Click for simple, affordable ways to make the most of what's left of summer. Nobody told me I’d be too busy making the memories to enjoy them I thought I was giving my kids everything. Instead, I was missing the moments I worked so hard to create.
A few weeks before my son Oliver turned eight, planning his birthday started taking up residence in my brain. We weren’t aiming for anything particularly extravagant. We were having extended family over for dinner and cake, and enjoying the same traditions we’d built around birthdays over the years.
Breakfast in bed with balloons. His favorite meal for dinner. And at the end of the night, we’d go around the table and each say three things we loved about him.
These little rituals have become the essence of our family’s birthday magic. In the weeks leading up to the big day, I was thinking about what Oliver wanted, figuring out the food, doing the shopping, wrapping the gifts, finding cute decorations, coordinating with family about wish lists, ordering the cake, making sure his brothers had something to give him, and remembering the special cereal he wanted. I was doing all of that alongside work and school and dinner and everything else our family already had going on. **Related**Can we bring back old school birthday parties, please?
Then the birthday came, and it all went off as planned, for the most part. His brothers were excited. At one point, the boys were all playing and laughing together with their grandparents, and I remember wanting to go sit with them.
Instead, my brain took over. If I didn’t start clearing dinner now, we’d get the cake too late, and we still needed to have time for presents. Set up the cake and dessert.
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