Birthdays Done Right

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AUNT NANCY!

Everyone loves to celebrate birthday's....who doesn't love cake, presents, games, and a celebration or party of some kind?! In our family, we know how to do birthday's right! I'm not talking about getting lots of awesome presents, but about making the person feel loved on their special day. We have a little family tradition that we started...

We make a bunch of signs with cute and funny quotes on them and then hang them around the house. That way when the birthday girl or boy wakes up they get surprised with a bunch of sweet signs for them! I actually originally got the idea from my best friend Lynsee, and we've been doing it ever since she told me about it. It was our Aunt Nancy's birthday yesterday, but she didn't get here until last night, so naturally we had to make her signs for this morning...

We made way more than what you see here, but these were some of the best/funniest ones. The best part about it is covering the whole house with signs, so that they spend all morning reading them. It's pretty funny what my little cousins can come up with!

She came to visit from Charleston with her boyfriend, Loren, and his son, Donald. In preparation for her arrival we made "party hats", which were actually paper taped onto headbands with funny quotes on them. Then when they walked in the door we all hid and surprised her! We spent the afternoon playing on the boat and doing whatever Aunt Nancy wanted to. She got up on the wakeboard and the solomon ski in her ripe old age! (Just kidding she's not tooo old) Then we had a fabulous dinner and she opened a few presents.

Sarah with her headband!

The best part about this picture is Uncle Mac!!

Besides decorating the house, one other thing that we have tried to start is not giving too many gifts! Last year for Mary's birthday instead of having girls bring her gifts, she asked them to bring canned goods. You could do this with any type of donation item...old clothes, canned goods, anything that would be good for something philanthropic in your town. We then got to go to the food shelter and bring all the cans, which was so much fun! We didn't do that for Aunt Nancy because we didn't have a real party, but what a great idea right?

Here are the girls with the cans last year!

What are your family traditions for birthdays?

XoXo,

Southern Saving Grace