Half Birthdays

When my wife and I were first married, we took time to think through what we wanted to do as a new family. I brought some traditions from when I grew up and so did my wife, but as we started "our family" we wanted some things that were unique to us.

One idea that we have implemented with our kids is celebrating Half Birthdays. One of our goals as a family is to make each person feel special. Kids often use half years anyway for their age since they generally want to feel older. So, on each child's half birthday they get to invite over a friend for dinner and we bake a cake and have a special evening together. There are no presents allowed but we do silly things like cut the cake in half, only light half the candles, and sing only the first half of the birthday song (Hap birth t y, hap birth t y, . . . ).

I mention this because today is Collin's 7 1/2 birthday! My oldest son wanted chicken and dumplings for dinner and to invite his best friend Bryce over. We had a lot of fun and it was a special time for Collin.