Spring means birthday season in the Crispin house. Starting today we celebrate all of our kids’ birthdays within the next 6 weeks! It makes for an exciting time around here as we look back on the mercy and grace God has granted to each of our children and pray for many more years of joy and happiness in their lives. There are a couple of different special traditions we have on the kids’ birthdays. Here are a few of the special ways we will celebrate Abby’s 6th birthday today and the upcoming birthdays of Naomi and Elijah:
1. Birthday Letters: Each year Joe and I write a birthday letter to the children on their birthday. It is a neat way to reflect back on the past year and pour our hearts out in a letter to them. We hope these letters will be a treasure for them to look back on in the coming years.
2. Birthday Videos: Throughout the year I compile pictures and videos of the kids, their special accomplishments and times spent with family and friends and put it into a slideshow with iMovie. We watch this video on their birthday and each share what we are thankful for in that person’s life over the past year. These birthday videos are some of their favorite things to watch throughout the year as well. Almost all the kids’ favorite video is the one of their first year!
3. Birthday Updates: Every six months I write a development update on how each of the kids are doing. I post these on our blog so other people can know what the kids are up to. But they also serve as a way to document the growth in each child’s life. Both the development update, birthday letters and pictures are put into a iPhoto photo book so that each child has one book per year. I hope to have a book for them for each of their 18 years until they graduate from high school.
4. Birthday Dinners: The birthday person gets to pick the dinner meal on their birthday. It is almost always pizza anymore, so that is what is on the menu tonight! We also have the usual cake and ice cream and singing afterward as well.
5. Birthday Prayers: We try and spend a little special time in prayer for the birthday person. It is nice to come as a family together for specific prayer focused on on one person.
6. Coupon Books: this year we decided to make the kids each a coupon book for their birthdays with 12 coupons from Joe and me. They can cash them in throughout the year for different things like doing special crafts, going to a baseball game, having a sleepover in our room, etc.
What are some special ways you celebrate birthdays?
I have also been making him a movie, and recently switched to imovie thanks to the imac. I do an annual photo book (I’m so not a scrapbooker, but I can do this!), and for his birthday, we have a party where instead of gifts, we collect items for a local charity. This past year we collected for Emergency Infant Services. I make sure TB goes with to deliver the goods too. This past year, he didn’t want to leave! He wanted to stay and play with the kids that were there, so I was able to visit with some of the adults. It was a blessing for all of us!
Of course, we also have cake or cupcakes (his choice), etc.
These are great ideas to keep stashed in the mental files for the future! Tell the kids Happy BLESSEDday from Holland!
Birthday letters and prayers sounds very good! I think that kids have the right imprinting about their family life’s style and ethic and this will help so much for the future.
In our experience, kids are absolutely able to value any initiative from parents where there’s a direct liaison and parents are not afraid of really showing themselves. Kids trust parents more and more. In the end it’s such as an adding value circle.