8 is Great

The birthday is well gone but I thought I would share some of our 8 is Great birthday ideas.

For about the last 3 years the birthdays in our house go like this.

Child wakes up (usually early) we head out to the dining room where something like this is waiting:

I love our tradition because having the candles (we have as many candles as your age) and choose your own breakfast (90% of the time they choose iced donuts) often steers the child away from thinking just about presents. There is just something soothing/wonderful about candlelight.  Often they don't open their present for quite a while after and one time I had to remind one of my girls that they ACTUALLY had presents to open. I've found this makes the start to a birthday very enjoyable. I'm very glad they love it too.

The original inspiration for our birthday traditions came from Uncommon Grace and Soulemama


Every year I wonder if the children are getting too old for number shirts. Miss A reminded me weeks ago about making sure she has her number 8 shirt. I'm happy to know it isn't too daggy yet. Maybe I'll have to make the Mr one for his 40th next year ;) She didn't bother with her crown this year so maybe they HAVE outgrown that one.  Having the shirt and crown as part of 'the gifts' also cuts down on present buying, they look forward to them (there must be something about repetitive constancy that works well for kids) and they usually go to those presents first. It is the only day of the year when I let my girls wear something other than their uniform to school. I'm always sursprised when they wear it with such pride all day long.

she really wanted sunglasses and binoculars for her birthday. I love easy to please children.

This time the number was stuck on with fusible webbing, the material was very thin so I put a layer of white felt under it. I then machine stitched and handstitched around it.

As 8 is a special age in our church I wanted to do something a bit more special than 'have a donut for breakfast'. So the day before I made these biscuits and hid them. Eight 8's for her special day. Recipe and instructions found over at SugarDoodle .

They also made great 'party favours' to give her friends who came over for an afternoon tea party.

As I had so much food to prepare for her baptism I chose not to make a class cake for school. Instead I purchased everyone an IcyPole from the school tuckshop. The teacher said this was good as many kids have allergies these days anyway. Easy and Cheap for me and the tuckshop delivered them to the classroom for me!

Each year I also give the kids the option to stay home from school for their birthday. So far they have NEVER taken me up on this. They always want to go to school to be with their friends. This year was the first time someone teetered on the edge. She wanted to stay home and have a special outing, yet she wanted to go to school. In the end she went to school but we fetched them all and Grandma took out all the cousins for lunch at SIZZLERS. Every kids dream! (well my kids love sizzlers..) She was so excited to tell her friends she was 'leaving school to have lunch out'.

We also didn't make a cake either! I was just too pooped. But she was more than happy with her pink iced cake from Woolworths that she shared with a couple of friends who came over after school.

What a day. It ended most excitedly with The Mr returning from a week long business trip just in time to eat pizza and watch Dr Who. When she found out he was going to miss her birthday (the morning part of it) she was most upset. He said I will be home at the end of the day but she said  but you'll miss the best most important parts!!

And that makes my heart swell.