A Half Birthday Ritual

I can’t believe he’s seven and a half! I remember your engagement and before your wedding, the wedding, you getting pregnant and then rushing to the hospital in a taxi–just so so soooo crazy and so many great stories over all the years. Love reading along–I can always count on feeling joyful and light when I come and leave your site. Happy half birthday, Toby!

Well this is so adorable. What a sweet idea. Your babes are the cutest… I feel like I’ve been watching them grow up after reading for so many years! For our birthdays, my mom would always have a homemade banner hanging over the kitchen table with one really special present sitting in the middle. Then we would always go to breakfast as a family (she and dad would go into work late, and we’d get to miss a little bit of school in the morning on weekdays). It always felt exciting and special when we were little. Happy almost 8th bday to Toby!

My daughter was born on my half birthday, which we both think is pretty neat. Since her real birthday is close to Christmas I’d love for her to celebrate her 1/2 birthday on my birthday, but we already have so much cake! I can’t wait to dig through the other comments to see if people have other fun ways to celebrate half birthdays!

That is wonderful!!! You invite so much light and celebration into your life. I hope we can all take a note from you :)

We love half birthdays in our house and celebrate with ice cream sundaes, a candle and a song – “Happy Half Birthday to You!”. Fun to see the tradition on your site! :)

My mom always decorated the kitchen with streamers and a sign she decorated so we’d have a party waiting for us when we woke up. When I was a moody teenager who (very stupidly) skipped homemade breakfast in favor of a granola bar and extra sleep, she moved the decorations to the bathroom so I’d have a party when I was getting ready for school. I didn’t want to admit it at the time, but I loved her commitment to the tradition.

My birthday is in the last week of December. My mum had no truck with “this is for Christmas and birthday” present nonsense, I got separate presents, cake and a party. As a kid I always loved the date of my birthday, it meant I NEVER had to go to school on my birthday!!

We celebrate half birthdays too. Recently my husband reminded me that when Sammy turns 4.5 this year, 25% of the time that he lives with us before college is gone. Then my heart broke in one million pieces.

My family has a tradition that when you turn the age that is the same as your birth date, you get a cake with that number of layers. (e.g. I turned 9 on the 9th, and my mom made me a 9-layer cake). This, of course, is easier to do for people born early in the month, though one time my sister baked a 23 layer cake for her friend. But so far, all my nieces and nephews and my own two sons have been born in the first half of their birth months, so they are young enough that it is exciting and not too difficult to pull off.

We also celebrate half birthdays in our family. This is especially important for our middle child who is a classic middle child and also has a birthday close to Christmas. Poor kid wasn’t even supposed to be born in December but he decided to come six weeks early. I always fear his birthday will get lost in the craziness of Christmas, so in June we do an extra fun half birthday. I’m sure all my other kids will get a complex about it, but I never said I was a perfect mother.

That’s a super cute tradition! I love birthdays so this just adds to the fun.

xx

I’m not a mother, I’m an aunt with a handful of nieces and nephews. My Husband – the fun-Uncle – and I as the crazy aunt play our role quite good: we *always* bring balloons to the kids birthday party – the number of baloons matches the kids age. The eyes of the little ones (and even when they are older) always lit, they smile at them and it’s always a hit.
And it’s fun to walk through the streets with a colorful bunch of ballons in ones hand – it makes so many people smile we meet on the way to the party.

My birthday is January 9 and when I was a kid I would remind my parents that I was having a “little birthday” whenever the 9th of any month other than January rolled around (and then of course there was the actual birthday and celebration on January 9, usually with family or school friends). We didn’t really celebrate the “little birthdays” but my announcement would always make my parents smile. Also, I remember feeling super-sad about turning 10 because I realized my age would never be expressed as a single digit again, it would be double digits from here on out.

Also… It blows me away that he’s 7 1/2…. because I remember reading this BEFORE YOU MET ALEX how did this time go by?!!

This is one I’ve never heard of until it happened to me…

My husband (then boyfriend) and I went up to Calistoga for a few days as a break from working on our iPhone app. We had a nice day by the pool and then went out to dinner. When we got back, there was a birthday cake and champagne on the dining table and I was like, “what’s that?” It was neither of our birthdays – like not even close. Then he starts singing happy birthday to me, while holding the cake. I kept looking at him like he was a crazy person, and kept repeating while laughing: “It’s not my birthday!” I thought he was gas-lighting me!!! Then I bothered to read the script on the cake, and it said: “Happy 10,000 Days!” Apparently it was my 10,000 day birthday, which he thought was something worth celebrating. It was definitely a unique surprise, and very thoughtful too.

Oh my, your boys are so sweet and have grown so much. I still remember when I first found your blog and my daughter was only a baby and you announced you were expecting. It’s been so amazing to watch your life evolve over the years especially with your boys being a part of the blog experience. My girls are now 8 (as of Saturday!) and 5. I feel a sense of parallel closeness as they pass through such similar ages/stages. Thank you for sharing these glimpses into your life like this.

I love this idea, I’m sure the boys will remember this very fondly! I was really tempted to adopt the tradition but we have 4 young children and the idea of 8 celebrations (plus Christmas, Hanukkah, and everything else in between)… I’m not sure I could keep up the pace!

I keep it simple but always bake a cake – I wrote about it here, if it’s of any interest-

https://themumandthemom.com/2017/01/06/birthday-cakes-the-easy-way/

Happy 7 and a half! Practically 8 for sure ;)

When I was a kid, my mom would give us a half a cake for our half birthdays, too! We also got half of a small gift–like one sock–which made us laugh, and she sang half of the “Happy Birthday” song by singing every other syllable (“Hap-[silence] Birth-[silence] to [silence]”). The singing part is actually tough to do, which I realize now that I’m a mom and the one responsible for this particular tradition. She was a pro! We learned from this little tradition that there’s value in celebrating the in-between times, which is a philosophy I try to honor.

No half birthdays over here, but since my son was in 1st grade we have had a back-to-school family celebration party every first day of school. It started out as a way to build some happy anticipation for the day, rather than anxiety, and we’ve just stuck with it every year. He picks the dinner menu, and the flavor of cake we get. He is a junior in high school this year, and his cake read “Happy 11th grade, Colin”. (already!….where do the years go??)

Homemade birthday cake! It started when my daughter was turning 1 and we were living in Boston. All of the bakeries offered such expensive and elaborate cakes that seemed like a ridiculous investment for a first birthday, so I made one. Some years it’s from a box, and other years it’s from scratch if I have the time/energy, but we love looking at the pictures from the past few years of the messy icing and uneven layers and our daughters loving it just the same!