Birthday Themes

Birthdays are a special day in our house. I am sure they are special in yours too. In our house the birthday person gets to choose the meal for dinner and is exempt from any and all chores (albeit they are few for now). My favorite part of my own children’s birthdays are the parties. We plan the festivities around a theme about something the guest of honor likes. As a tradition for any child’s first birthday they get a "#1" cake but for the remaining events have a specific theme including but not limited to invitations, decorations and games.


Caleb’s second birthday was Elmo. We had Elmo plates, invites, thank you cards, place settings and a huge red-faced piñata. For his third party we had three different “ball” cakes and a game involving the recently learned colors and numbers. His fourth was a Candy Land party. We decorated my mother’s house with colored sheets of paper to look like the path. And my favorite part was the sheet cake that we decorated to look like the game board. His firth was Noah’s Ark with a popsicle stick rendition of the ark on a “mountain” cake and animal games. Then, his most recent was Super Heroes.

Rebekah’s second birthday was a Cinderella party complete with princess costume, castle cake and a game matching up shoes like Prince Charming had to do. By her third birthday she loved to color so much we had a crayon party where we bought enough colored wax that we should have just bought stock in the Crayola company. The following year she took some ballet classes so she became our little ballerina for the day. We had everyone attempt one of the dance poses. Last May, we decided to focus on the fact that Rebekah’s choice in outfits didn’t always follow any set of rules and played games about mismatched clothes.

So, one would think that after all of this practice with themed birthday parties I would be a pro by now. Alas, I am not. Our little, precious Elizabeth turns two today and I have nothing. Nothing. She doesn’t watch any cartoons, therefore, eliminating any possibilities of a character theme. She doesn’t play with any particular toy or board game. She doesn’t have any hobbies or pastimes. She doesn’t even really have a favorite color. So what am I to do?

I guess we will just have a party with white cake and lactose-free ice cream, some balloons and presents. And that will be that. I know she will still love me years from now when she is looking through her scrapbooks. She will know that she is also special even if there wasn’t a theme. And maybe by next year she will actually have her act together enough to give me some ideas on what to do for her special day.

Happy Second Birthday, Sweet Sweet Elizabeth. I love you all the way to the bottom of my heart (even if you are theme-less). XOXOXOXOXXOXOX  Love, Mommy