We start off first thing in the morning making sure we wish the birthday person a happy birthday! They get to choose whatever they want for breakfast. This usually entails things like Belgian Waffles, hash browns, and bacon. All over the table the person has to find their "birthday pennies." We hide about $1.50 to $2 in coins under plates, dishes, serving dishes, milk cartons, etc. all over the table and they have to find it all before they can start eating.
There is always a bouquet of balloons that day, the use of the honored "You Are Special" plate, a few rounds of loving "birthday spanks," and a cake (flavor of the birthday person's choice) decorated by me. Now, you have to understand...some of my cakes have turned out looking pretty fabulous. Some not so much!!! One year it was so bad for Lyndsi's birthday (Mike Wyzoski stuck to the pan!!) that I ran to the grocery and bought an Elmo cake!!!
Of course, there is a birthday lunch with Mom and Dad, but sometimes if school or work are involved it has to wait until the weekend.
For dinner the birthday person again chooses the menu. Some of the top favorites are Mom's homemade pizza, lasagna, and salmon.
After dinner comes the presents and party. It's fun to have Jeff's parents so close because they are usually here to help us celebrate!! We sing to the person (if you've heard us sing, I don't know if that is necessarily a GOOD thing!!), open presents, and then have the cake with candles, etc. There's usually lots of laughing and way too many pictures!!!
One thing that has been fun is that when our children were little, on someone's birthday, they would make them a BUNCH of gifts...little homemade things like coupons and pictures. It was always so neat!!
We feel it's important for our birthday people to see how much we love them!!!
