Our Five Ring Circus: Birthday Traditions

Friday, July 31, 2015

Birthday Traditions

Childhood is fleeting! The years go by in the blink of an eye. Because of that, we make sure our kids have extra special birthdays!

Birthdays have been on my mind a lot lately.  On Monday, my sweet Liliana will be four!  Two weeks later, my BABY will be two. Right in the middle of their birthdays, we will be having a combined party to celebrate with our family and friends. August is going to be full of celebrations!

Over our decade of parenting, we came up with some fun birthday traditions that we do every year!

birthdaytraditions

{ONE}

Fill up the bedroom with balloons!!!  After our child falls asleep on their birthday eve, we blow up balloons and sneak them into their room while they are sleeping. The first thing they see when they wake up on their birthday is a bedroom full of balloons!

wakeuptoaroomfullofballoons

{TWO}

Decorate the bedroom doorway with streamers.  Sometimes we create a curtain of streamers, but other times, we create a streamer trap!  The kids think it's hilarious!

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{THREE}

Have a doughnut breakfast!  Our kids love doughnuts. On birthdays they get a doughnut for breakfast with a lit candle and their first birthday song of the day!

BirthdayDoughnutBreakfast

{FOUR} 

Buy them a special birthday outfit to wear on their birthday.  I love picking out birthday outfits.  While they're sleeping, I hang it up in their room.  They love waking up to a fun, new outift!

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{FIVE}

Have each sibling give the birthday boy/girl a small gift.  Although each child gets a big gift from Grant and I on their birthday, they also get a small gift from each of their siblings! The kids love shopping for each other!

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{SIX}

Choose a special activity for the day.  Lily and Liam have summer birthdays, but Dylan and Lexie's birthdays are during the school year.  Quite a few times, they had to go to school on their birthdays. However, the birthday kid gets to pick a special outing on their birthday, whether it be a trip to the park or a trip to the zoo!

specialbirthdayouting

{SEVEN}

Let the birthday kid choose a restaurant where they can have a special birthday dinner. Our rule is this: On your birthday, you get to pick where our family goes out to eat.  The big kids choose actual restaurants, but Lily is still in the Burger King/McDonald's phase.

birthdaydinners

{EIGHT}

Have your own mini party on your actual birthday.  We always end birthdays with cake, ice cream, and the birthday song.  Grandparents always join us!

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{NINE}

Have a Birthday Party with friends and family. Don't go overboard.  I promise the kids won't notice all the details.  We always have a casual party with friends and family for each child's birthday!  It's never anything over the top.  I've learned that the kids have fun no matter what!

birthdayparties

{TEN}

Create a special birthday cake tradition.  Get it from the same place every year, make it yourself, or have a friend or family member make it. My mom makes every single birthday cake for my my kids!

birthdaycakes
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{ELEVEN}

Have a Birthday Party Guestbook.  This is a new tradition that we started last year that turned out to be a hit! I bought a mini notebook for each child, then let each birthday party guest leave a short, meaningful message in the book.  After the party, I stored it in a memory box.

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{TWELVE}

Have a Birthday Photoshoot every year!  My kids get a birthday photoshoot (taken by me) every year to document a new year of life!

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{THIRTEEN}

Start writing a keepsake birthday card or birthday letter to your child. It's a great way to reflect on the year. Every year, on each birthday, I sit down and write a heartfelt letter to my child, while my tears fall. I give a few details about the past year and let my "baby" know just how much they are loved.  Although I now give the cards to Dylan and Lexie to read, the letters/cards from previous years are stored in a box to be given to them when they are older.  I hope one day my kids will read through 18 years of letters and realize how special they are to me and that I will ALWAYS love them.  That's what really matters.

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What kind of birthday traditions does your family have?

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8 comments:

  1. All these traditions are really amazing, I must say! Loved all those adorable photos, as usual. :)

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  2. These are great traditions. All of those photos were so cute! Dylan was so "wittle" in the photo of him wearing the helmet. How cute! I've always wanted to fill my kids' rooms with balloons! Thanks for some great ideas. :) :)

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    1. Thank you! He was so little. I think that was before I started blogging!

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  3. I love the guestbook idea! That is really neat. August is a busy birthday month for us. 5 birthdays within the first 7 days. Mine is august 4 and then our wedding anniversary is august 11. Expensive week for my husband lol.

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  4. I love this post, and it's right on time. Lewie will be GULP...seven!! His birthday is next Tuesday, and I plan on taking the day off from work to make it a special one just for him!!! I love the idea of starting the day with streamers and doughnuts. I just might borrow some of your ideas :)

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