A Simple, Yet Fun Birthday Tradition

My children are 3 years and 23 hours apart.

One day I was at Chuck E. Cheese celebrating my daughter turning 3 and the next day I was told if I left the doctor’s office to go home, I needed to carry blankets in the car. Since they were being all melodramatic about it, I decided to go to the hospital. Turns out I really was having a baby that day.

We’re long past the diaper and pacifier stage. This week, these two turned 5 and 8.

Photo Credit: Meg Davidson Photography

I haven’t quite figured out the “best” way to celebrate birthdays that are one day apart.  It seems we just go with what feels good that particular year. Last year they didn’t have a party and we went to the beach instead. This year we had a joint party.

Photo Credit: Meg Davidson Photography

Who knows what next year will bring?

I hope the beach again.

Photo Credit: Meg Davidson Photography

One birthday tradition stays the same though.

I tuck them in and kiss them goodnight and tell them this is the last time I am kissing an “insert their age here” to sleep. *mama sob*

After they are asleep, I sneak in and do this:

That’s right! I get crazy with crepe paper and balloons!

My husband helps too. This year he was on balloon duty.

When my kids wake up, there’s a party in their room!

And they LOVE it! This is one tradition they ask for every year.

This year my daughter’s room got a few extra decorations in the form of some circle banners I made for their joint birthday party. They are simply circles cut from purple computer paper and blue construction paper that I strung on some twine.

I like party decorations that we can actually reuse!

For a few bucks and a lot of hot air, my kids wake up to a magical birthday bedroom. It’s a fun, simple way to make their birthday extra special.

There are fewer pictures of my son’s room because when I took photos, the sun was shining in the front of the house where my daughter’s room is, not his. Also, he got a light saber for his birthday. So, the balloons suffered some early casualties. The streamers lasted about 3 seconds after I took this photo because, of course, my 5-year-old destroyed them with his new light saber. Isn’t that what light sabers are for?

As I was standing in the dark with one foot on the bed frame and one foot on a stool while trying to quietly hang crepe paper, I tried to imagine how many years I’d be doing this. Will I still be decorating their rooms on their 14th birthdays, their 17th birthdays?

I hope so.

I don’t know what the future brings or how long this birthday tradition will last.

What I do know is that next year I will have a 3rd grader and a kindergartener.

Somebody hold me.

Photo Credit: Meg Davidson Photography

I can’t imagine my life without these two. They make my heart burst with happiness. Sometimes they make me want to pull my hair out. But mainly, they help me see the world in a whole new way – through unvarnished eyes filled with hope and joy, wonderment and curiosity, possibility and promise. I feel pretty darn lucky.

I also feel pretty darn lucky that you’ve read this far! So, how about another?

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