Birthday Traditions

 Birthdays are special days themselves, but I try to do something to make them memorable for each of my children. These are some of the things we have done.


Birthday Tablecloth

I've taken a twin size flat white bed sheet and had birthday party guests sign it. To prepare it I wash and dry the sheet and write the child's name and birth year in the center. Before the party of gathering I mark off an area in masking tape and write the child's age and the year in the center of the marked off area before hand. Then I ask guests to write their name in pencil. I try to remember to ask them to write a little larger than a normal signature. After wards I write over everyone's writing with a liquid embroidery pen and then iron over them to making the writing permanent. You can use one color for all the signatures or several colors for a rainbow look.





Cake

Each year I have made my children a decorated cake. Some years they have been more elaborate than others. The style or them depends on their interests or activities for that year. Some cakes have been pianos, castles, cars, rockets, or just shaped with basic decorations. I always take a picture of the birthday child with the cake and that way I am sure to have a picture of them from their birthday. I also try to take a picture of the cake with the number of candles for that year so I can remember when a particular cake was made.

Birthday Meal

We try to go out to eat for each of our birthdays (Mom and Dad included). When we do the birthday person usually gets to choose where we go (within reason, of course). If we aren't able to go out then I try to make the meal the birthday person would like at home.

Because our school schedule has some flexibility to it, we take birthdays off as a school holiday. For a couple years I let the birthday child decide if they wanted to go on a field trip on their birthday. When we did this we explored several different museums. Not quite a field trip, but one year I took my daughter to the American Girl store near our home. She had a great time.

I'm linking up with Home and School Mosaics.