Annual Birthday Traditions

This week is a special one for Alamo City Moms Blog… we are celebrating our first birthday!  In honor of this occasion, we will bring you a week full of anything and everything birthday related.  Thank you for making our first year such a great success and we are excited about the year ahead!

5 Annual Birthday TraditionsThere is something about my children’s birthdays that makes me want to hit pause in life and record what they are like at just this exact moment in time. With three of them now, I have to be extra diligent to make the time to get it done but much like working out, once I am finished, I am always glad I did it!

1.  My Annual Letter To Them

This birthday tradition, now my favorite, came about when my oldest was two and I had a scary thought, “What if my life was unexpectantantly taken early? What would I want each of my children to know about what I think of them and the people they were becoming?” To solve this issue, I just made a tradition every year around their birthday, to write down my thoughts, dreams and love for them.  Sometimes the letters are shorter but many times the words just pour out of me. I find the best time to write them is when I am relaxed and just watching them play or do something they love.

20140702-IMG_6332

2. Top 10 List

This is a simple list that I look forward to doing every year with each of the kids which documents their absolute favorite things and strong personality traits at this exact moment in time. It’s not meant to be a recap of their entire year, just who they are now. I like to document each item with a picture or two to really bring it to life. It is, with out a doubt, my favorite thing to look back on and I can only imagine what laughs it will bring in 50 years.

20140702-IMG_633820140702-IMG_6346

3. Birthday Interview – A live recording

This became incredibly important to me when my second child, Addie, was two and I realized how quickly the “baby voice” goes away. I wanted to make sure I had at least one good video of just her, displaying her natural tendencies, sweet voice and mannerisms. It is also fun to throw in a funny question that they will look back on and laugh… like who is your boyfriend or girlfriend right now? Or what do you want to be when you grow up? Have them say a cute word you want to always remember or have them dance, as I did here with Addie, when she was 4.

4. Birthday Books

This was a gift I received years ago from a dear friend and I immediately went out and purchased copies for the other children. I absolutely LOVE this book and use to capture the little weekly or monthly items my young children receive throughout the year that I don’t quite know what to do with.  It’s much like my baby book for the kids as they continue to grow. I attach an annual picture and keep it in an easy to access location, on their bookshelf, and put things in it all year long, such as – bike rodeo participation ribbons, their best friend’s birthday party invitation, their first admission bracelet to Schlitterbahn or a copy of your family’s annual holiday card. Together, we seal up the “Annual Time Capsule,” around their birthday.

20140702-IMG_6325 20140702-IMG_6327

5. Birthday Photo-shoot

You could already be good at taking regular pictures of your kids, but either way, I always make a point to take them outside in one of their favorite, everyday outfits and take some pictures of them alone (without their siblings.) I just let them play and be themselves and I find it a great way to capture the little personalties they are busy developing. You don’t have to have a fancy camera, in fact, your camera phone could do the trick. It’s important to remember them at each age and you can make it tons of fun and interactive, asking them to pose anyway they would like. I remember my mom doing this when I was young, in our backyard, and looking back at the pictures always brings a huge smile to my face.

Addie at 5 yrs old (3) Addie at 5 yrs old (8) Addie at 5 yrs old (11)Addie at 5 yrs old (10)

Megan
Megan is a serious bargain shopper, Boxer loving, research junkie kinda gal. Chances are she can tell you the best item to buy from everything from a baby monitor to a dishwasher. She claims to be the blogger on the team that will never win an award for being an eloquent writer. In fact, she prides herself in graduating from Texas A&M University (’02) without ever having to write a paper! San Antonio born and raised, Megan learned early in life to always learn from others and she enjoys sharing helpful tips she encounters while navigating this ‘kid chapter’ of life. The three little people that gave her the title of mom and thus the inspiration to get out and explore our city, from a child’s perspective, are Carter (2006), Addie (2008) and Delaney (2013). She’ll admit, the third one has been WAY more work than they ever expected but they wouldn’t have it any other way. Her motto now is “What ever doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger,” right?! Megan has a serious to-do list addiction which one day may need intervention; for now, this aliment allows her to accomplish the many balls she has the energy to juggle. She may be an outlier to some but loves working outside the home and is grateful for her working-mom-friendly company and career in sales, which gives her the best of both worlds. Although, Megan will be the first to tell you, without her ridiculously amazing husband and hands-on-dad, Blake, she wouldn’t be able to do any of it. Like most women, half the time she feels like she has it all together and the other part, she’s treading water trying not to drown. But as of now, she wouldn’t change a thing.

2 COMMENTS

Comments are closed.