Now, I know y’all must think I’m crazy, but I have to admit that I just LOVE birthdays, and they do count among my favorite things! Yes, even though I just had one on the 28th of July and I’m now sixty-seven years old, that’s not a bad thing!
I always think about those wonderful birthday parties I had growing up—my mom made the most fabulous chocolate cakes and icing, all from scratch, and of course there was ice cream and punch. We decorated with balloons and streamers, and put on our very best dresses and little anklets and Mary Janes to party in. I’m second from the left, and this was my 8th birthday.
We played Pin the Tail on the Donkey and dropped clothespins in a bottle while standing on a little stool to see how many each one of us could get in the bottle. Winner got a prize! Now, prizes didn’t have to be something fantastic. Back then, everyone was happy with getting a Little Golden Book, or a color book and small box of crayons, or something simple like that.
The party usually lasted from 2-5. Sometimes 2-4 if our parents weren’t feeling particularly stoic that year. But we filled those hours with a LOT of fun and wonderful things to eat. Lots of laughter and good times and great memories.
Of course, as I got older, the parties got more involved. One year I had a costume party—that’s me in the hula skirt.
We started having slumber parties (the bane of a parents’ existence!) and usually managed to stay awake most of the night. I’m sure our parents did, too.
You know, I remember my mom making her special chocolate cake in the jelly-roll pan and the fabulous icing that went on it and rolled up in the center, and seemed like it was an inch deep on the outside. She made the three of us girls, my sisters and me, a good birthday cake on into adulthood when our birthdays rolled around for as long as she was able. That was one of the best gifts of all.
My older sister, Karen, always sends me something on my birthday, as I do for her birthday in February. There’s just something special about remembering the day the people who mean so much to us came into the world.
This year, I got together with my kids and husband and we had dinner at a nice restaurant together. Such a great gift of time together, and of course, no having to cook and clean it up!
I know a lot of people don’t want to think about their birthdays, or admit their age, or realize that they are getting older. But I’ve always been proud to be whatever age I was, because I’d “made it” that far. As a kid, I wanted to be older all the time. Now, I think sometimes it would be nice to be younger, but then I come to my senses. I would not want to travel that road again–there are new things to look forward to and celebrate with every year of birthdays!
Did you have a favorite birthday? What were some of the things you did to celebrate?
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Happy Birthday!
My favorite cake was a unicorn cake my mom made for my 16th birthday. She used the Wilton lamb pan to make it. The horn was made from royal icing. Chocolate cake, of course.
Oh, Denise, that sounds so gorgeous! My mom took cake decorating classes back in the ’60’s and had all the equipment–she never really did it too much but I think she really did enjoy those classes and feeling like she had learned something. She was quite a perfectionist, so I’m sure the actual “doing” was tedious for her. That cake of yours sounds wonderful (especially the chocolate icing!) LOL
As one of ten kids (I’m the oldest), we didn’t always get to have a “real” party with invited friends; some years it was just family. I don’t recall how old I turned when this happened. My brothers who are fraternal twins have their birthday 4 (5 days during Leap Years) days after mine and my February birthday always fell during the second semester when school was in session, so had to held on the weekend. The chosen Saturday to hold “my” party ended up being their actual birthday (we had their family party after dinner that night; our “real” parties were also afternoon affairs before we hit pajama party age). To this day, this topic is known to surface during family get togethers.
Mary, my kids are three years apart and both have September birthdays a week apart. When they were little we used to combine their parties and have a HUGE hoopla at the house with all the neighbor kids and friends from their schools. (Yes, I was totally worn out and thrilled when those parties were over!) LOL But it was worth every minute of seeing the joy on their faces. As they got a little older, we did skating parties, and bowling parties and then we started having their parties separate (that’s when the sleepovers started). Your family’s birthday party arrangements sound a lot like ours! I have to confess, I do miss those days now that they’re grown.
I remember opening my gifts on my 3rd birthday and still have it!
Teresa! You can’t leave us hanging. WHAT DID YOU GET? LOL
Oh the memories you shared struck home to me. On my 70th birthday, my twin brother came to celebrate our birthday. I was as bald as could be. We danced together to the song, “Son of a Preacher Man“ by Bob Seger. Had tons of pizza, salad, and breadsticks to share with very close friends. We had a large sheet cake from Costco. In my heart not only was I celebrating my birthday, but I was celebrating victory over breast cancer. My 70th birthday will always be special to me because our kids and grandkids were here along with friends we have cherished many years. God gas been good to me.
Happy birthday Cheryl. Glad you celebrate life!
WOW, Kathy. That made me teary. What a wonderful birthday, and especially that you were ALIVE to celebrate it with your brother and close friends. That’s a wonderful memory you’ll always cherish, I know. Probably the BEST birthday ever, including all the ones you had as a kid. Thanks for sharing this. We do have so much to be thankful for.
Happy Birthday! Yes, my mother still has a thing on birthdays. And so my brothers and I carry on the tradition. We are all kinda spread out now, but we still text! My kids have now took on the torch and remember family member’s birthdays. Yes, I had a few “big party” birthdays. Since I have only one grandchild, we have one for him every year! He is ten now, so the “big birthdays” change. But, we always had a theme to them! His first fell on Easter. It was all Easter themed. There have been airplanes, circus, Thomas the Train, Dollar General(that was different! He liked the yellow logo semi trucks), and more Easter and games. Oh the fun games! And we Always gather on my mother’s birthday! We add my children’s to hers. And Easter time it’s mine, my husband’s and grandson. And Christmas it is the rest of the crew! Yes, many in the month of December.
Yes, I guess you could say we do birthdays too! Many blessings Cheryl!
Tracy, my husband’s birthday is March 31 so once in a while his birthday is on Easter too! Seems like most of our family’s birthdays fall in September–both my kids and 2 of my sister’s 3 kids are in September. We also had quite a few January and February birthdays. The only summer birthdays were mine, my niece’s in August, and my Dad’s in May. Your grandson has had some wonderful birthdays with those themes. I love the Dollar General one! LOL My son loved those Braum’s trucks. They’re based here in Oklahoma but have spread to surrounding states–they sell ice cream (the very best!) and dairy products, but also have now branched out into being a small grocery store that carries their own brand of baked goods, frozen foods and produce. Their trucks had a bright pink logo and I think that’s what caught his eye as a little guy. I’m glad y’all have such nice celebrations! What is better than to celebrate the birth of a cherished family member or friend?
I didn’t always have a birthday party, mostly due to the fact that my birthday is 8 days before Christmas and smack dab in the middle of the Christmas break when many of my friends had other things going on! LOL But I, too, love birthdays and made sure that my younger siblings had great birthday parties and fun cakes. I look forward to my birthday every year and have now had 75 birthdays and counting!
Karin, I had kind of the same problem with my birthday being in late July and of course, people were on vacation and school was out so there were a lot of times different friends were not able to come if they were gone or had other family plans, but gosh, I did have some wonderful birthdays in spite of it all. We always tried to celebrate Mom’s birthday in a big way, since she was the oldest of 11 kids and grew up during the Depression in the Dustbowl of Oklahoma. She always made sure to get her siblings something, even just a card, on their birthdays. I look forward to my birthday, too–and I don’t mind telling people how old I am–I’m just glad to still be here! LOL
I loved doing birthdays for my own children. Now I can help with my grandchildren. My parents never celebrated with parties as a child but I made up for that with my own kids.
Debra, I know your kids must appreciate your love and thoughtfulness for them with those birthday celebrations, and those of your grandchildren. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but looking back, I am so thankful that my parents let me have those parties. They meant a lot to me.
I remember one birthday, I am not sure if I was 8 or 9, but I wanted a new “2 wheeler” bicycle. My parents got it and when I woke up and came downstairs it was sitting in the living room. That was many years ago as I am 73 now and still “going strong”, enjoying God’s blessings. In fact we are preparing to leave for Kenya in 2 weeks and will be there for 3 months teaching seminars and pastors’ conferences. Our pastor used to say “age is just mind over matter. If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter”
I love that saying, Elaine! I’m going to remember that. I agree with that wholeheartedly. I remember asking for a bike for my birthday, and I got a little one at first that I was trying to learn how to ride BAREFOOT and I fell off and sliced my foot open on the pedal. It was on a weekend, and I remember Mom and Dad packing me up in the car with a clean towel wrapped around my foot and I had it propped up on the back seat. My dad could not stand the sight of blood. He would faint. So he was driving to the ER and Mom was trying to remain calm (probably worried about his driving because I do remember he was going FAST!) LOLLOL I had to get stitches in it and I still have the scar. I did learn how to ride that bike but I always did it with shoes on from then on. LOL
Y’all have a good trip to Kenya! That sounds so fascinating!
Usually it was just family, but when I was about 10 my friends and I played fox and hens (game played in the snow). My mother wasn’t home yet so I attempted to make my birthday cake, but didn’t follow directions well and messed it up. I don’t remember if we made another cake or not.
Karijean, that is a game I have never heard of! Can you tell me how it’s played? Here in OK, we did have snow once in a while, but we get more ice than snow because of where we are located. Still, I remember some wonderful deep snows we had but we never knew that game. I never made a birthday cake until I was a mom. My stepkids lived with us for several years, and I made their birthday cakes and we did the parties, and all that, and then I had my kids and was an old pro at it by then. LOL Now…I usually try to buy a small piece of cake for myself and Gary when one of our birthdays roll around, and I look for gluten free cakes for the kids since they both have that allergy to gluten.
We made a track in the snow that connected. We had several cleared circles that were the safe spots for the hens. The chickens had to run on the paths, but if the fox caught a hen, that person became the fox. Unfortunately I don’t remember anymore of the game. It has been many years ago.
Sounds like fun! I might want to play that even now, if I could run. Alas, those days are over. LOL
Your birthdays sounded wonderful. Mine was the same. There were five of us, so mom had fun putting them together. As a family the birthday person got to request their special dinner and what they wanted for their cake. I loved stroganoff and cherry cake. It was a cake made by hand. It had cherries inside it. and the juice from the cherries was made into a hot cherry that went over the cake. when I got married my husband took over the cake and than our kids took over the cake. mom always made sure that our parties were special, every year was a bit different.
Oh, Lori. That cherry cake sounds fabulous, and I most likely would have had chocolate ice cream with it. (I love chocolate covered cherries at Christmas time.) LOL Yes, we always had a different them for my party, and then we tried to do different things for our kids parties, too. Since they both had September birthdays, they liked having swim parties in our pool, but usually by September here the nights are cooling off. So we’d celebrate early and have their parties in August instead so they could do swim parties and sleepovers. Oh, my gosh, they had so much fun. I remember the year Titanic came out, and we did a Titanic party for my daughter. I think she was about 12 or 13, I can’t remember, but those girls just loved that. Those parties bring back special memories, don’t they?
I loved being able to celebrate my birthday with my twin sister who is heaven now. Our mom would always make something we liked. Now I use the day as a day of thanksgiving to celebrate the time the Lord gave me with my sister.
Sharon, that is so sweet and precious. I’m sure it’s hard on you, too, when your birthday comes around. I have a dear friend who is a twin, and his brother passed this past year. September will be his first birthday without his brother. We will do something really special this year for him. I can’t imagine how hard that must be.
No birthday parties with friends but there was always mom, dad, and my sisters and brother. My mom would make our cakes. Mine was always chocolate with strawberry frosting.
Barbara, that cake sounds fabulous. I love chocolate with strawberries, and chocolate with cherries, and chocolate with orange…well, I love chocolate with about anything EXCEPT COCONUT! LOL Family parties are sometimes the very best. The summer we moved the first time I was turning six. My birthday came just as we were moving into our new house. Our furniture had not arrived yet–at least not all of it. We did have our table but no chairs. LOL We had to pull the drawers out of the cabinet and turn them on their ends to have a way to sit at the table. None of Mom’s pots and pans were there yet, so she went to buy me a cake (UNHEARD OF!) The only chocolate cake she could find was German chocolate (which everyone else loved but I didn’t like coconut). It broke my heart to have to scrape off the frosting and just eat the cake. LOL Now I look back on that and think how hard she had tried to make it a good birthday in spite of those circumstances.
One of my favorite birthdays as a little girl was my seventh. I got a Snuggles Doll with a rocking horse & a cute little cradle. My mom was a good seamstress & she made me a whole suitcase full of clothes for the doll. I still have it all, just a bit different cradle. 🙂
My favorite birthday as an adult was my 40th. My family managed to surprise me with a big group of friends & family at Mazzio’s. It was a fun party! I’m like you… I don’t mind a bit telling people how old I am (51 in June). I’m proud to’ve made it this far. I’m so very thankful to my Heavenly Father for allowing me life & breath to be here to celebrate! I’ve had some extremely difficult health issues for many years & it is only by His mercy that I am here to celebrate with my family & enjoy the blessings of life! 🙂
Happy Birthday to you! 🙂
Lori, those are two wonderful birthday memories, for sure! My mom was a good seamstress too–can’t tell you how many Barbie clothes she made, and of course, I had baby dolls that she made gowns for and I had a Baby First Step that she made the cutest little coat and hat for. Wish I still had all that! LOL
And a great surprise birthday at Mazzio’s! I’m usually the one to plan big family get-togethers and boy is it hard. Everyone’s got crazy work schedules and both my kids are back in school again, my daughter in law school and my son working on a second bachelor’s, this time in bio-medical engineering. Lots of homework and so on, but also both are working fulltime jobs. When school starts up in the fall, my daughter will have to cut back on work hours, but even so, it’s really tough to find a time for everyone to be able to get together. I’m so glad you all managed to do that for your birthday that year, because I’m sure that was a great memory!
Happy Birthday, Cheryl! Mine was July 15th and if you can so cheerily admit your age, I’ll admit I turned 65. (Although not as cheerily lol)
One of my most memorable was my 40th when my late hubby planned a surprise party with some of our friends in Rhode Island and rented a cottage on the beach for two weeks (with our boat). Ahhh what wonderful memories.
Lynn, just remember, I’ll always be older than you are. LOLLOL
What a great 40th birthday surprise! That must have just been heavenly. What a nice getaway! I doubt I will ever be able to do that in my lifetime, what with these dogs I have. They wouldn’t know what to do without me for two weeks and I would probably be just as miserable without them. LOL
Happy belated birthday! (The upside of turning 65 is that I found out the other day when I went to get my “REAL ID” driver’s license, it’s FREE if you’re 65 or over here in OK, so maybe it is where you are, too! And you can get the senior meals at so many places for a good price, too!) LOL
I can recall one of my birthday parties. Mom made her own pizza. It was quite a hit! Another time my aunt, Mom’s sister was here from California, and she baked me a cake with a doll in the middle of the angel food cake decorated with icing to resemble a beautiful ball gown. That was such a great memory, I did the same thing for my daughter for one of her birthdays. She was so thrilled with it and I do have a picture of her somewhere.
Oh, wow. I remember how we used to make pizza out of the Chef-Boy-Ar-Dee box mix. LOL Nothing like your mom’s pizza, I am sure! LOL I bet that was fabulous. Those cakes sound wonderful, too, and such a wonderful surprise for you and then for your daughter, too, when the time came. I must admit, I was not the most gifted cake decorator in the world. I remember going to the grocery store and buying those colored letters to spell out “HAPPY BIRTHDAY (insert name here)” LOL Oh, and the colored icing in a can with the different tips, too. LOL They usually turned out passably pretty but nothing like what you did!
My only one I can remember was my 16 birthday party and we had a teenage party with friends and dancing and playing some kissing game like teenagers use to do.
I never had a boy-girl party as a teenager. In our little town, there was nothing to do except maybe have a skating party that would be a good activity for boys and girls. I never even thought of it. (Bet my parents were glad!) LOL But yours sounds like FUN! No wonder you remember that one! That was very special and different!
My favorite birthday was the one two years ago, when I turned 60. I threw myself a “Dutch treat” party, and it turned out that 15 friends and I ended up at the restaurant I chose! We all had a great time!! A very, very close second was the one in 2021, when I turned 59. It was my first one after mom’s passing, so then it became the first one without either parent, and me being an adult orphan. I put on Facebook that my birthday was going to be a Sunday that year, and I wanted to know if any of my friends were available for lunch that day. Well, one responded, and we set up the time to meet. When I arrived, I found out she’d invited other friends, so we had a small party, then, too!! It was also a great time!
Trudy, those both sound so wonderful! I never thought of the “Dutch treat” party–what a great idea! And how nice that your one friend that responded the other time ended up bringing so many friends to be able to celebrate with you! Great memories!
I never really had a birthday party. My mom always made and decorated a cake, but it was for dessert after family dinner. Today, it really depends on what is going on in everyone’s life. Sometimes my husband and I have a special dinner, either out or my husband fixes one. The family is seldom available, but sometimes whoever is around will join us. We learned during our many years as a military family, you celebrate when and how you can. Even if we can’t get together, they call and send cards. My youngest sister is the best of the six of the siblings. She always sends a birthday card to the siblings and their spouses. I will get cards and forget to mail them on time, so I call. I would rather talk with them anyway since we live far away and see them so seldom.
I usually got cards from my parents and sisters when I was younger, and I have kept every one of them, I think. I’m glad I did, because my dad often wrote special little messages in my cards before mailing them that I treasure now that he’s gone. Now, I have a cousin who is one week older than I am, and we never fail to send each other a card. I usually call her on her birthday and we talk up a storm. I have one sister left who sends cards, and another couple of very dear friends who do, as well. My kids will bring cards up if we are celebrating here at the house with cake, etc. but we’ve gotten out of the habit of doing that since everyone has such crazy work schedules. Usually Gary and I go out for dinner, and I get together with the kids one on one for lunch a few days before or after my birthday. You’re right about celebrating whenever you are able! Especially as the kids get older and have their own obligations!
Well my birthday is unfortunately December 23rd and plus I’m a twin. My mom tried to give us a birthday party either people were away or to busy preparing for Christmas or we had a bad snow storm. But one yr. we had a fantastic birthday with a few friends and each of us had a specially made barbie cake mine was purple. We had so much fun ,it was a birthday I’ll always remember. Even today as adult its still hard to plan anything for our birthday.
Oh, Sandy! What a predicament! You know, I have two brothers-in-law that were both born on CHRISTMAS DAY! One is my husband’s brother, and the other is my husband’s late sister’s spouse. I think it definitely WOULD be hard to try to plan anything during that time of year, when so many people are gone to visit relatives. But I”m sure glad you had a good “Barbie” birthday party that one year–that was very memorable! Winter months seem harder to plan parties in anyway, but to have it so close to Christmas…and then also, everyone says, “I got you this for Christmas AND YOUR BIRTHDAY TOGETHER.” :(((( Boo hiss! LOL
I remember I had a pirate party in 2nd or 3rd grade and had such fun. One problem for me was that my birthday was always when school started and several times was the first day of class so I did not get anything like the other students to celebrate during school. My wife’s favorite was the year her mother made a Batman cake. My best friend’s birthday is December 21st and for years he kept a running total of how much he lost in gifts because people would get only one gift for his birthday and Christmas. He based his list on what his siblings got and his long list added up to an amazing amount over the years. I always got him one for his birthday and one for Christmas.
OH, WOW, David! I would have loved to have had a pirate party, but my mom was all about doing “girl” parties. I loved trains when I was growing up and begged for a train set, but she said no that was for boys. So when I had my son, I decorated his room in trains and bought trains sets for HIM. LOL Kudos to your mother-in-law for making the Batman cake for her daughter! That’s great!
As for your friend and his birthday on December 21, I always have felt so awful for kids that had their birthdays around that time. It’s always so hard to plan a party at that time of year, and most people take the easy way out and just do one gift instead of two. He probably treasures you for remembering BOTH occasions!