September 04, 2015

How Do You Celebrate Your Child's Birthday?

My son’s 7th birthday is fast approaching and it seems like yesterday that he was just a baby but now he will enter a new phase of his life. No longer a baby, no longer a toddler and no longer in preschool years. How I wish there is a pause button but time incredibly flies so fast. 



Here in the Philippines, we celebrate 1st, 7th, 18th and 21st birthday and now I’m planning for my son’s 7th birthday, it is not something grand but I want it to be memorable. For the very first time, I’m so clueless on what to do, my son is already 6 years old so he is part of the planning stage. The problem is he is not consistent with his likes and wants. 

Since last year, I’ve been asking him what he wants for his 7th birthday so I can prepare the budget. He was so firmed that he doesn’t like party and no games. I asked him if he wants staycation, he said, no, sa bahay lang. I was blessed to have a son who wants simple celebration too.

But now, I have less than a month to prepare and we still have no definite plan. My son is like a typhoon who has no definite path. One day, he likes dinosaur party, next day he likes pirate party, then he likes nerf party, then he likes fireman and so on. How can you plan if there are so many changes? Waah! 

We are not throwing big birthday party since we are not really into that but I’m asking for his theme so I can prepare banner and cake designs. Anyway, I reminisced his past birthday parties. 

1st Birthday 

Since it is the first birthday, we want to throw a party to celebrate his first year. I want everything to be easy so I just went to different fastfood chains to check their birthday party packages and among the three choices, we picked McDonalds Alabang Town Center

The party place size is just enough for my visitors and there is ample parking space. It is not difficult to find so my visitors from provinces will not be lost. It was two weeks after the Typhoon Ondoy so I was thankful because the party was successful and God gave us good weather. 

2nd Birthday 

For his second birthday celebration, we decided to have an out of town trip. It’s been years since the last time we had a getaway so this is the best time to plan a trip.

We booked a plane ticket before his birthday para free pa airfare so we went home day before his second birthday. Lol. We had CDO and Camiguin trip. It was my son’s first ride in airplane, ferry boat and boat. Then we had a mini birthday celebration at home, I invited my in-laws for birthday dinner. 

3rd Birthday

Our initial plan is Enchanted Kingdom but the weather is not good so we decided to go to Ark Avilon Zoo and Fun Ranch in Tiendisitas. 

Then we went to Enchanted Kingdom the following week because I already purchased the voucher two months before his birthday. 

4th Birthday 

My son was in Nursery that time and we decided to celebrate in school. This was the first time that I prepared for DIY party. It was a Lightning Mcqueen party

5th Birthday

My son enjoyed his 4th birthday party in school so for his 5th birthday party, we celebrated it again in school. It was a Mickey Mouse Birthday Party. It is nice to celebrate in school because preparation is not stressful.

6th Birthday 

I transferred my son in traditional school and unfortunately, birthday celebration is not allowed. So we had simple birthday celebration of his 6th birthday at home. It was a Mario Birthday Party

Then we had school field trip in Subic on the day of his birthday. We were on our way to Subic and his classmates sang happy birthday inside the bus.

I have few more weeks to prepare for his 7th birthday. How about you, how do you celebrate you child’s birthday.

Read: 7 Things for 7th Birthday

12 comments:

  1. I always go all out on their first birthday, then I'll make more effort on their 5th, 10th birthday and so on. But I always celebrate my kids birthday and always make them cakes. Love all your photo Sis, so cute and festive.
    www.wish4less.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! So in US, every 5 years is an important event. In other countries, every birthday ending in 0 is special. :)

      Delete
  2. I don't have parties for the kids as it would mean X3 a year to be fair to all and it is too costly.
    We normally have a small cut cake session with the family or maybe bring them on holidays overseas if it happens to be the school holidays.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it is very costly. I'm blessed that my son doesn't like big parties so it doesn't hurt my budget. :)

      Delete
  3. Birthdays are not an important occasion in my wife's culture, so on my son's birthday we have a small family celebration. His school allows birthday celebrations so we arrange for a party for his class.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We love intimate celebration with families too and I love school parties because it is much easier to prepare.

      Delete
  4. Wow! You must really love your son for throwing him birthday parties every year. I remember my parents only throwing me a party when I was 1 and 18 years old. Other than that, we'd just eat out. Hahaha! :)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, I love my son. When I was young, we don't celebrate birthday, I don't even have a cake. lol. So bawi ako sa anak to make it more memorable. :)

      Delete
  5. We celebrate at home since his first birthday. This year, he had two celebrations, one at home and one at school, which he wished for. Daddy and I just cook and invited our neighbors and some close friends and colleagues.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Today must be all about birthdays and parties. I wished a friend happy birthday this morning, took my son to his friend's 6th birthday celebration, watched a TV show about how we should allow our children to plan their birthdays by giving them a few budget options, and now I read your blog about your son's upcoming birthday.
    I think he will come to a decision soon.

    Looks like I better start planning my son's birthday celebration soon too. Perhaps I will get him involved. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Its nice to reminisce how we celebrate the birthdays of our kids. Now my son is turning five he is asking me to have a staycation

    ReplyDelete

Klook.com