Welcome to Birthday Week 2012 at Simple Scrapper! This Wednesday my daughter turns one and you’re invited to celebrate all week long.
We’re kicking off Birthday Week 2012 with a giveaway for a print copy of Everyday Storyteller. This 81 page idea book is now in the hands of hundreds of scrapbookers around the world. Here’s what one of them had to say:
“I want to let you know that I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Everyday Storyteller book. I bought the ebook version, and end up printing the whole book. It is what I call a timeless reference, an inspirational book. This book presents in a artful way, how to collect pieces and details of life.” – Glory
To win your own print copy of Everyday Storyteller, leave a comment below by 11:59pm CDT today, August 13, 2012 in response to the prompt below. Comments not adhering to this instruction will be deleted. Sorry, this giveaway is open to United States and Canada residents only.
To enter the giveaway, respond to this prompt in your comment below:
Share your favorite birthday tradition.
This giveaway is closed. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, August 15.
Ever since I can remember, my dad took pictures at every event, especially birthdays. Because of this, I have very few pictures of my dad. My birthday tradition is to take lots and lots of pictures and get pictures of myself celebrating as well.
Our birthday tradition is that the birthday boy/girl decides what kind of cake we’ll have: ice cream, homemade, bakery favorite, etc. I even celebrate mine with my favorite fresh blueberry pie!
Our birthday tradition is to celebrate ON THE DAY! Birthday parties have to be on the birth day!
I have always had cheesecake on my birthday, since I was about 11 or so….complete with candles (though, since I’m well past candles all fitting on a single cheesecake that isn’t the size of a small car, we have gone to a single candle!)
chocolate cake, of course!
I have two events for my birthday. The first is getting dressed up and having dinner with my husband at one of my favorite resturants. The second is a girls night out with my friends. I enjoy both of these traditions and we have a great time.
My dear Mom (73) calls me first thing on my birthday – every.single.year for over 50 years, and she sings the Happy Birthday to You song. It makes me smile every year. Happy Birthday to your dd!
My husband takes me out to a fancy French restaurant. It reminds me of a wonderful trip to France we took many years ago when we were newly married, before the kids came.
Our tradition is to let the birthday person pick whatever they want for dinner. When the kids were little, it could be a bit wacky like lucky charms and laffy taffy with a side of jello jigglers—lol. Now that they have grown, it is usually family favorites like steak on the grill. or mom’s homemade spaghetti sauce and cheesy garlic bread–yummy!
Our favorite birthday tradition is that the boys get to choose the restaurant and then Baskin Robbins for dessert!
In our family we always call the birthday person on the morning of their day and sing Happy Birthday on the phone! No introduction just start singing when they say hello. Depending how many people are around it can be in harmony too!. If necessary we leave it on the message machine!
We have some adult friends who look forward to hearing us sing every year.
We ALWAYS go out to eat to celebrate birthdays at whatever restaurant the birthday celebrant chooses!
Ever since I was little, the family tradtion of the birthday boy/girl (there are 6 kids on a single income family, mind you) was to have a friend join us on the day of our birthday for dinner and cake. We got to specify our favorite meal, main dish and sides, as well as the ice cream that went into the angle food cake! Yummy! Now that we are older and have kids of our own, we all gather once a month at my parents house for dinner and cake (but now we celebrate all the birthdays in that month… and boy is september a busy month–9 total!). we collaberate on what meal will be served. usually we all want the same thing, so that’s not a big issue. dinner is followed by cake and presents. one gift at a time. 🙂 Although it has modified over the years (since childhood), it is still wonderful to select the meal we eat to celeberate our special day! 🙂 Oh and presents are ONLY OPENED AFTER CAKE, in the evening!
My favorite tradition as a child was picking my party theme with my mom and seeing the awesome cake she was able to make for it. My current favorite, though, is heading out to dinner with my husband and boys to celebrate mine and my husbands birthdays (they are just a few days apart)!
My favorite birthday tradition is the “frivolous wish” tradition in our family. When you blow out your candles, you make your true wish. And most of us make a wish each year following along the lines of family health, wellness, etc. Something to protect and care for those we love. But the FRIVOLOUS wish is the one you get when you make the first cut of the cake! Something you want just for yourself. 🙂 My boys are young, but we are starting to teach them about the frivolous wish. It’s one way we are teaching them to know the difference between a frivolous desire and a true wish– and to remember that when you make a true wish, it should be one that counts.
My older daughter and her younger daughter were born on the same date. On the Sunday closest to their birthdays, I bake 2 cakes, one chocolate for my granddaughter, and one white cake for my daughter (she doesn’t like chocolate). They get to choose the dinner menu, but my daughter graciously lets the little one pick her favorites.
My dad calls and sings a backward version of the Casey Jones “Happy Happy Birthday” song.
As the kids get older they get to pick the dinner and cake of their choice (my 16 year old son picked my Rum Cake this year!). REALLY big days (like turning 21) are celebrated with a special dinner at a Brazilian Steakhouse
Our family tradition has been to hide all their gifts. Our kids loved having a treasure hunt! Thanks for the giveaway opportunity!
Today is my birthday! 🙂
My sister always calls me and sings a Marilyn Monroe -esq Happy Birthday song to me. If I don’t answer the phone, she still sings it on my message.
growing up – we would get to choose what we wanted for dinner on our birthday – including the type of cake. My baby brother always wanted hot dogs, my middle sister wanted steak, I remember requesting angel food cake with the colored “sprinkles” in it. happy memories.
My husband and son share the same birthday, Nov. 1. So, every year, we celebrate their birthdays together. A shared cake and family celebration. It’s my favorite tradition because I get to celebrate with my two best guys on the same day!
We have the same tradition as some others who have posted. We start the day with a phone call (all our kids are grown with kids of their own, and all our extended family lives away) in which we both immediately sing, “Happy Birthday.” When our son-in-law first heard it, he commented on how fast we sing it. I told him that long-distance calls used to be rare and expensive, so we had to speed it up. Now we speed it up just for the fun of it. It is a “small” thing, but it is a small thing that is expected each birthday. Thanks for the chance to win this great book I have been ogling. : )
Now that my kids are older and have moved to their own homes, it is more difficult to get together. But birthdays are special. We make definite plans to have a family dinner with the birthday person’s favorite cake as dessert. I look forward to our clan’s birthdays!
Two favorite traditions:
1 – The ‘birthday fairy’ always comes in the middle of the night and decorates the birthday child’s bedroom door – streamers, balloons, paper flowers, etc.
2 – My kids are 21, 19, and 9 – a new tradition that was started by my oldest children is to decorate the house/party area for their little sister every year. I purchase/make all the supplies (they help too) then the day before the party I keep my daughter occupied and the older ones go to town with the decorations.
Our family birthday tradition is to have a cake and meal of your choice!
We always have cake with the appropriate number of candles on the day of the birthday no matter what other celebrations we have planned. And it doesn’t matter how many candles there are supposed to be, they all go on the cake!
Growing up, the tradition in my family was always cake plus your meal of choice for dinner. We’ve done that now for the past 4 years with my kids. Mostly it’s meant hot dogs and mac & cheese but hey – it’s their day!
Our tradition for our birthdays is to pick a restaurant and have the family join in to celebrate each others’ birthdays. We also give a gift that is something that the birthday person would like.
My fave birthday tradition is getting a photo of the birthday kid beside or (blowing out) his/her Dairy Queen decorated ice-cream cake! LOL. Thanks for the chance to win! 🙂 Sounds like an AWESOME book!
Family dinner together – they choose the meal we make and eat together at home. Now that they are grown, they tell many friends about our tradition. Home made lasagne, tacos and many others have been enjoyed for lots of years with our 5 children, all now adults!
Of course as we become older we do not celebrate our birthdays as when younger!!! But the tradition I have always loved is that the birthday person gets to pick their favorite meal and of course the flavor of cake. But the best part of the celebration is to perserve those memories with photos and/or scrapbook pages.
Like many of the others, our tradition is for the birthday person to choose the dinner. One time my husband chose Ceasar salad with croutons. That was it. No meat!
When my daughter was turning 1, I bought a fabulous birthday hat, the cone kind, with feathers and glitter, and the elastic strap that goes under your chin. We took her picture in that hat, and have done so every year for12 years now. The chin strap no longer fits and the hat looks tiny on her head, but we love our tradition and she gets a kick out of seeing her age progression when we put all the pictures together!
Thanks for the chance and enjoy your little one’s big day!
Homemade ice cream is my favorite tradition! It’s actually a tradition with my husband’s family – every year when he grew up his dad would make him ice cream on his birthday. We got our own ice cream machine when we got married and we each get to pick our favorite flavor to make on our birthdays.
Birthday cake, decorated according to your specific instructions and meal of your choice 🙂
My favorite birthday tradition, ever since I moved away from home, is to stay home (at least in the early evening 🙂 ) and wait for the phone calls from family. I treasure those. Now that I have a family of my own, I still carry on that tradition for myself.
When I was growing up, it was always the tradition for the birthday girl/boy to have their favorite cake. Mine is/was baked Alaska with butter pecan ice cream. Yum!
Since my son was born, my dh has taken off work the week that includes my son’s birthday. We call it, simply, “Birthday Week”. We do all kinds of family stuff like miniature golf, eating pizza out, staying up late and watching movies, etc… including a birthday party. We’ve made some wonderful memories during “birthday week,” and it certainly adds pages to the birthday album! LOL!
-Rhonda
First birthdays are so exciting! Happy birthday to your daughter! And how sweet of you to give US gifts! I have 2 older brothers who were born on the same day, but 2 years apart. One year (oh about 30 years ago!) I stayed with my aunt while my mother set up the party, and my aunt took ME shopping and got ME a present on THEIR birthday! SCORE!!!
Thank you for all of the wonderful freebies and tutorials. I would love to win a copy of the book because my three daughters and I have been venturing into scrapping for the last year and a half and I need all of the help I can get!
Thank you again, I hope your daughters birthday is fantastic!
Cake and ice cream…all the way!
We rarely eat out on birthdays, but since I can remember we’ve always celebrated birthdays with the birthday boy or girl picking out what they want for dinner on their big day. We did this growing up and it’s something we still do today in my little family of three. Thanks so much for the chance. I’ve heard so many good things about this book.
Now that my kids are grown I have started a new birthday tradition of treating myself to at least one day, 12 or more hours, of scrapping. It is always a crop or retreat that someone else is organizing (I get no scrapping done at the ones I head up!) and away from home (where I also get very little done). It’s planned “me” time to do what I love!
Our family tradition is to make the entire day special for the birthday person. He/she gets to choose dinner, the type of cake, and then we celebrate with gifts. Photos are taken in the same spot every year, and we just have a good time together. Growing up my grandmother insisted that we have a Carvel cake (ice cream). Our family joke is that you don’t age another year unless you have a Carvel cake! Happy Birthday to your daughter!
Happy Birthday!!! My favorite tradition is relatively new, being born in the Summer, I love to go on a picnic to celebrate!
In our family, we always take a photo of the birthday girl (or guy, in my husband’s case) in front of the birthday flag in the front of our house. Then that person gets to pick their favorite restaurant for dinner.
We always take a lot of pictures at the birthday parties. We love to do the milestones parties on everyone.
I call family members and special friends and sing Happy Birthday. I also make a special card just for the birthday person. I didn’t think it really matter to most, but found out differently when I missed calling one year, and sent store bought cards.
My favorite birthday tradition is the way my mom made birthdays special in little ways – balloons, streamers, getting to choose the dinner menu, the cake flavor and color, answering the phone every time it rang. Nothing that cost much money, but everything that made the day special!
My favorite birthday tradition is going out for dinner to theh restaurant the birthday person in our family picks. Then, at home, have a small cake or cupcake to blow out the candles…just the 4 of us (my husband, my 2 boys and myself).
Pick out the kind of cake-(Chocolate ,of course), & have the party Dinner at a restaurant & CakE & Ice Cream At home.
Always commereate each birthday with photos. Just a way to see how we have changed in a years time. Fun to look back and see how each was celebrated.
We always look forward to the free dinner we get on our birthdays at a local restaurant. We don’t go out for dinner a lot so it is a special treat for the birthday person!
We don’t have any big birthday traditions. Mostly, the birthday-person gets to pick what he/she wants for dinner.
We don’t have much for traditions surrounding birthdays – we’re kind of every thing goes type people. But for sure the birthday person picks what we have for dinner that night. (This does not work out so well in my favor with the 2 year old wants JUST cotton candy. We then instituted a “well balanced” rule in there.) Thanks for the chance!
I always decorate the doorway of the birthday child with balloons, streamers, anything and everything goes, while he/she is asleep so when they wake up they feel very special and loved even more 🙂
Our fave tradition is to put up birthday streamers, balloons and photos of the birthday person in the doorways of the house. The kids always ask if this is going to happen.
While I will not tell my age here, my husband has put candles on my cake for many years and I’m always somewhere in my 30’s. : )
My favorite tradition is to make it a birthday week for family and friends.
Our birthday tradition is birthday cake and singing Happy Birthday as a family.
One of our families favorite birthday tradition is picking out a sugary cereal of choice from breakfast! My kids think they died and went to heaven because I never buy that kind of cereal the rest of the year!
There’s a birthday tradition my father and I have shared for the last 30+ years (I’m now 63.) We both love a deep chocolate cake (started out being a Devil’s Food cake but now the chocolatier the better) with a Seven-Minute Icing. For years we did the make the icing in a double boiler but now we’ve both found easier methods to get the same results. Egg whites are required! My birthday is January 1 and my father makes the cake for me. His birthday is May 30 when it’s my turn to cook.
I would love the hard copy of the book although I’ve already got the PDF so I’m good either way.
Our birthday tradition is that you get to pick what you want for dinner and you always always always have a carvel ice cream cake. always. My grandmother started this and now it’s passed down to my kids. Thanks for the chance at the book. I have the digi but I would LOVE a print copy too. It’s awesome!
My favorite birthday tradition is that everyone shows up for at least cake and ice cream. This is one of the times the whole family can at least visit with each other for a few minutes. Everyone is grown up and everyone has so much going on their lives, it’s hard to get everyone together except for holidays. This just makes it so we can see each other a little more during the year. Thanks for the chance to win!
I would love to get my hands on that book!! My favorite birthday tradition is the birthday person getting their favorite foods all day! For my last birthday I got French toast breakfast in bed and shrimp scampi linguine with bruschetta for dinner!
My favorite birthday tradition is something I did with my children.We would do scavenger hunts complete with clues and presents.To this day my son is 28 and still wants to do a hunt for his birthday!lol
Our favorite birthday tradition is that the birthday boy/girl gets to pick the meal of their choice! Years ago i always picked pizza and beer! I’d love this book in my hands!
I always remember growing up that my grandmother would take each of the grandkids out on their birthday for a nice dinner and we always got to pick out an outfit…I always looked forward to this special time with her.
I have two favourite birthday traditions I’d like to share with you. One is from my childhood – and since my parents died when I was 14, one that is very precious to me. We are Scottish and the tradition in Scotland (for birthdays and other special occasions) is that you bake a Dumpling (a fruit cake essentially) and put coins into it. It’s always exciting to see what lies hidden in your slice of dumpling!!
The other tradition is one from my husbands childhood that we have adopted in our family, and that is that the birthday person gets to choose which restaurant they want to go to on their birthday. It’s only for our family unit so even if your birthday falls on a Tuesday, you don’t have to wait for the weekend to have a special celebration!
Thanks for the chance to win your book – I’d love to have it!
When we were kids, we used to get to choose what we were having for dinner that nite. Now as an adult, the Birthday recipient gets to choose the resturaunt we go to on thier Birthday!
My favorite birthday tradition is when the whole family sings Happy Birthday loud and way off key! It is so funny!
oops…and then again I guess I should read the whole post before jumping in…
Not sure we have a family Tradition for birthdays…Best I can come up with is the fact that ours are clustered during 2 time periods fo teh eyar…Jan-Mar and September!!! So we celebrate Spring Birthdays and September Birthdays…I think only my great grandson Kyler is outside this framewaork…he was a New Years baby!!!
I will often give presents to family and friends on my birthday and I give myself a gift, as well. I love this tradition.
I would love to win the book.
happy happy birthday to your daughter….one is such a fun age…
i have a granddaughter who recently celebrated her first birthday…
this book would help me along with lots of fabulous ideas!
thank you for this opportunity….
enjoy the party!!!
mary lou
Growing up – we had “Fractured Tacos” for my Birthdays (my choice).
Now I try to take the day off from work, get a mani/pedi, take myself out to eat and read, my brother calls with the morbid “Happy Birthday” song, My mom calls with remembrances of pain and dad talks of walking the halls!
When my husband gets off work, he usually bakes me a cake, takes me out to my favorite local restaurant, and then we have cake & ice cream. All in all it’s the same year after year, but I look forward to MY day!
our favorite birthday tradition is the “windmill”….and, of course, singing happy birthday very off key!!!
thank you for this opportunity!
Some of my birthdays got glossed over when I was growing up, and it made me sad, so when I started my own family, I kinda went overboard on the birthdays. By the time I had four girls, I had to change the Three-Parties-Per-Birthday-Per-Child (#1, friends; #2 family; #3 extended family.. .. .. yikes! Too much!) into two options. Once she turns 10, she can choose to either have a birthday party with friends, or she can have a whole day out of town shopping alone with me (or she can bring a friend along). Generally we also have a family dinner where she chooses the meal, and we have a cake (or whatever she wants to blow candles out on), and presents. Also, we decorate in honor of her birthday.
It’s kind of a big deal to me. =)
Birth lunch celebration with special friendd
Book looks very interesting 🙂 Will be very useful with my grand children. Being born on Halloween, my birthday was missed a lot. I do my best to make all birthdays in this household and family as fun and memorable as I can.
My favorite Birthday tradition is when my grandma calls and sings happy birthday to me…in its entirety…very off key…Love that woman. 🙂
My favorite birthday tradition is to write a message to the birthday kid on the bathroom mirror with soap! My dad did it when we were kids, so I do it now!
Happy FIRST Birthday!!
Our children love to have birthday party sleepovers. Three or four of their favorite friends come and spend the night filled with food, cake and games.
Blowing out the candles ! The look on the kids faces is just priceless.
Happy Birthday !
Our tradition now is a phone call where my husband and I sing off key, laugh and hang up.
One of our favorite family traditions is to tell stories about the birthday person that talk about his/her growth, why we appreciate them, etc. Our scrapbooks are springboards for this and have actually helped us to honor where we’ve been in our lives so far, and how loved we are.
In our family the birthday person gets Breakfast in Bed. My daughter turned 16 yesterday and got a waffle with whipcream and candles on top. She was upset to be woken up so early (9:00 is too early for a teenager in summer) but was thrilled to see her birthday surprise.
My favourite birthday tradition is when we were younger we would all help in someway help my mom make our cake…no store bought cakes for us… so…even if I am too busy I still try and get the boys to help me in someway shape or form in helping with their own birthday cake…
This is a perfect topic because today is my Dad’s b-day and it is also the day I went to the hospital to have my first son. So my oldest son’s birthday is on Wednesday. What our family tradition has been that we started, well just kind of happened on its own but the birthday boy gets to pick out what they want to do for the day, within reason. They have to go school and such. They don’t usually ask for a lot either just a movie and dinner. They usually pick a buffet and eat way to much. Mostly from the dessert bar.
We had no chores on our special day. My Mom made us our choice for dinner. Mine was always hamburgers and homemade fries. Yes it was wonderful (especially before fore fast food!), I loved my birthdays and passed on the tradition.
Before my Mom passed, I sent her flowers on my birthday to thank her for me.
The one I get to enjoy occurs when visiting my daughter and her family on my birthday. The birthday person always gets breakfast served in bed on the bed tray and the special blue “You Are Special” plate. I’ve enjoyed this treat on my birthday twice now.
When I was small, we had a round glass cake platter the sat on top of a 7″ round metal music box that played “Happy Birthday” when it was wound up. My birthday cakes always twirled to the music of the box before I blew out the candles. After my parents had passed away, I kept the platter and music box and have used it for my own children’s birthdays. Even if the cake isn’t on the platter, I get out the music box so we have the Happy Birthday music playing before the candles are blown out.
Always loved our family birthday treats of picking what we wanted to eat for dinner and then going to a local ice cream store and making our own sundaes … YUM!!
every year around my birthday I like to have a family photo shoot, not always a professional one tho. My teenagers and DH are not keen on this idea but as they don’t buy me gifts I guilt them into it hahaha
In our family it isn’t a birthday without cake. Everyone has their favorite. Our children are grown now, but they still want their cake. And my daughter usually fixes mine:)
Our family had to be present to celebrate the person’s birthday. We would gather round the dinner table, eat and sing the Happy Birthday song, take pics and open presents. The birthday person will keep all the wrappings and make thank you cards to everyone who gave him/her presents.
I still do this tradition that my dad taught us with my own family. I would love to win this book to help me keep all the memories.
My boys always get a special breakfast that they choose. It’s usually pancakes made out of how many years old they are plus one of their initial (of course they have chocolate chips in them!) I also try to make a homemade cake that goes along with the theme of their party.
First, happy birthday to your daughter! They grow up soooo fast! Seems like just a few weeks ago that she graced your life!
Our family never really had big celebrations for birthdays, who wants to have more of them, well, unless your YOUNG.
However, hubby’s and my big birthday bang is going out to our favorite restaurant and piggin’ out! We don’t eat out often so this is a BIG thing for us.
Thanks for the opportunity to win a copy of this fabulous-looking book!
Enjoy your daughter’s birthday!
I will never forget my daughter’s first birthday. I have amazing pictures of her eating a mini tiered cake I made for her. It would be great to have a book like this to help me truly create scrapbook pages that are pleasing to the eye and contain meaningful journaling that captures the essence of moments like these as well as simple everyday moments.
Thank you for the opportunity to win this awesome book.
Regards, Amy
My mom calls me at 7:19 a.m., the time I was born!
When the boys were small, and even now that they’re not, they request their favourite “mom-made” birthday dinner. That was always a bigger decision than the party theme, or even what kind of cake to have. My dh and I tend to follow the same tradation ~ except DH cooks on my bd 🙂 Birthday blessing on your dd’s 1st!
the birthday tradition i started with my childeren is. the night of there birthday when they were asleep I will decorated there room in the theme of what they want there birthday party to be, (ie: streamers, balloons, birthday subway art, banners the whole nine yards, cant forget birthday coupons.) the kids always love getting up in the morning to a fun birthday room. =]
I would love to win this book, as a child we always ate a special sponge cake topped off with strawberries and whipped cream since my birthday is in May. We would have my sister and her family come and celebrate also since she was so much older than me and had married when I was five. It would be hot out in Ok and we enjoyed everything outside. Home made ice cream sometimes was included. We had such fun.
Enjoy this time of life and many more to celebrate.
Julie
I don’t think I have a birthday tradition. I have traditions that I have for my kids though. They get to pick what we have for dinner and then we have a birthday treat with candles and singing! Thanks for the chance to win the book!
I would Love a copy of this book, because we are a tradition-driven family! On birthdays, we usually have a week of celebrating, so it’s hard to choose just one favorite tradition. One of my children is very artistic, and loves to create banners for the birthday person’s doorway. My DH takes the birthday person to their favorite restaurant sometime during the week-just the two of them. I take the birthday person out for their favorite ice cream treat sometime during the week, one-on-one. They love this special bonding time, and over the years, have talked about the day they were born, problems they’re presently having, etc. Of course, we also have the extended family over for ice cream and cake-usually on the closest-to-their-birthday- Sunday afternoon.
I remember my birthdays from my childhood, my Mom making my Birthday Cakes from scratch. I got to choose the flavor of the cake and frosting. I carried on the tradition with my own 3 children, except instead of a round cake, I would use a Wilton Cake pan. For example one year I made our 1st child a Winnie the Pooh cake. (He liked the Pooh) One year I made a 9×13 cake and put a race track on it and put little cars on the track. My youngest son loved race cars. And for my daughter, I made her a Cinderella cake, complete with the carriage. I never had any formal training. I would look at pictures in magazines and gather my ideas and go from there. The kids got to choose their own themes. I had a lot of fun doing it and I loved to watch their faces when they saw the end result. My kids have all grown up and moved on, so my hubby and I go out for dinner at the Birthday person’s pick of restaurants. Thank you for the opportunity to win a copy of your book!
always loved playing pin the tail on the donkey at all the parties!
Favorite birthday tradition is go to the waterpark for my birthday with lots of friends. I grew up near Wisconsin Dells and every July my parents would load up my friends and I to head to Noah’s Ark. I moved out on my own and continued the trek to the Dells. Still try to make it every summer for splashy fun though I no longer live in Wisconsin.
When i visited with my grandmother as a young child, we would get up before everyone else, and she would allow me to have whatever I wanted for breakfast. Usually, it was 2 bowls of a sugary cereal (a real no-no in our home). That was so special, and is such a strong memory for me that I’ve carried on the tradition with my own children. They get to have whatever they want for their birthday breakfast, even if it’s chocolate ice cream and gummy bears (like it was for my 10-year old this year)! The nutritionist in me cringes a little, but that one little event is so anticipated that I push aside the recriminations and enjoy the sentiment attributed to Marie Antoinette, “let them eat cake…or ice cream…or candy…or pepperoni sticks…”. Happy birthday to your little joy!
I would love a copy of this book ! Growing up the birthday child picked what they wanted to eat. We have continued that tradition at our house, however I never really know what the meal of choice is for my birthday since my son was born on my birthday and he chooses ..this year it was tacos !
In our family we let the birthday boy or girl choose what they would like to eat for their special b-day meal and what kind of cake they would like. I have to admit, we have had some pretty fun combinations!!
Happy Birthday to your little one!
For tradition … my husband bakes my birthday cake with the kids and the kids and I bake his. For the kids birthday’s, my husband and I usually bake their cakes together. On occasion, we let the kids decorate the tops of their cakes.
Our family birthday tradition is that everyone gets together and makes homemade pizza’s at my parent’s house. It’s not just a small gathering but with 5 sisters/brothers, their spouses, 12 grandchildren and 3 great grandchildren it can be chaotic but everyone has a blast making pizza’s! No one and I mean no one misses out on these gatherings! The dessert is always twinkies with strawberries and cool whip! Can’t wait for my brother’s birthday this friday! Yum!
Our birthday tradition is to fix the guest of honor’s favorite meal followed by favorite dessert—and it’s rarely cake. Whatever it is has candles, of course, so we can sing Happy Birthday and take lots of pictures of the candles being blown out. It’s also a tradition for everyone to compliment the birthday person on their “blowhard” style.
Thanks for the chance to win.
For my birthday, we always celebrate at the lake. It was usually the last time everyone could get together before school started and we spent the whole day swimming and skiing.
My favorite birthday tradition is one we started with our daughter when she was just baby. We go into her room in the morning, while she is still sleeping, and wake her up with a loud “Happy birthday!!” As soon as she opens her eyes we take a picture of her. When she was little she didn’t mind but as she got older she didn’t really appreciate it. When she was in Africa on her birthday in 2010 she had a room mate take the picture because we weren’t there so I guess that she doesn’t mind it anymore.
Because our family is spread over vast distances, we link up with a conference call to cut our birthday cake and to sing Happy Birthday to which ever one of us whose birthday it is. The grandkids are now joining in too so this tradition will probably continue on for many more years.
Enjoy your daughter’s 1st birthday! I remember our son not knowing what to do with his first cake. He picked up his little cake and tried to eat it like a sandwich!
One of our favorite birthday traditions began when our son was a teen. We go to a local steakhouse and when the servers bring out dessert, they roll out a saddle for the birthday honoree to sit on while their birthday is announced to the entire restaurant and everyone cheers.
My favourite birthday tradition is that I get to enjoy all my favourite foods that day! The most consistent family tradition for all of our birthdays is that we get to choose our favourite foods for our birthday dinner, no matter how unusual a combination it might be!
Homemade and home decorated cakes. We got bakery cakes a couple times in the past, and I vowed to do it myself from then on. They just taste better. (I play to my strengths when it comes to decorating though – cupcakes with toppers on a stick made from my scrapbook supplies!)
Thanks for the giveaway, and happy bday to your little one!
Sadly, I did not grow up in a family that valued traditions, so no birthday traditions for me. However, dor my daughter we established a dessert (her choice). On her birthday!
My favorite birthday tradition is making whatever my children want to eat for their birthday meal. They look forward to picking out the meal that they most feel like eating on “their day”
birthday persons -cake or pie – and best meal
When the kids were little, I would sneak into their rooms and decorate them so when they woke up there were streamers and banners!! I even snuck into school and decorated lockers:)
My favorite birthday tradition is going out to dinner with my immediate family on the exact birth day. We’ve got 3 generations doing it now! Our biggest challenge…3 family members have the same birthday (different years) and one waitress had them show their IDs before she would believe them and give them a free dish of icecream. It was all in fun and we still laugh about it. 😉
Every year on the eve of my kids bday I make a happy birthday sign with colorful markers and tape it in their room so it’s the first thing they see
My favorite birthday tradition growing up: we always had ice cream cakes from Baskin Robbins. I loved picking them out of the book… and usually my mom put a toy on the top (My Little Pony or what have you) so it was like a cake AND a present… 🙂
A tradition in our family is to ring the birthday person and sing Happy Birthday to them! It’s totally cringe making, but we all secretly love it!
Thanks for the chance to win!
As an adult, my favorite tradition is getting free choice on how to spend my day. Usually, it’s a blissful day of doing nothing! I can stay in pjs all day if I want.
Ours is simple…we all climb into my (and hubbys) bed to give gifts the we head to a local cafe for breakfast and cake. Simple but quality time together 🙂
We have 5 daughters, & our family celebrates each person’s birthday by letting them choose what they want for dinner and what kind of cake they want. Each of the girls make a card for the birthday sister (I’ve given thwm a whole box of scraps, stickers, etc. to use). We eat dinner together, sing happy birthday and the birthday girl opens her cards. Of course it’s the same for the parents but my husband doesn’t make me a card – he’s not crafty 🙂
Okay, so I read the prompt too late. My favorite birthday tradition now as an adult is to make the day that the birthday falls on a date night. If its a Monday or a Saturday, we go out to dinner to celebrate the day. *smile*
Ever since my 2 boys were little the birthday boy got to pick out their favorite meal and birthday dessert for mom to make. Now they are grown and the tradition continues with my daughters-in-laws and grandchildren. Everyone has their favorite!
I had so many favorite birthday traditions as a kid! My mom always made me a decorated themed-cake for parties at school AND home. She also let me choose my favorite meal for my birthday…steak and potatoes…even when we couldn’t afford it. To this day, she still makes me feel special on my birthday, and that is the best gift of all!
My favorite birthday tradition is someone in the family has to bake a homemade cake for a family birthday dinner. No store bought cakes in our house!
Enjoy taking pictures of celebrating my pets, family and friends for their birthday.
My favorite tradition is balloons. Some years it is a couple of simple themed mylar balloons and others it is a whole room full of latex balloons – each one holding a note. It’s not a birthday around here without balloons!!
My favorite birthday tradition is I make a cake for who ever’s birthday it is. Then they get to pick whatever they want to eat for dinner.
I always pick Red Velvet Cake, pot roast with potatoes, green beans. Sounds icky but its my favorite meal. But I always have to cook it myself!
For my birthday I used to pick out whatever meal and cake I wanted and have my mom do all the work 😉 Since I moved from France to Washington I can’t really do that anymore and I really miss it. I remember asking for a Tarte Tatin several years. It’s a warm caramel apple tart baked upside down (but NO cinnamon!)
We do a lot of the same-birthday person picks dinner and a homemade cake or dessert of some sort. We also have a small ceramic cupcake that we hide that holds a small present. Birthday kid gets to look for the hidden cucpake and see what the present is inside. My sister also made us a wreath decorated with balloons that we hang up on the door with the person’s name (interchangeable) on it. We have also a slipcover that goes over the birthday person’s chair that says happy birthday and has a pocket to leave birthday love notes in it, though we’re not very good at remembering to do the love notes but the kids love having their “special chair.”
Our favorite birthday tradition is a movie and all meals of the birthday persons choice on their special day! thanks for the chance!
Wow – Happy Birthday! Can’t believe you are going to give one to one of us lucky blog readers! My favorite birthday tradition is to share it with my brother – we are only 1 day apart (but 8 years!). Mom cooks for both of us & makes her famous chocolate ice cream cake!
Happy Birthday to your daughter! In our family we just bake a cake and blow out ALL the candles – and :)we are in our sixties ! Would live your book!
My Birthday Tradition is to celebrate for a whole week, drives my husband crazy (he always says is this years birthday going to be a week long?) A girl can’t get enough dinners, lunches and breakfasts out right? Would love to win your book just heard your interview with Lain.
Our birthday tradition is to allow the birthday person to pick out what the family will have for dinner that special night and also to share cupcakes. Thanks!
We have a family get together for my girls each year around their birthdays -one in February and one in September. It’s a great reason to get the family together for a catch up on everyone’s busy lives since we all live in different parts of the state. For my birthday, my husband and I go out for dinner without the girls and since it’s always around Mothers Day (& every few years is actually ON Mothers Day) I catch up with Mum & my family at some stage during that week.
My favorite birthday memory is going to Cancun with Friends. It was the first time we’ve traveled together and luckily, not the last. We weren’t sure what to expect, but had a fantastic time.
I always make cinnamon rolls for breakfast that day. The Birthday boy/girl picks what they want for dinner, they get to eat that dinner on a “you are special” plate. And, of course, they get to select the type of
cake.
A birthday tradition in my house is to wake up the person with a happy birthday greeting, and we gather in the living room, and take turns to deliver a handmade card by each of the family members. Then each one gave the presents and share stories.
Now that my kids are all adults,we take them out to dinner on their Birthday.My youngest son’s Birthday is on New years Eve so he gets a party every year!!!!
My favourite birthday tradition is the “Birthday Sweater”. I have a sweater that I always wear at my daughter’s family birthday get-togethers, and my husband, daughter, and I always get a family photo that day (with me in the sweater). I’ve done this since she was 1 year old (it started out as a happy accident), and it is something that we all look forward to (although my daughter acts all embarrassed about it now – but then she talks about it, so I know she’s not all that embarrassed!).
Lizzy
I like to take a photo of my sons, the day before at night of their last day of being a certain age. Then the next day is their birthdays. I always have a party for them, it may not always be on their birthdays, but we have mostly family and a friend or two over to celebrate. It is fun. Thanks for a chance to win.
I don’t recall any birthday family traditions when growing up but since we’ve had kids we’ve started a tradition of celebrating with a few friends or family on birthdays. My girls are 5 and 3 and I love having them on our bed to open their gifts from us which is always lots of fun and we take photos of them opening their gifts. Would love to win this book. Thanks for the chance to win.
Our favourite tradition so far is to let the birthday child pick what we have for dinner that day. Not a biggie but big in my children’s eyes.
We don’t have any one tradition but in my family birthdays are always a big deal. If anything the latest tradition has been the rescheduling of birthdays. Now that my husband and I are British citizens (although living in the US right now), I’ve adopted the Queen’s tradition of moving her birthday celebrations to a more convenient time. (This year I am in meetings for 12 hours, which doesn’t leave any time for celebrations. Going to move it to the following weekend!) Or sometimes having do-overs, if I am too ill to get out of bed on my actual birthday I just say I’ve rescheduled it until a few days later 🙂 In any case I always make sure to celebrate somehow with lots of good food!
I guess my favorite birthday tradition would be creating special cake “creations” for my kids’ birthday themes. For example, I made a giant “smore” cake for my daughter’s camping party and a Lightning McQueen (Cars movie) car for my son a few years ago. Each year I try to come up with an unusual “wow” cake or treat that matches the theme in an easy but elaborate-looking way! The funny thing is that I don’t bake any other time of the year. Since I only make two birthday cakes in a year, I go all out!
As my granddaughters got older and it was more difficult to know what they wanted, the birthday girl and I would spend the day together shopping (purchasing items up to the dollar limit for birthdays) and having lunch. I always tell the waitress that it’s my granddaughter’s birthday so she gets extra att’n from the wait staff and sometimes complimentary dessert. And, of course, we always take photos throughout our day together.
During their school years the kids’ birthday was the one official day to play hooky from school. We would usually eat lunch out and shop for a gift of their choice. Then there was always the traditional dinner with cake and ice cream 🙂