Monday, March 17, 2008

Question of the Week - Birthday Traditions

As I told you all before, I took off on the Pumpkin's birthday and took her to the zoo. We had so much fun looking at the birds (she would get this excited look on her face, point and bounce, and say "bur"), visiting the elephants, watching the hippo, seeing the tigers play and observing the gorillas and orangutans. It was nice weather and good exercise for Mama.

We had so much fun, I started thinking that maybe I would do this every year. I will definitely take off work every year on her birthday and maybe we'd do the zoo every year. I think I'm going to make that her birthday tradition!

Question of the Week:
What is your favorite birthday tradition?

It could be one that your parents or friends did for you, something you do with your kids, or even something you read and think is a great idea.

I think mine is going to be a day off and a trip someplace cool, like the zoo, for the Pumpkin. But one I read about in Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, by Rebecca Wells, that I loved was that the mother would wake the kid up on his or her birthday with a cake in their bed for breakfast. I just thought that was so cute and a great way to make that kid feel special.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

mum used to let us choose the family meals for the day. being the adventurous girl i was, pancakes in the morning. Then bacon and chicken nuggets for dinner. being a picky eater, this tradition had tremendous value for me. yummmmy.

and come birthday time, for my little one i plan to do the same. although i'd like to start a couple traditions as well.

Becoming Mommy said...

We used to be able to pick our own cake type and meals until Mom went on a health kick. Since then, it's been very dissapointing because she still asks what you want. You ask for bien me sabe and you end up with some whole wheat and apple thing with loads and loads of wheat germ in it. Very disappointing.

I also like the "Everybody Loves Raymond" tradition of a birthminute kiss. And since Sasha was born at 1330, it's a decent hour too. I definitely plan on doing that.

Anonymous said...

My mom always did a muffin cake for breakfast on your birthday. This is basically muffins but being too lazy to make them individually. haha

I didn't do that for Boog this past year but maybe next year. I do like the idea of taking his birthday off. This past year it was on a Saturday so their was no need. With it being between Christmas and new year's though I will probably already be taking those days off.

sheSaidC2 said...

we don't really have any in our family... we have a cake tray that plays happy birthday... and I cried every birthday party I ever had for the first 18 years :)

The gilmore girls had one, the mom would come in at the time she was born and wake her up and tell her the story of her birth, I thought having a birthday tradition like that would be cool.

Karen said...

I have finally, finally convinced my husband that I do not want gifts for my birthday, so instead we go away for a day or an overnight, just the two of us. I love that.

OneTiredEma said...

My mom used to say or call me up the night BEFORE my birthday and say "I can't believe that x number of years ago I was in labor with you!" (I apparently was a 24 hr labor. But given the kind of labors I've had, my mom was kind of a pansy, LOL.)

I seem to recall choosing what I wanted for dinner and my mom always made a cake (either for my bday party, when I had them, or a bday dinner).

Our tradition seems to be cupcakes...

- Dana said...

All this talk about the zoo - I'm so excited to go soon!!!

Last year we had Ariafest 2007 and it had an Oktoberfest theme since it was one of the last days of Oktoberfest. That was a lot of fun and I think we'll have an Ariafest every year but, it will probably change from us celebrating that we made it through the year to totally focusing on what out little girl would like to do. One thing is for sure, it will be an Ariafest :-)

Growing up I had my favorite cake and dinner. It was angle food cake with strawberries and chinese chicken salad - a perfect summer combo! It's cute because my mom still makes this meal when we see her sometime around my b-day.

La folle maman said...

Wow. I think I'm going to call my mother up tomorrow and tell her how lame she is. I don't remember her doing anything for my birthday other than the usual cake and a present or two. Which is of course plenty since some kids aren't so fortunate. But darn! What gives, MOM!

Not sure what I'm going to do for lil' Monkey or any future siblings he may have. Definitely want him to look back fondly about SOMETHING. Luckily, I have little under 3 months to think of one!

Anonymous said...

The only thing I can think of is, my mom will call me up and sing..

Pre 50 Cent:
"Today is your birthday, da-na-na-na-na-na-na, It's my birthday too yeah."

Post 50 Cent:
"Go shorty it's your birthday,
we gonna party like it's your birthday..."

Also, she always made my favorite cake, yellow cake with homemade chocolate icing. YUM!!

I will definitely be taking the Main Man's birthday off from work each year and doing something fun with him. And baking him a cake/cupcakes, yellow cake with homemade chocolate icing of course!

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