Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you...

Last week my oldest turned eleven. I spent some time reminiscing about our past birthdays. Birthdays are a big deal in most families.  We spared no expense on the first couple of birthday parties. We even rented horses to come to our house. The kids were so young that they barely remember that particular party. Who are these parties thrown for anyway…the child or the parents? We had 4 children under 4 years old and I can honestly say that I believe we were throwing these elaborate parties to congratulate ourselves for surviving another year.  Our parties started as HUGE family gatherings that involved stressful decisions over the menu, THE CAKE, and the theme of the party.  The event required saving for months.  Years ago, I made an executive decision that I had had ENOUGH.  I realize that this seems hypocritical considering a large part of my business includes birthday invitations but financially it was draining us.  Thanks to incredibly generous grandparents and family members…our kids don’t “want” for much anyway. It’s simple to me…a birthday is about making the child feel special on ‘THEIR’ day.

THE CAKE is always a stressful part of a birthday for me.  I can’t handle the pressure. Thank God my mother stepped up to the plate years ago.  We’ve decorated many a cake over the years…Mickey, a train, a horse, Candyland, a fruit cake, an Xbox remote and the list goes on… Michael’s vote last week was my mother’s infamous cookie cake. Don’t laugh but the picture above is as good as it gets when my mother isn’t in Memphis. Since I’m not a baker, I designed a donut pyramid for his birthday. This may have to be a tradition because they LOVED it! I’m sure that the teachers at school wanted to kill me but my kids were sugared up and happy when they walked out the door to tackle their day…simple pleasures.

For Michael's big day, we hung a balloon wreath on our front door and tied balloons to the ground to alert Riverwood Elementary of a special day in the Speltz household. I received so many texts from mothers as they were picking up their kids from school wishing Michael a happy birthday. (The back of our house faces the school that my kids attend.) I hope it’s the simple things like this that make a birthday memorable for my boys.

I would love to hear of any inexpensive birthday treats or traditions that you do for your family. I try to do something different for all of my kids and creativity can run dry when you have 4.

Here are the links to our birthday labels and I recently created a digital Happy Birthday card that you can print...


Gift Labels
Enclosure Cards
Happy Birthday Printable