Birthday Ideas For Toddlers. Fun Birthday Traditions To Start When Your Kids Are Young.
How To Have A Fun Low-Key Birthday Celebration For Your Child
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My son recently had his third birthday. I cannot believe how fast the past three years have gone, but here we are, blowing out three birthday candles on top of the ole Birthday Cake (slow down, time!) At first, I wanted to have a big blow out for him at the house. But since we had just moved in, I decided to keep his birthday celebration lower-key.
Being in the new house, and now that our son is a little older, I wanted to start a few new traditions that he will hopefully remember later in life. One of the things that I did that he absolutely loved was decorating his bedroom door. When he woke up in the morning, the smile on his face and reaction to the decorations were priceless (I practically sat outside his door for an hour waiting for him to toddle on out).
I had tiny LED lights that I turned on in the morning, confetti balloons, a shiny doorway curtain, and colorful paper fans. From that minute on, we were in BIRTHDAY MODE!
I was happy to be home on his birthday this year. To tell you the truth, I will probably always take a vacation day on my kids birthdays so that I can make it special for them. There's a new tradition right there (at least until they are in school beyond pre-school). We started the day off by hanging out as a fam, talking about the fun things that we had ahead on our agenda.
We ended up going for a walk to the park, where we met up with a mom-friend of mine. She has two girls and our kids adore each other, so it was special for my son to see them on his birthday. They had a picnic basket so we had an impromptu morning park picnic.
In the afternoon, we went to the local train restaurant for cheese burgers. This is a very kid-centric restaurant. All of the food is delivered on a train that circles the restaurant. There is a pony at the front of the store that operates on quarters. My son got to ride on it not once, but twice. It was his birthday, after all!
When we got home, we made a birthday cake. Not just any kind of cake, but a coconut chocolate eclair cake.
This cake was hands-on. My son participated in the mixing, pouring, graham cracker positioning, smoothing, and spoon licking fun. This cake is SO easy to make. It is a blend of instant coconut pudding mixed with cool whip. It has layers of graham crackers between each whipped cream/pudding layer. It is topped with melted chocolate chips and toasted coconut.
Coconut Chocolate Eclair Cake
After we made dessert, we put it into the refrigerator and then went to a BBQ at his Grandma and Grandpa's house. Both sets of Grandparents were there to celebrate, and his Aunties all joined in for the BBQ dinner party as well.
I am hoping that these new traditions of ours will create a lifetime of memories. I will be sure to get my son in on the door decorating fun when his sister's birthday rolls around. One of the best thing about having kids is that it gives a great reason to play up birthdays and holidays again (more just renewed motivation to make these days extra-special). For a mom, seeing their faces light up is the best gift that we could ever get!
