Birthday Traditions

I grew up in a family with many traditions. Many of these traditions surrounded major holidays: tree trims, Father's Day dinners, creamed onions (!) for Thanksgiving...but I don't really remember a lot of kid birthday-related traditions.

We usually had a monthly birthday-fest with all of my cousins to celebrate whoever's birthday had happened recently. My birthday in August was frequently pre-empted by our beach vacation (which I was OK with...the beach is a good thing to be pre-empted by!)

But around here, we have some birthday traditions.

The birthday child wakes up to this:


Wears this:


Usually gets some of these:

And frequently gets to spray some of this:



He/she also gets to pick a restaurant for a dinner out. And chooses a treat.

Tater chose Isaac's for dinner, and Milky Way Farm for ice cream.
He's an excellent decision maker.

We usually have a kid party - although I think we may have just had the last "big bash".

And then there is the family party. Tater's usually includes some sort of water play element - we have a Slip-N-Slide ready to go, if our yard isn't a total swamp. Sprout, with a birthday very close to Halloween, has done costume parties or scavenger hunts.

We call it Birthday-palooza...and I am fairly sure the kids feel adequately celebrated. And if I ever tried to skip even one of the elements...I am fairly sure I'd be in a boatload of trouble!