It’s my daughter’s birthday this week and I can’t believe she is 6.
I have always heard people say that time flies and that your kids will grow up in a blink of an eye, and man is that true.
On one hand it feels like I just had her yesterday and then on the other hand I barely remember life without her.
Her birthday fell in the middle of the week, so we decided to have her birthday party a few days late so it could be on the weekend. But we wanted make sure that we still made her feel special on her actual birthday.
This is how we did that.
The night before her birthday, after we read her bedtime stories and brushed her teeth, my husband and I cuddled up close and sang Piper Happy Birthday. She loved it, of course, and afterwards we asked her what her birthday wish was for this new year she was entering.
I’m so glad we asked that, because sitting there watching her think of all the possibilities this new year holds for her was the sweetest thing.
The next morning, I let her sleep in past the normal time we wake up for summer camp. When I woke her up, her little brother and I were singing Happy Birthday to her again. She woke up with such a big smile on her face!
Listening to her little brother, who is learning to talk, try to say “Happy Birthday” and it coming out as “Happy Pip” was the cutest thing.
I let her pick what she wanted to have for her birthday breakfast and told her she could decide on her birthday dinner, too. It was chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and macaroni and cheese for dinner. Not hard to please at all.
In years past, I have taken off work on her actual birthday, but this year she wanted to go to summer camp because they were going on a field trip. So, that is how she spent her birthday during the day. I’m so glad she loves her summer camp enough that she wanted to go and spend part of her birthday there.
When I picked her up from camp, I had birthday balloons and a cupcake for her. This little girl still loves balloons so she was surprised and excited to see them.
Back at home, we made her birthday dinner of macaroni and cheese. We found a super delicious recipe online for a homemade cheese sauce that we thought we’d try.
To end her birthday, we watched her favorite movie on the couch and then we let her sleep in our bed. I hope we made her birthday special for her and that she knows how loved she is.
Now, we get to celebrate her again this weekend at her birthday party with all our family!
Ann Burns is a Morgantown native, raising two young children with her husband, Drake. She writes weekly columns for The Dominion Post. Contact her at Columns@DominionPost.com.
