🤠 How To Celebrate With Your Kids and Learn Something Important

Day 63: Happy Birthday Mommy!

by Edward Smith

06 Sept 2020

Celebrate With Your Kids

If you read my last article entitled 🤠  How To Make Birthday's Happy Without Expensive Toys, you would have read about how we spent my wife's 40th birthday celebration.   We did things with intention, and my wife had a great day because we made it meaningful.   

My kids though, made it even better for her.   That's what happens when you include your kids.   If you have kids.  Include them.  This is how my kids stepped up and made my wife's birthday better.  I couldn't have done it without them.

Quality Moments Are Made Better With Kids

On the day of my wife's special celebration, my oldest kid woke me up and whispered he wanted to surprise his mom and make the day really special.   So we let my wife sleep in, we crept downstairs and we pulled out a paper crown kit that we had purchased for one of my kid's birthdays last year.   

There were still some extra crowns in the package, so my eldest asked if he could decorate one.   He spent the morning coloring the crown and had it waiting for my wife when she came downstairs.   For the entire day she got to sit around the house as a queen in a crown that her son had built.   

Giving the Gift of a Family Tradition

My youngest son reminded me to hang up the Happy Birthday sign that we've hung up on every birthday since we've moved into this house.   It's turned into a family heirloom of sorts.  I imagine it might be hung in one of my son's house's later on.  

It's become a family tradition around here.   The sign only cost a couple of dollars when we first bought it, but it's worth a lot more then that now.   We usually hang it up on the day of the event, and it might get displayed for an entire week.   

In our house birthdays can last as long as Hanukkah.  Whenever we look up and see the birthday sign we smile, because it reminds us of the good moment we all shared as a family.  It's something fun, and it reminds you to keep having fun.

Pizza Time!

For lunch I was sent out to the grocery store to pick up birthday supplies, and to this really great pizza parlor near our house.   My wife got the single serve chocolate indulgence cake that she wanted, and the boys and I split up a round of chocolate and vanilla cupcakes that we wanted.   

For pizza, my wife likes a pineapple and Canadian bacon style pizza, and we go for the meat lovers pizza with sausage, hamburger, and ham.   

I really like this plan, because the local restaurants have had it pretty tough around here.  It was our chance to help one of them out, and to enjoy a good meal at home.   

The whole thing was pretty glorious.    When you don't do something all of the time, it becomes more special and important when you do it.  You stop taking it for granted.   

Birthday Containers Contain Joy!

There is this joke that parents tell.   It's about how their kid received this super expensive one of a kind toy for their birthday.  The kid then spent the majority of the month playing with the box that the toy came in while ignoring the toy itself.    

After dinner, my wife's special pots and pans arrived.  It was pretty cool.   The whole family got involved.  My wife was giddy with joy because she finally got to own the set of pots she always wanted.

That made them matter more to both of us.   They were no longer just pots.   They were "the" pots.

We had spent the last ten years using the pots we got when we were first married.   They work.  We're not complaining, but over those ten years we had said no to a lot of things, and this time we wanted to say yes to something that we really wanted.   So we decided to use this moment as the moment.

My kids were giddy because the pot set came in a huge box with bubble wrap and they got to play in the box and pop the bubbles and make lots of noise.  

They even built a cat house out of the box so that my cat would have somewhere to live.   Apparently my house cat has had it pretty rough up to this point.   Luckily she now owns a house.   

Conclusion

That's how you win at birthdays.   Birthdays don't have to be complicated.   Meaning doesn't have to be expensive.  

In my wife's case, we did buy some pots, and the pots cost money.   I'm not ignoring that.   The thing with these pots though, is they weren't impulsive.  This idea didn't just show up today.  This was something my wife had wanted for ten years.   We spent ten years not buying them.   

Since we paid the price ahead of time, we were able to do it.  

That being said, the pots weren't necessary.   My kids could have made a card for my wife and she would have been equally as happy.   

Her favorite memories from the day were how her kids acted like goof balls and enjoyed spending time with her.  She was very touched by the paper crown.   She became excited when she saw the birthday sign.   

She got to be a kid again and was made to feel special by those that care about her.     The stuff we bought online was just a nice bonus.  Like the icing on the cake.   We like the icing.   It tastes great.  

Birthdays can be fun.  They should be fun, but don't worry about spending money to make them fun.  

Keep them simple.   Keep the person in the spotlight.   Give them attention, and remind them that they are important.   That's what the day is celebrating.  That's how you make birthdays, great days.  Make birthdays great days today.