4 birthdays plus Valentines Day. And I like to celebrate each boy individually. And have a family party. And sometimes have a friend party. And maybe eventually have more than one friend party. That is a whole lot of busy over a short 3 week time. And I will have separate posts for all of these, but here is the big picture.
So what we do...
We went to Target on January 31 (it helped that it was payday!). I chose to go at 4 pm on a gray day and told the kids this great news: You each get to pick out one sugar cereal, one treat for school for your birthday, and one pack of Valentines. Go! Um, I'm nuts. They were a bit wild. (Note to self: next year, get the cake mixes and icing at the same time.)
We came home $50 lighter and with this stash. As Nate put it, I can almost feel my teeth rotting.
And here is our February plan:
We will celebrate Z on his birthday, then the boys on each Tuesday following. That way each little gets his own day, and they're not totally clumped on top of each other, hopefully alleviating me some stress. The littles special days go in birth order: C, N, L.
On everyone's special day, he will get balloons, his own breakfast cereal, and a run in his Cards shirt. He will get to take treats to school. He gets to choose the dinner menu, along with the type of cake. He will get his own small cake while everyone else gets cupcakes. He also gets to open presents from us.
On top of each boy's special day we have a family birthday. I love doing this. It really is a blessing to me probably more than the boys, and I'm ok admitting that. I love that we have family close enough to come celebrate with us.
Z is going to have a small party this year, just his 3 close friends. So help me when the littles want friend parties too (although they really do, I just kept telling them not until they're six!).
And THEN, Valentine's Day. Sigh. I just do NOT have it in me for this dumb holiday. It was bad enough when it was just me and Nate, but we could choose to ignore it. It is apparently a big deal in schools. Dumb. There are all these cute valentine ideas on Pinterest and I feel like I should do them (and I don't, at ALL). Or I feel like I should spend more money on candy/stickers/something for the kids to take to class but for heaven's sake this is already an expensive month. Last year wasn't bad because the littles weren't in school but this year there are 4 sets of Valentines to write names on (and I like the boys to do that), 4 to sort, 4 to stuff, etc. We worked for 3 mornings straight getting this done, and I was still scrambling the night before.
Thankfully, all of this hoopla is done in just a few weeks, and then it is done until next year. And don't get me wrong, I love to and want to celebrate my boys...it just is a big undertaking!
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