Birthday Bash(es)

We have 7 people in our family, and although we don't have the problem of everyone's birthday being in the same month, we have a different issue altogether. The birthdays are spread out over the first 6 months of the year. We have a birthday EVERY month from January to June. This can be good for planning, but eventually you can lose momentum. Come May or June you are pooped and tired of birthdays. I'm just being honest...

So, in an effort to simplify birthdays around here and make each person's birthday extra special, we have come up with a couple of ideas; either learned from someone else, or more recently, thought up on our very own.

A few months ago I found the perfect cake pan for everyone's birthday! I was really hesitant to buy it, because it was $30!!! But, I started thinking that if we used it 7 times in the first year, that was under $5 per person. Using it for 2 years makes it under $2.50 per person and... You get the idea. This will become our new family tradition and I'll have to look on ebay in 20 years to find all my daughters-in-law one of these cake pans because my sons will want them to continue the tradition. My one and only daughter, P10, will, of course, get the original cake pan.
So, instead of being at the mercy of the local convenient store and their supply of snowballs (a tradition we had growing up and one I've kept), we will now have a "cupcake" cake. Each child (or adult) will get to choose their favorite flavor of cake and icing. I'm most definitely using boxed cake mixes and canned icing! Not feeling guilty about it either.

I also picked up a roll of Happy Birthday wrapping paper and a bow tonight. Yes, a (as in 1) bow. It's one of those really nice ribbony ones. I won't even use the peel off self adhesive tab. I'll use tape and stick it on top of the child's gift. It will be recycled. We only give one gift for birthdays anyway. I'm not going planning to reuse the paper!

Each child also gets to chose their birthday breakfast, birthday lunch, and birthday dinner!! For breakfast, most of the time they choose biscuits and chocolate gravy, since we rarely ever have that, except for birthdays.

You don't get the day off school on your birthday, but we may institute that at some point.

Also, my older ones have enjoyed having friends over for the day or afternoon in the last few years where we make homemade pizza and they hang out.

Hope this is helpful. I thought I'd blog about it while it was fresh on my mind as we have the busy birthday season coming up! C will be 14 in January, L will be 4 in February, B will be 6 in March, I will be 25 again 33 in April, A will be 2 in April, P will be 11 in May, and Big P will be 38 in June! Hope that non-stick finish can keep up with us! Praising God for all these blessings to bake for!

Annie Oakley Bakes

Well, I can add gun slinging pie baker to my repertoire of "Little Bit of Everything Mama". My father-in-law (Big P's real dad) gifted our family, namely our older children, with a 22 Rifle. I'm sure there is some fancy way to write that, but I don't know about it - so there ya go. Big P set up a target of painter's tape (hey, we are learning to use what we have! LOL) on the end of a tree branch quite a ways away from the back porch. He said it was more than 50 feet and from what he showed me, it looked like it was maybe 65. I hit that roll of painter's tape - twice! Standing up! He later informed me that standing up is the hardest position to shoot in.

And the baking? Well, I made pie crust today! Wooohoo! The recipe makes enough for 8 crusts and the rest is freezable. I made a blackberry-chocolate chip pie. It was incredibly delicious. I'll reduce the chocolate chips to 1/2 cup next time.

We've had a big day including a trip to the library and walmart. We went by Red Box and I was able to get The Great Discovery (Thomas) and Nim's Island. So, it was movie night tonight at our house (minus Daddy :( ) with popcorn and cheap ($1.25) pizzas. :)

Our family is gearing up for a big year with 4-H. Our children will be doing shooting sports (C will be doing rifle and shotgun and P just rifle), food and nutrition (including the food show), and swine for C, and rabbits for P! I'm so glad we have found a thing that everyone in our family can enjoy, because the thought of running children all over the place for various activities makes me feel stressed! LOL