The time of year has officially come where all of my kids have celebrated their birthdays! We have birthdays in August, October, November…and March. It’s kind of fun having all three big kid birthdays in a row, and I’d say we did a pretty great job spreading them out enough that they aren’t all on top of each other :). What’s really funny is that when we had our foster daughters, their birthdays were July and September, so we have had kids have birthdays in July, August, September, October, November…and March. And what’s even funnier than that is that everyone is also in age order from oldest to youngest! So, in 2024, they turned 18 (July), 10 (August), 9 (September), 8 (October), 6 (November) and 1 (March).
It is hard to believe that the little years are slipping away, and we are stepping right into the “big kid years”. We kind of had a great reset with Orion, but overall, everyone sleeps through the night, everyone can walk without a stroller, we can all use the bathroom without assistance and we can all talk and express thoughts, feelings and opinions. I am thoroughly enjoying this stage!
Instead of recapping each individual birthday, I’m just going to recap what we did in this one post! We like to keep birthdays simple, sweet and low-cost.
Tera- 10 years old
Tera requested to go thrifting with me, and we made a morning of it!
Later, she had a handful of friends over. They played with baby bunnies, pulled out a bunch of craft supplies and made some homes for the baby bunnies, did the Saran Wrap ball game, ate some snacks and had some cake. I would say fun was had by all!
Later, we had the grandparents over for dinner and cake and opened our family presents.
Kiah- 8 years old
This year, Kiah’s birthday fell on a Monday! I tried to make the day as fun as possible, but Theo was gone for 12 hours of the day, and we had some difficult homework to work through. Finally, we finished our responsibilities and I took the kids to the dollar store to pick out gifts for Kiah! After the dollar store, we headed next door to Tropical Smoothie Cafe to grab some smoothies for an early lunch snack. We had the grandparents over for dinner that night and did family presents and cake.
The next day was his birthday party, and we left straight from school and went to a local “pump track” park. I had no idea that is what this place was called, but it’s the BMX type bike parks that are popping up everywhere now! This one is free to the public and since it was a chilly Tuesday afternoon, we had it entirely to ourselves for most of the time! We had about 10 boys join us – and once their feet hit the pedals, we pretty much didn’t see them again for 2 full hours! They biked the courses over and over again, and had a BLAST! We stopped for snacks, which they wolfed down and then went off to continue biking!
Ezra- 6 years old
Ezra turned 6! And this was his first year having a friend birthday party. We had about 10 friends stay after school and they hung out on the playground and played Gaga ball and had a blast on the playground. We had snacks and presents and did a couple Theo-led games. That evening when we got home, we had the grandparents over and we did family presents!
Of course, Orion is always along for the ride, and we will have so much fun celebrating him when he turns 2 in March!
Here are some things we try to do to make birthdays feel fun/special:
- Let the child plan their own birthday party
- Take the birthday kid on an outing of their choice without any siblings
- Go to the dollar store and have each sibling buy the birthday child a small present
- Decorate their door with streamers in the morning
- Get donuts or have cinnamon rolls in the morning of their birthday
What are some fun birthday traditions that you have at your house?