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| The Fairy Piñata! |
This week is my 7th birthday so I wanted to make a "Birthday Challenge" and since Books for Walls Project is about telling our stories I want to ask all of you readers about your birthday memories and traditions --to tell me a story about birthdays!!
The Mom and I will tell you first about one of our traditions!
The fairy piñata (see the picture!) that we made many years ago --usually piñatas get smashed to bits, but the fairy is special, she is a pull string piñata and so we fill it up and then get to reuse it over and over! We made her 6 years ago for The Big Sister's 5th birthday which also happened to be our first Mice and Beans Birthday party.
The Big Sister found the book Mice and Beans by Pam Munoz Ryan which is about a grandmother getting ready for her granddaughter's birthday. Thanks to the wonderful story one of our birthday party traditions is to serve rice, beans, fresh cilantro-corn salsa and tortillas --no matter how many people come to the party there is always enough! This year the Little Sister is celebrating her 7th birthday, just like the little girl in the story. There is nothing like a Mice and Beans Birthday!
In the comments below tell us stories about birthdays, traditions, memories... have fun, tell the Little Sister and the Books for Walls Project Readers a story!
We have some very fun traditions around here... where to begin?
ReplyDeleteHow about with reading a book? The Bean made each of The Sisters a personalized copy of On the Day You Were Born by Debra Frasier --complete with pregnant Mommy photos and newborn pictures. In the weeks leading up to birthdays we bring out the books and "ohhhh and ahhhh" over how cute they are as babies. It always reminds us what our BIRTHday is really all about.
Each year on my birthday I spend some time by myself and re-read my journal (which I write in as often as possible) and then begin a new one --I try to write down things I want to remember from the previous year to start off my new year remembering all the highlights and focus on all the good! This year will be interesting, I am turning 40, I am already on the lookout for my new journal!
I can't remember how old I was when I read "Island of the Blue Dolphins", but it made me feel like I could do anything on my own. I should re-read it. Happy birthday to you, dear! You can do anything!
ReplyDeleteA table surrounded by my sister and other little friends with party hats, decorations, and lots of smiles…my mother (the Sisters’ great gramma, Madge) always made birthdays very special like The Mom. My mom or Annie (my Nannie) would bring in the candle-lite cake turning my eyes into mirrors reflecting the glow both inside and out.
ReplyDeleteOne year when I was about 7 or 8, I remember having a magician give a show in our home. Was that his finger that was “cut off” in the “magic box”…it didn’t seem to hurt him and besides, it grew back on! Was I amazed!
So Little Sister, be amazed and de-“light”-ed both inside and out by the love that surrounds YOU!
PS My friends’ mothers would attend as well wearing dresses, nylons, heels, and of course, proper hats of the day! :-)
Happy 7th!
ReplyDeleteI don't really have any personal birthday traditions, other than to be surrounded by family and, if I have a choice, I like tacos for my birthday dinner.
Happy Birthday Sonja!!!
ReplyDeleteSince my birthday falls between Christmas and New Years we normally don't do anything special since everyone is worn out from the Holiday season.
The tradition for the past 4 years has been my Mother and Step-Father come down to Virginia and spend 4-5 days with us to celebrate Christmas, New Years, and my birthday.
This past year we all went out to a local Japanese Steak House. They prepare all your food on a big grill that is in the middle of your table. While the chef cooks your meal, he will make jokes and do tricks that involve large flames and towers of steaming food.
When he is all done making the food, he chops up some cooked shrimp and flings them in the air and you try to catch it with your mouth. My daughter Lacey didn't want to try, but she had a great time laughing at us trying to catch the shrimp.
I hope your birthday will be as memorable as my last one.
Auntie Margie was born the day before Valentine's Day so Nana and Bapa had heart themed birthdays for me until I was old enough to ask for butterfly and Holly Hobbie themed parties. : ) My own tradition started with the red and pink and hearts I found on my birthday as a little girl (one time hanging from the ceiling, many sizes!) I celebrate love on my birthday. I wear red (and sometimes pink!). My last birthday Uncle Jeff and I had a romantic dinner with a small group of close friends. The candles were on my birthday cake and everywhere you looked around the house. I like to remind myself every birth anniversary that "All you need is love."
ReplyDeleteOne thing I just learned! One of my favorites when I was little - Holly Hobbie - is a real person,an AUTHOR not just a character in a book. Holly Hobbie wrote...drumroll please....the Toot and Puddle books too! Check it out. That's pretty cool.
Now that we're all older, my sisters and I have birthweeks - we start celebrating 4-5 days early and we make it last for a day or two after our birthdays.
ReplyDeleteWe don't necessarily do anything big, but during birthweek the birthday girl gets to make all of the decisions - you get to decide what's for dinner (or where to go out to eat), what movies to watch, whether to go for a walk or read a book, etc. The birthday girl (or boy) decides it all.
Happy Birthday Sonja!
I used to try to hide (really) from my own birthday parties. I was just too shy to enjoy being the center of attention. But since marrying The Bean, the joy of birthdays (birthWEEKS too!) she has done for The Mom and Margie and Chris give me joy in recalling. I can't forget the first birthday cakes for Matrgie, and The Mom, and Chris, because their cake was put on their highchair tray, and they were invited to do whatever they wanted with the cake before it was cut. Margie was a neatnik, but eventually enjoyed exploring the gooey frosting with her dainty fingers, but needed our help to discover its taste. When her little sister The Mom was given the same opportunity a year and a half later, Margie gently took her hand and showed her the ropes, just as Big Sister does with Little Sister now! And OH! The ice cream cakes that the Fairies make with The Mom's pans, and somehow are able to hide in the freezer! There's no hiding in the little house in the woods on birthdays!
ReplyDeleteI have the two best birthday memories ever. I saw both my girls come in to ths world. The happiest days of my life were their first days. Every day there after I have been given a gift, the joy of being Dad, Daddy, DeyDey. Thank you Little sister for deciding to be my daughter. I love you happy birthday.
ReplyDeleteThe birthday tradition that springs to mind is not actually about MY birthday-for many years I have made my littlest sister a Fall Cake. A special carrot cake recipe with cream cheese frosting and decorated with just turning color leaves and a dusting of nutmeg over the surface of the cake. She began returning the favor in the form of my favorite Angel Food cake. Showing our love for each other by taking care to concoct something delicious.
ReplyDeleteWhile growing up, my family always told stories about the day you were born. It was great for me because three of my siblings remember the event. I never get tired of hearing the story of my mother holding me up to the window from the second story of the hospital for my brothers and sisters to see me. Kids weren't allowed in the maternity ward then...things were starting to change, though. I was the only baby my Dad saw born.
ReplyDeleteI try to keep this habit for my own children. Who doesn't love to hear the story of their birth over and over again?? Cake comes in second, of course. Always trying out new, potential traditions, too. Like birthday crowns...
Wonderful ideas to start traditions in our family from all of you, thanks :)
ReplyDeleteI don't remember my own birthdays as much as the birthday parties I went to as a child, they used to be a party for the whole families, it wasn't like these days where parents drop off their children and pick them up 3 hours later. Back then parents would stay at the party to chat, talk about kids (trics and trades I imagine) and get to know the parents of the friends of your kids. There were always many children running around, my favourite parties were in the parks, we would play for hours (it seemed that way), some parents would organize games with ballons, the sac race, with ropes, the spoon and egg walk, etc. After that came the piñata, some times there were up to 4 of them, for the little ones, the medium ones, the big ones and the parents too! They were filled up with fruit, candies and little toys, when I was litte they still made them out of a clay pot, lined with several coats of newspaper and home made glue, finally decorated with colored papers to give any shape one desires: a house, a princess, a carrot, a bunny, a car, etc.
To be the one that broke it was a big pride, it was rare to have an accident, I don't remember any, but I recall to be pushed off by the older ones when it was time to pick up the gifts from the floor. Then we had some lunch, usually little buns filled up with "mole" and chicken or ham and cheese, a jello and fruit juice or water. Finaly, the cake, singing the traditional "las mañanitas" and blowing off the candles. The birthday kid was always radiant, king or queen for the day, tons of presents to open up later from all the guests, and when it was time to leave, we all got a little present from the hostess, usualy hand made, a purse, a jar decorated with an animal or a clown, and always filled up again, with more candy :). It was a celebration for everyone and everybody got presents, it was truely joyful.