HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Carrie Ann Ryan!
Welcome to the blog hop for Carrie's birthday. I hope she has a fabulous day! My own birthday is on September 5th. Do you know what that means? It falls around Labor Day weekend. If you have a holiday birthday, you can relate.
Birthday's were difficult for me when I was growing up. When I was a kid my mom always let me have a big party with lots of people invited. When I got to be the age to have slumber parties, I switched to those. So what was the problem? Since my birthday usually fell around the holiday, most of my friends were out of town. Nobody came to my party! Then at about age 10 my mom dropped a bomb on me. "We don't celebrate birthdays after you turn 13." Her reasoning was that birthday parties were for kids only.
During my teen years my birthday dwindled down even more. I can't remember any birthday during those years except for my 16th when my parents took me to the beach for the weekend.
I loooove birthdays and have celebrated my birthday every year since I turned 18. Last year I had people doing stuff in honor of my birthday for the entire month of September. It was fabulous. People at work made me cards, brought me cupcakes, my friends took me out to several lunches and dinners... the list goes on. My favorite part of all of that was that I got to see friends who I don't visit with often. I was truly spoiled for the last one and I loved every moment of it. I joked about seeing if I can stretch it out for two this year... hehe, I was only kidding though.
I celebrate my son and daughter's birthdays with the same energy. My son never has a large group of friends so I usually ask him what he wants to do or where he wants to go. We usually end up at the water park for the day. My daughter is a social butterfly so she enjoys parties. BIG PARTIES! One year she had a carnival themed birthday. While she was asleep, I rented a helium tank and filled our entire house with balloons. She had about 50 kids attend and half the number of parents. Our house had carnival-type games set up all over, they won carnival prizes, and the kids wore clown hats. Another year she had a Hawaiian pool party. The kids had grass skirts and I made beautiful leis for each attendee.
Birthdays should be a fun day to celebrate you. So on your next one, make it a blast!
Thanks for stopping by! How do you win my surprise gift bag? It'll have something to read, something to wear, and whatever else I decide to add before I mail it off. Leave a comment with your email for one chance to win or follow my blog to be entered twice!
The main prizes for the blog hop are:
1. A Kindle Touch
2. A $60 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card
I was born on Mother's Day...so she usually gets att the attention. That's ok...she did all the work!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday, Carrie!
Cheers, Ash
ashkrafton at gmail.com
What a wonderful mom you are! I try to make my kids bdays special too.
ReplyDeleteThank you for participating in the hop!
Happy Birthday Carrie Ann!
slinkydennis@yahoo.com
Today is actually my birthday :) April 5th so some years it falls around Easter and others not. Easter is tricky like that lol. Surprise gift bag what an amazing prize :) Thanks for the chance to win
ReplyDeletebrandon_savannah@yahoo.com
We never did much for birthdays, a gift or two and a cake, but that's pretty common for our family. We're not big partiers.
ReplyDeleteacm05atjuno.com
I've never had a big party, but my mom always tried to make things special. Disneyland when I turned 13 was my big one. When my sister turned 16, she hung two hundred dollars off the ceiling in ones. LOL.
ReplyDeleteJesse
jesse.kimmelfreeman@gmail.com
I had a big party for my 16th birthday. It was memorable and lots of fun. Thanks for the giveaway! GFC/cheryllynne cheryllynne(at)rocketmail(dot)com
ReplyDeleteAwesome giveaway!! Birthdays are all about my little one now:) She gets topick what we all do..lol!!! I follow GFC Nikki
ReplyDeleteviajeradelmar@aol.com
I had some pretty fun parties as a kid, usually away from home though. Now that my kids are a little older, they tend to want small family occasions at home. I'm fine with that since I'm not much of an organizer, LOL. But wow, what kid wouldn't want a carnival-themed party?! That's amazing. Kudos to you, Wendy! kristinecayne (at) gmail (dot) com
ReplyDeleteMy daughter had her first party with boys and girls. It was absolutely crazy!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the chance to win!
Happy Birthday Carrie Ann!
I follow you GFC as Lisa Walker
sqwalker2@hotmail.com
I always had big parties as a kid. I was always upset when the school lumped all of the kids together (for one big party) of those who had birthdays after school was out for the summer. As I grew older, a day at the beach was more fun than gifts.
ReplyDeleteJWIsley (at) aol (dot) com
Congrats! You won the gift back from me. Please email me at authorwendyely@gmail.com
DeleteGreat giveaway. Thanks for the chance. Love surprises.
ReplyDeletemythic021@gmail.com
At our house, we have a birthday week! Three of our four children have their birthdays within the same week: Jan 31st, and Feb 3rd & 4th - it´s practical in some ways, but how tired do you think we are come monday morning the following week?
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I would be absolutely thrilled winning a Kindle - we can´t get them where I live, 'cause Denmark doesn´t exist in Amazon-land...
Regards, Per
perholbo at gmail dot com'
wonderful prizes!!!
ReplyDeletediannaandpaul@yahoo.com
Growing up we didn't really celebrate birthdays so now we make it up by having great parties for my nieces and nephews.
ReplyDeletesstrode at scrtc dot com
fave b-day I got a gold ring from my mom on my 16th
ReplyDeletediannaandpaul@yahoo.com
I love your enthusiasm for birthdays. Happy Birthday carrie Ann and thank you to all the bloggers who made this blog hop possible.
ReplyDeletewildflowermother@yahoo.com
I'm following your blog! Thank you for the opportunity! I love surprises :)
ReplyDeletesumopalk (at) gmail (dot) com
Wonderful post! Thank you for the awesome giveaway!!
ReplyDeletegfc- shadow_kohler
shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com
Thanks for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday Carrie!
Megonski216(at)yahoo(dot)com
Thanks for being part of Carrie Ann's birthday party.
ReplyDeletegfc follower
Cathy m
caity_mack@yahoo dot com
I follow you.
ReplyDeleteI have 9 kids so we don't do partys every year, when they turn 1, 5 ,10, 13 ,16 and 18. On the 12th my #4 turns 18 and on the 17th my #5 turns sweet sixteen. I let them pick what we are having for dinner every year though. My dh is still unemployed so there will be only family and cake this year. Oh well, such is life.
Z
Seawitch Reviews @ yahoo.com
I love birthday parties! Just another way to make that person feel loved and special!!
ReplyDeleteMel
bournmelissa at hotmail dot com
Follow: GFC: Melissa/ Mel Bourn
My birthday is right before Christmas (20th) so I have never had big celebrations for my birthday. Generally, our birthdays have all always been small, family affairs.
ReplyDeleteJune
manning_j2004 at yahoo dot com
*New GFC follower: June M.
my birthday is in the middle of june but my oldest, his birthday falls around thanksgiving. i can understand trying to get people to come... i have to plan his parties the weekend before usually and every few years it will fall exactly on thanksgiving. it is a little hard to plan a party sometimes but his bday falls when it does and there isnt anything i can do about it.
ReplyDeleteNew GFC follower: Terri Matlock (okmommy0306)
oklahomamommy0306@gmail.com
I grew up with family dinners for birthday parties. Now we don't do anything special for birthdays. Of course it's just my husband and I so we just make dinner together.
ReplyDeleteFollow GFC: Susan White
suz2(at)cox(dot)net
My birthday is really close to both Mother's Day and my wedding anniversary so we usually celebrate with a dinner and my husband gets me one big present (nook color last year!!).
ReplyDeleteGFC Follower : Kassandra
sionedkla@gmail.com
Everyone in our family has a birthday near a holiday.Easy to remember them.Happy blog hop .Deb P
ReplyDeleter.d1@myfairpoint.net
My mom only believed in giving any of us one birthday party, for our sixth birthday. But honestly, I didn't care. Birthdays were never fun and I don't really celebrate mine either though my twin and I have gotten into the habit, the last few years, to go out to lunch and a movie.
ReplyDeleteGFC: VanillaOrchids
Thank you for the giveaway opportunity!
Pam
vanillaorchids69(at)gmail(dot)com
One year, for my twins birthday, we lived in low income apartments and most of the kids went without, so for my twins birthday I made 180 cupcakes, for adults and kids both (the kids got to have 2). That was the first and last time I did that! lol
ReplyDeleteproudarmymom32(at)yahoo(dot)com
Sounds like fun at your house! My family didn't celebrate birthdays, so I went all out for my kids :D
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for participating in this hop and for the mysteriously FUN sounding price giveaway chance! :D
Happy Birthday to Carrie and to everyone that is celebrating an April birthday!!
GFC follower robertsongena
Gena Robertson
robertsongena@hotmail.com
We didn't celebrate birthdays when I was a kid so they were never anything special. After I grew up and was out on my own I celebrated my birthdays.
ReplyDeleteGFC follow as seriousreader
seriousreader at live dot com
Birthdays should NOT stop being celebrated at the age of 13. You're right to continue the fuss.
ReplyDeleteGFC: Catherine
catherinelee100 at gmail dot com
Happy Birthday Carrie Ann!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great way to discover new authors/blogs and visit with old friends. Everybody wins this way! LOL
My favorite cake is Red Velvet and my favorite birthday was my 21st. I was finally legal and I went to Las Vegas.
Thanks for being part of the hop and for the chance to win such a fantastic prize! <^_^>
reneebennett35(at)yahoo(dot)com
Happy birthday Carrie Ann! Thanks for the giveaway.
ReplyDeletebn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
First, I must applaud you for the covers of your books. H.O.T. Whew!
ReplyDeleteI'm a GFC follower - Shannon
Thanks for participating in Carrie Anne's birthday celebratory hop.
bas1chsemail at gmail dot com
I can relate to the holiday birthday since mine is 2 days before Christmas. I never really had parties until my 20's and that was only because I became friends with someone who loves to throw them. :)
ReplyDeleteI have another friend who says the whole month of May is her birthday month. Lol.
Thank you for the giveaway and participating in the hop!
Happy Birthday to Carrie Ann!
trb0917 at gmail dot com
Birthdays are awesome! You get parties AND cake AND presents! Almost mitigates the trauma of getting a year older (but that’s what alcohol is for!)
ReplyDeleteelizabeth @ bookattict . com
Cool idea! Mama make our cakes and we played games like "Pin the Tail on the Donkey." By the time my daughter came along, specialty cakes from bakeries were in vogue and skating parties were poplar. Since I couldn't spend the $$$ to compete, I made a 3 layer Packman cake and we used water colors to pant faces. The kids wanted my recipe for their mamas.
ReplyDeleteMMARVELLAB@aol.com
I'm 38 and we still have a party every year, my mother insists. lol Thanks so much for the giveaway!
ReplyDeleteLmackesy @gmail.com
My birthday use to be the day before everyone had to get there taxes paid. lol. April 14th was a birthday my parents and grandparents tended to kind of dread. only because they were also worrying about the taxes they had to pay. I usually had small get togethers. I didn't have a whole lot of friends growing up. Now I just accept birthday wishes. Only because I focus on my kids birthdays more along with my husbands. I know the giveaway was already done. but I had to post on this. I always make sure my kids and husband have a blast on their birthday's. Plus I don't throw a big deal about my bday. however on the 18th I ALWAYS tell my husband he has to make plans for our wedding anniversary.
ReplyDelete