Happy Birthday Havilah and Joshua (and thoughts on birthday traditions)

It’s hard to believe: the twins are 5 years old today. Wow, time flies. I’m writing this immediately following our traditional breakfast in bed for their celebration.

Ready to go in to serve the twins breakfast.

Every family should have traditions, and there is no better reason for celebration than the gift of an individual life. You probably think we celebrate only the Jeub Birthday Bash [read post about the Birthday Bash here], but we have individual celebrations, too.

These individual celebrations are modest, but uniquely ours. Here is what we do:

Breakfast in bed. We have a “birthday plate” where we scramble up some eggs, pour a glass of milk, and serve the birthday boy/girl in bed. They’re typically awake waiting for the crew to enter singing happy birthday.
Gifts. Mom, Dad and siblings shower the child with gifts. They’re typically items the other children buy at the Dollar Tree earlier in the week.
Phone call from Grandma. This is a tradition started this year. Grandma and Grandpa Jeub (my parents) call and has a conversation with the birthday child.
Dinner choice. The birthday child gets to pick the menu for that evening. The twins collaborated and came up with a 5-year-old favorite: corn dogs and french fries. Mmmm!
Cake and ice cream. Wendy or Cynthia makes a custom cake for an after-dinner snack.

And here’s something that unfolds throughout the entire day. At every time we pray throughout the day–before every meal and at bedtime–we specifically note how thankful we are for the birthday child, and we pray for many more years of blessings for the child.

Lord knows, each child has certainly blessed us!

http://www.everydaychristian.com/ Amy Wingfield

I love it!
That sounds so special and they will always remember these special times.
Amy

http://www.jeubfamily.com Chris & Wendy

Thanks Amy! Some people ask if the Birthday Bash is the only thing we do for our children. Not true. We have a ball on their special day. So thankful for each one of them.

Sarah M. in MI

We don’t do the big birthday bash, but we do combine several birthdays/celebrations at a time (we have 3 in August, 2 in March, 1 by Mother’s Day, 1 by 4th of July, and now a New Year’s baby!)
Then on the day of, I make sure they have a little cake to celebrate.
I like how you guys make your children feel so special.
http://www.primarq.com Rick Heggem

What lovely traditions. Ours are a little different, but there is no doubting their importance and value. Thanks for sharing.
http://www.familyofseven.com Family of Seven

That’s a great tradition! We don’t serve breakfast in bed, but we do let the birthday child pick the menu…it was interesting when it was our 3 year old’s b-day, cuz all she wanted for dinner was “purple and green”!! LOL
Amy Craddock

We have always tried to make birthdays very special so we have a long list of things we do.
The birthday person eats whatever was requested (or if not requested, just something I know they like) specially on the red “You are Special” plate for all meals.
I make crowns until their tenth birthday with something on it they are interested in such as cowboy would have a bandana, horseshoes, horses and hat; tea party, butterflies, bugs, race cars, army, bowling, soccer, golf, ultimate frisbee, etc. The list has been long with 5 children and the last will be 10 next fall. I measure the head, draw the crown on card stock, color it, cut out a pattern on top and tape the two ends together. Each crown has the name and age on it: soccer the 8 was two balls, tea party had a 4 in the steam, golf had a 9 on the flag.
The person has presents put up on the mantle the week before. I don’t schedule school for them on their special day.They can play, read or sleep. We do something fun together as a family on their day: bowling, Scottish Festival, hike, play tennis, golf, special movie, games. We sing our own version of the song, “happy birthday to you; God’s blessings on you; we love you, we dear Archer; happy birthday to you!”
We don’t do sleepovers, but on the 13th bday the child may invite a few guests up to our only weekend we have the main camp of our lake in the mountains during the summer. They canoe, hike, sleep in adjoining rooms, fish, play horseshoes and have a blast.
Amy Pederson

Our traditions sound similar to yours, Jeub family! The birthday child picks out their meals for the day and if they stay in bed long enough (half do, half are too excited and get up extra early) we take them breakfast in bed while singing “Happy Birthday”. The little kiddos make birthday cards and wrap special gifts (meaning home made) for the birthday child, the older children usually have a gift in hand several weeks in advance. Mom & Dad give the child an option for their birthday. If they would like to do something as a family (for example: bowling, go out to a movie, special dinner out, etc.) that is their gift. We have a certain dollar amount for each child, so they can choose to spend it on an outing or a gift. This works great for the little ones who don’t need any more stuff but would like to do something fun. We have their special evening meal and whatever dessert they have picked out for the night. Some choose pie, cheesecake, cupcakes, decorated birthday cake, homemade ice cream and the like. We try to sing “Happy Birthday” as many times as we can throughout the day. If we are at home, not on an outing, we will have a balloon popping contest. We blow up an entire bag or two of balloons and divide the kids into several teams. They must pop the balloons by sitting on them and whichever team finishes their stack first wins. The kids love it, really get into it and we raise the roof with all the laughter.

Thanks for posting this question. I look forward to reading about traditions from other families.