Today my ds had his seventh birthday.  Though we keep birthdays low key, we do mark them with some kind of family celebration.  Last night my ds suggested to me that he should go to sleep early so that I could plan his birthday and start making special treats for him.  Amused, I asked him what he thought I should make, and he said in disbelief, “How should I know?  It’s supposed to be a surprise!”  🙂

Well, it gets harder and harder to surprise anyone when they’re expecting something.  And maybe it doesn’t matter if it’s a surprise or not, as long as the child having the birthday feels nurtured and cared about.  But he was wasn’t expecting what we did for his birthday; here is how we did it.

Dd14 slept over at her grandparents last night, so they baked a cake over there, and then frosted it.  They also picked up chips and fruit.  Early this afternoon, ds went to ds10’s baseball game, and directly from there, my mom took them to watch my ds15’s baseball game.  His game was being held at a regional park with picnic pavilions and a park, so we decided we’d have dinner there after the game for ds’s birthday.

While ds was gone, this gave us a chance to plan the dinner menu and then the kids at home got busy making food without their brother being there to know what they were doing.  They made crustless broccoli cheese quiche, carrot sticks, corn on the cob, and popcorn popped in extra virgin coconut oil, and mixed up some orange juice from concentrate (we hardly ever drink juice) to drink.  (Together with the birthday cake, chips, and apples and peaches, this completed the picnic dinner menu.)  As soon as my husband got home later in the afternoon, we headed over to meet everyone else at the baseball field. 

We got there just as the game ended and took the younger kids to the play area on one side of the park while the older kids set up dinner in a pavilion on the other side.  They managed to get the table set and everything in place just as ds returned with his siblings from the play area. 

We greeted him by singing “Happy Birthday” and having him cut his frosted cake with the personalized birthday message on top.  Then we ate dinner together – my inlaws were there, too.  Everyone really enjoyed the quiche and after dessert, the kids had a great time running around and playing together.  A couple of his siblings gave him gifts.  It was a very relaxing and enjoyable evening – dh told me a couple of times what a nice dinner and outing it was.  I suppose we were at the park for about 2 1/2 hours before we headed back home, though ds7 didn’t come back home with us, since I agreed that in honor of his birthday he could have a sleepover at his grandparents house tonight.  I rarely agree to this during the week because it throws off the schedule the next day, and once I agree to let one person do it, then I have six others clamoring for the same privilege.

I’m grateful that my kids are so happy with simple outings and dinners like these – all of the kids thought it was a very nice birthday dinner.  I realize that it doesn’t sound impressive, but that’s just fine with me, because impressing anyone isn’t any part of my goal!  I try to keep things as simple as possible, and focus on the heart of the celebration, making the child in questions feel special.   I find that keeping things simple allows everyone to enjoy our time together; often when you add more expensive or elaborate plans to the mix, they end up being distracting and taking the focus from the child and putting it onto the activity/food/entertainment.

With this last baby being born in May, he’s added another month to the birthday celebration cycle (ie nine children born in nine different months).  This is a busy birthday season for us (the winter is the slow season – we’re still missing birthdays in Dec., Feb, and March) – just another 2 1/2 weeks until the next birthday….

Avivah