Birthday balloons

Photo courtesy of flickr user sadalit

It was just a few days after President’s Day when I ventured out of the house to run errands. There were no sales at the stores (in my honor), the government offices were not closed, and I did not receive an invitation to the Royal Wedding of Prince William. The day was only special to me because it was my birthday. It was a milestone birthday, one that was a multiple of three, and divisible by five.

I stopped at a clothing store just to browse and maybe treat myself to a new outfit. I spotted a couple of dresses that were 60 percent off. Wow, I couldn’t pass that up. The only problem was that the dresses were in a size that I used to wear.

I tried the dresses on anyway, just in case they “ran big” or maybe there was an off chance that I had lost a couple of pounds. All I can say is that those fitting room mirrors have got to be trick mirrors. I looked for hidden cameras to confirm that I wasn’t on some reality show. I put the dresses back on the rack and continued my journey.

Birthdays can be a fun time for celebration. After I was done laughing at myself, I thought about how I could involve the family in my celebration. From my talkative son, I asked for 30 minutes of quiet time. Another request was for one day of the kids doing chores without being asked. I could make this a family tradition.

Whether it’s your birthday or one of the kids birthday, you can start a tradition of fun ways to celebrate. Family birthday tradition ideas are listed at kidsparties.com. Families shared the following traditions:
• The Stormoens family hides the birthday child’s gifts and leaves a poem telling where to find each gift.
• The Coffey family makes it a day of favorites. The birthday person gets his or her favorite meal for dinner, their favorite cake and wears a favorite article of clothing.
• The Voitl family celebrates with lots of balloons. The birthday person’s room is decorated with balloons and streamers so he wakes up to a celebration room. Get creative with banners, streamers and ribbons. Take a family photo to savor the moment.
• The Fulmer family creates a birthday journal book. They have a party and have friends and family write a birthday message and also record gifs.

One of my favorite birthday traditions is to have dinner with my family at a restaurant where wait staff yell out to everyone that it’s your birthday. They hand you your dessert and sing their version of happy birthday. It’s usually a ton of laughs.

Do you have a family birthday tradition?

Angela Verges is a writer and mother of two. She can be reached at awritersdream41@yahoo.com.