I am one of those cray cray moms who loves to plan a birthday party, Pinterest style.

It probably all started when my mom made my birthday a very big deal as a child, and now I am so excited to be the mom!  However, this year with Snowmageddon, I had to cancel my baby’s first birthday party. Poor babe. So I decided to institute some new family traditions and continue some others that I started when my four year old was born too. Here are some of my traditions I wanted to share….and you might want to try!

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Write a letter to your future grown up child

I try really hard to do this once in awhile for both my daughters. I write a letter to them which I plan to give it to them when they are older. I am not sure what age I will give them to my girls, but I have heard of parents giving them to their kids when they are 18 or 16, or when they become a mom themselves. Sometimes it is a short and simple paragraph that describes what they are up to or into…..and sometimes it is like a diary entry. I try to both explain who they are at the current moment, while also sharing what it is like being their mom. I prefer not to sugarcoat it too…..so that when I have to pump at work, or they are struggling to be a mom themselves, they can read this and it will be real.  One friend told me she set up an email account and sends emails to her child.  I used to hand write them and now I do it in Google drive and print them to put in a book.

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Wake up to Something Special

Sneak into your child’s room and put some balloons or flowers up.  Any decorations will work, but again, I like to create and paint, so I like to make a number painting and hang it in my daughter’s rooms.  It was so amazing to see my daughter’s face when her “3” turned into a “4” that morning, like magic!

Make a special birthday card

I love to draw so I like to draw a few of my girl’s favorite things on the cover and then write a special message inside. My mother-in-law likes to decorate the girl’s envelopes with stickers of their favorite things that show what they love.  We have kept these and it has now become a tradition that we enjoy looking at together.  It is fun to see how the girl’s interests have changed as they grow older.  We  will keep these and it will be a tradition to look and see how they have changed.

 Interview Your Child

You can go on Pinterest and find an interview easily, mostly for New Years Eve. Ask your children if they can answer questions about their favorite foods, their favorite friends, and activities. Your baby can’t talk yet? Fill it out for them….my baby’s favorite thing to do is to play with her sister’s headbands and it cracks us up. My guess is it will be fun for her to see that later too!

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Eat from a special plate

My sister-in-law’s family did this, and I think it is so cute! Whenever you are proud of your children, or it is their birthday, they can use the “special plate.”  I know you can buy them here  but you can also make one at a paint-your-own pottery place.

 

What are your family traditions around birthdays?