. Aswesome Post!!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes! Simple yet enjoyable ways to celebrate. Enjoy all the birthday fun in May!!

      Delete

Post a Comment

Comments are always welcomed!!

Popular Posts