Author: Jenn Goddu

Jenn Goddu http://www.birthdayarebest.com I am a writer, editor, and writing coach who also blogs about birthdays!

Pet Birthday Bash Fun

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Birthdays are for everyone — even pets. I discussed this a little previously and ended up asking how people celebrate their pets’ birthdays. Apparently all my followers are cricket pet owners, because that is all I heard from the likes of you!

Yet an infographic a friend forwarded got me thinking about this trend once more. After all, according to this fun facts list: an average of $50 billion is spent annually on gifts for pets. That’s in the U.S. alone. That’s a whole lot of squeaky toys or interactive toys hiding treats for dogs and noisy or feathered mice and scratchy boxes for cats!

Evite must recognize an opportunity. It offers several pet birthday invites in its gallery and offers several suggestions in its pet birthday guide. These include:

  • Decorating with paw prints leading to your door and dressing the pet up (that would not be a present at all for my dog who HATES wearing costumes).
  • Invite other pet friends, but keep the guest list small and the party time short so that animals don’t get too stressed out.
  • If kids are attending, have them woof, meow or otherwise “sing” “Happy Birthday” to your pet in his or her own language.

According to an American Pet Association Poll dog owners celebrate their dogs’ birthdays in the following ways:

  • A special treat
  • A new toy
  • Singing or wishing dog happy birthday
  • Giving dog a party with other dogs or pets
  • Taking dog to favorite place
  • Taking photographs

An ASPCA blogger suggests a pet birthday party is fun for the whole family. Letting the kids plan the party and shop for the gift is a good way to give them something fun to do.

The birthday party also lets you lavish some attention on your pet, the ASPCA points out. Although, considering 70% of animal owners sign their pets’ names on greeting cards we might not need to be too worried about pets being overlooked.

For more animal birthday fun, I encourage you to check out the funny images taken from around the Internet of animals of all kinds celebrating their big day. Here’s just one sample for you (and the image starting this post came from the same list):

Pet Birthday Fun

 

 

 

 

Birthdays as Anniversaries of Grief

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Birthday Grief

Photo credit: Neal. via Foter.com/CC BY

I’ve been binge watching the Gilmore Girls and just this week watched a Season 5 episode where Luke has a “dark day” on the anniversary of his father’s death.

This made me think also of Facebook friends marking death anniversaries. One woman bakes cookies for breakfast on her dead child’s birthday and encourages her friends to do the same for their children. Another does acts of kindness on her loved ones’ birthday and invites us to do the same to honor her daughter.

As one blogger, a co-founder of a group that comforts families facing infant loss, wrote, “the years go so quickly, even as some of the days drag their feet.” She puts a cupcake at her daughter’s grave and sings Happy Birthday there.

Grief doesn’t magically end at a certain point, the Mayo Clinic observes. They reassuringly note a resurgence of grief on special days throughout the year is “sometimes called an anniversary reaction” and isn’t “necessarily a setback in the grieving process.”

The clinic’s suggestions for reawakened grief include:

  • Be prepared. Anniversary reactions are normal. Knowing that you’re likely to experience anniversary reactions can help you understand them and even turn them into opportunities for healing.
  • Reminisce about your relationship. Focus on the good things about your relationship with your loved one and the time you had together, rather than the loss.
  • Start a new tradition. Make a donation to a charitable organization in your loved one’s name on birthdays or holidays, or plant a tree in honor of your loved one.
  • Allow yourself to feel a range of emotions. It’s OK to be sad and feel a sense of loss, but also allow yourself to experience joy and happiness. As you celebrate special times, you might find yourself both laughing and crying.

Dr. Christina Hibbert, who created a three-minute therapeutic YouTube video addressing “Death Anniversaries, Birthdays and Holidays,” notes the first year is the hardest because we don’t know what to expect.

Moving forward, expectations may be clearer, but grief can still rise and fall. Some years the birthday will go by as a day of happy memories. Another day, it will be a rough day recalling sadness.

In addressing sorrow on anniversaries such as birthdays, there’s no best advice. Everyone experiences grief differently, just as we all celebrate our birthdays with individual flair.

If someone you love’s candle has been snuffed, I hope you find some solace in a few of these strategies about marking the birthday with grief or laughter.

Winter Birthday Party Blues

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We all know, scheduled c-sections aside, we can’t usually choose when our baby’s born. Few of us are able to actually schedule conception after all.

This leaves many a parent struggling to plan a winter birthday party for a child. Sure, we pride ourselves on the fact that our child is still in school and can be feted appropriately (at the schools that still allow birthday celebrations in class, that is). But, we envy those who can invite everyone to the house to play in the backyard or who can host a neighborhood pool party with lifeguards providing watchful eyes while the parents enjoy some relaxation in the sun.

As proof, I point you to my son’s second birthday. Ridiculously (hindsight is 20/20) I planned a beach-themed event. I live in the southern United States, so it didn’t seem that crazy. Yet the day of the party arrived and there was an actual snow storm. Not even what my Canadian self would describe as a “Charlotte-snow-storm” where the snow is barely on the ground long enough for us to witness it. No, a real one. We spent the morning sledding, then came home to a number of party guest cancellations because people couldn’t get out of their driveways. Fortunately, I’d learned from the first-year-old Charlie Brown party to invite many people, and we still ended up with a crowd. They were greeted outside our door by this snowman

Winter Birthday Party

Since then, we’ve enjoyed most of our parties somewhere else where the kids can run around like crazy inside, and I needn’t clean up.

But I might have thought differently if I’d read beforehand this great advice (edited below) for winter birthdays from a Philly Parenting blogger:

  1. When in-house, always have a plan. Chunk the party into 15 to 30 minute segments (younger ages need smaller chunks), and allow some time to play freely, but not enough time where things can reach dangerous levels of chaos.
  2. When inside, consider rotating. For bigger crowds, use “stations” where kids rotate in small groups through three or four activities.
  3. Make preparing food or materials part of the party. Decorating cupcakes, designing their party bags, making slime or playdough can help focus the madness and keep kids occupied.
  4. Watch a movie. Or host a BYOD (bring-your-own-device) party — Minecraft marathons work similarly well.
  5. Set up a photobooth. This is super easy, cheap, and especially fun for the school age/tween crowd. Share the photos with parents and kids electronically after the party.
  6. Brave a slumber party…

She suggests that’s the last resort. Having now hosted two of them for birthdays, I know why.

In the meantime, indulge me in this other memory from our snowy/beachy party — my son had no problem enjoying the beach-themed cake I made.

Winter Brithday Party

What Birthdays Are About

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Photo credit: Kalexanderson via Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND

Maybe you’ve already seen the viral video going around of a teacher moved to tears by his students when they throw him a surprise birthday party.

Not everyone loves a surprise, but this feel-good story is proof of the value of birthdays.

English teacher Kyle Simpler enjoys a cake (featuring his favorite cat Felix) and the students have decorated his Burleson High School classroom. Considering the 59-year-old says he’s typically private and his family doesn’t make a big deal of birthdays, the Inside Edition, HuffingtonPost, and 30,000 video views of his arrival in his classroom are certainly a change. Yet, I’d argue, it’s being made to feel special that has the true impact.

I live with a high school teacher. I can bet he too would be thrilled if his students showed him some birthday love. Not only because it’s his birthday, but because it shows appreciation of the hard work he does.

There are other examples online of students surprising their teachers on their birthdays. What I love about these videos is the joy on the birthday celebrant’s face, but also the enthusiasm the students feel for being part of this special day.

We enjoy being part of someone’s birthday. Even over the Internet. Seriously, google searching “students surprise teacher birthday” netted four pages of the same Texas schoolteacher story retold by news outlets around the world. Why? Because it makes us smile, wherever we are, whether we know the person or not, to see someone enjoying a birthday and feeling the love.

That, my loyal readers, is the true value of birthdays! Think I’m weird to love birthdays this much? Look again at the love shared on these special days and you’ll have better insight into why I am such a big birthday fan.

 

Birthday Busters

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When you’re a kid, the worst thing you might imagine happening on your birthday is getting sick. Once you’re a little older, the tragedy is the right person not coming to your party or you doing something that will never be forgotten by your pre-teen/teen guests.

Birthday disasters

Photo credit: anna gutermuth via Foter.com / CC BY

When you’re an adult, though, what are some of the worst things that might happen on your birthday?

  • Dying. com provides a list of celebs who died on their birthdays including:
    • Actress Ingrid Bergman
    • Feminist author Betty Friedan
    • Jazz musician Sidney Bechet
    • Renaissance painter Raphael

Apparently, your chance of dying on your birthday is 6.7 percent higher, according to analysis from University of Chicago economics researcher Pablo Pena.

  • Someone you love dies on your birthday. I can’t find any stats on that one, but that would be horrid. At least here are some suggestions for how to mark the anniversary of the individual’s death.
  • Even just having a horrendous allergy attack on your birthday because there are nuts in the cupcakes or some other awfulness would be pretty bad.
  • Being asked for a divorce or served divorce papers. Huffington Post has two different articles related to birthdays for divorced women (at 25 and at 30).
  • Getting fired. In Wisconsin, a company settled out of court with two employees both fired on their 62nd birthdays.
  • Setting fire to your home. The Daily Mail shares images of a birthday cake candle catching a balloon on fire and turning into a ball of flame.

Plus, I’ve written already about birthday honorees causing a riot, or being fined for celebrating their birthday, or ending up in jail.

Yeah, it’s not so upbeat. So, to end this consideration of birthday busts on a brighter note, enjoy a little schadenfreude around birthdays and check out this Awkward Family Photos’ gallery of birthday disasters.

Lucky Lottery Birthdays

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Lottery birthday Fun Fact

Photo credit: Jeremy Brooks via Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Many of us view our birthday as a lucky day. Some take it even farther and play birthdays to win big in the lottery!

  • A North Carolina man played his family’s birthdays to pick all five numbers and win $246,279 from a $1 ticket. “I’d used those numbers for a while and was about to pick some new ones,” Svedek said in the news coverage. “I’m so glad I didn’t. This feels really good.”
  • A Virginia woman won $100,000 when playing family birthdays on Powerball. She thought she’d only won $50K, but since she spent the extra dollar for Power Play her prize doubled and, according to her daughter, “she just about had a hard attack.”

Turns out, though, this isn’t actually the best way to pick lottery numbers. Sure, the numbers are easy to remember, but lottotutor.com — yes, there is such a site — suggests playing “birth dates starts you out on a disadvantaged path.”

You are, after all, limited to the numbers 1 to 31. Plus, if you do win, there’s a “higher probability of a diminished return by sharing that prize pool…because so many other lotto players also use their birthday numbers.”

Of course another way to incorporate a birthday with the lottery is to buy the tickets as a gift. A 19-year-old received two Illinois scratch off tickets from her Dad on her birthday and won $4 million! (Guess her Dad’s feeling pretty set on birthday presents for his daughter for years to come).

Nevertheless, as I wrap up this blog, I can imagine my logic professor brother rolling his eyes at me for even remotely endorsing the lottery. So, I’ll remind you that your odds for winning the lottery are slim — whether you play birthdays or not.

Seeking a Trendy Party? Try Retro!

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When I think Retro, I think 80’s. I google searched “retro party ideas” and was treated to soda shop props and other ideas from the 50’s and 60’s. This too fits with my idea of retro.

Yet, it turns out Retro can also mean going back to the basics of birthdays. Canadian Family offers a slideshow for its “Perfectly Retro Birthday Party” involving “Old-school games like Pin the Tail on the Donkey and Pass the Parcel” and a cake made with love for a “relaxed homemade vibe.” They also suggest using colorful plates and cups to “dress up simple party foods.”

This was when I started laughing. Yes, I’m all in favor of lowering expectations on parents for the birthday party bash. However, I find it funny that we have to label a low-key party “Retro” to make it socially acceptable.

Yippee! Now parents only need to say they’re going retro to play some familiar and low-budget games, take an easier route to decorating, and accept that the homemade cake may not be as glamorous as the fondant concoction from a bakery.

What else could one do to remain on theme:

  • Have a dance contest – I’d suggest freeze dance, the kiddos get a kick out of trying to stay still the longest. If you really must invest in the birthday you could get a phone docking station that looks like a vintage radio.
  • A piñata, of course, would be in keeping with how birthdays were celebrated “back in the day” before indoor trampoline parks were invented. Personally, I’d go for one that looks like Pacman.

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    Image source: CoolPartyblog.com

  • There are many more “Old School” party games suggested by Red Tricycle. The ones I remember playing are the clothespin drop and bobbing for apples.
  • The Retro party also suggested loot bags with a few things in them and a nametag decorated by the birthday honoree. I’ve bought plain paper bags and lots of stickers and crayons and let the kids decorate their own. I’m a trendsetter. What can I say?

Lots of Birthday Chocolat

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A friend who knows me well suggested I should write about birthday chocolate. As a lover of both birthdays and chocolate, I am game.

Chocolate birthday

Image Source: The Cupcake Cowgirls

So, what does one write about birthday chocolate? How deliciously delectable it is? How deliriously happy you might make a birthday celebrant with a simple box of chocolates? You should already know this.

I was interested to see, though, how the chocolate companies handle birthday offerings:

  • Godiva, for instance, touts its birthday gifts suggesting: “You’ll never have trouble finding birthday presents again now that you’ve discovered these chocolate birthday gift baskets… you’ll be the rock star for getting the perfect birthday presents.”
  • Russell Stover lets you pick the chocolates for your gift box and personalize the packaging by adding text and your own photo (although this isn’t specific to birthdays, but that’s one of the examples).
  • Ghirardelli wants you to “celebrate someone special” by choosing the 15 chocolate squares to go in their gold tin with birthday wrapper.
  • Laura Secord didn’t market for birthdays, but as a proud Canadian I do have to say I thought the milk chocolate NHL team-themed hockey pucks were pretty cool.

If you want to make your own chocolate goodies for a birthday there are many recipes for a #yummybday.

Hershey’s Perfectly Chocolate Cake is an easy recipe to follow.

Or how about these two-ingredient gluten-free truffles from Minimalist Baker.

Birthday chocolate

Image source: Minimalist Baker

More of a white chocolate fan? Try Sally’s Baking Addiction recipe for Cake Batter White Chocolate Fudge (although white chocolate is fake chocolate…).

Birthday yummy

Image Source: Sally’s Baking Addiction

I’m personally a fan of Chocolate Mousse, so here’s a simple recipe for that (although I have yet to make one at home that meets my high standards).

Finally, I thought I’d finish this rumination with a few fun facts selected from Slide Fact’s 22 about chocolate. Did you know:

  • Ruth Wakefield traded her recipe for Toll House Cookies in exchange for a lifetime supply of chocolate.
  • We can overdose on chocolate. A lethal dose is 22 pounds (or about 40 chocolate bars).
  • Every second, Americans collectively eat 100 pounds of chocolate — that’s birthdays or not!

Fictional Birthday Fun

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“HIPY PAPY BTHETHDTH THUTHDA BTHUTHDY”

Don’t worry. This entire blog is not in gibberish. The above is a quote from winnie-pooh.org regarding Eeyore’s birthday wherein Owl writes a birthday message on the (now empty) honey pot Pooh plans to gift his gloomy friend.

“I’m just saying ‘A Happy Birthday’,” said Owl carelessly.

“It’s a nice long one,” said Pooh, very much impressed by it.

This blog has previously featured messaging to kids regarding their birthdays and the positive character traits they should manifest on this oh-so-exciting day. More recently, though, I was thinking of famous fictional birthdays.

  • Eeyore’s regrettably forgotten birthday was one that came to mind.
  • Harry Potter, too, at age 11, suffers the overlooked birthday fate. Until Hagrid shows up — with a cake no less — although he admits it may have been squashed a bit. “I mighta sat on it at some point, but it’ll taste all right.”
  • Bilbo Baggins Eleventy First Birthday is featured on a Huffington Post list of the 10 Best Parties in Literature. After all, he invites the entire shire for feasting and Gandalf’s fireworks.
  • One more that I came across cried out to be included. Per The Telegraph’s Five Best Fictional Birthdays: “Teddy Robinson, at his own birthday party in Teddy Robinson Stories (1952), loses his head completely and sings to his guests: ‘I’m glad you came/But all the same/The party’s really for me.’”

Yet I struggled to remember or find more examples of fictional birthday parties. There were many, many suggestions made for how to host a party in the vein of a various beloved fictional character. Here’s a great round-up of book party ideas.

Still, I found little on fictional representations of characters’ actual birthdays.

Nevertheless, some sites shared the fictional birthdays of familiar characters. You might want to check out Flavorwire’s Infographic (featuring TV and movie characters — I share my birthday with Kitty of That ’70s Show and Peggy from King of the Hill) or Fictional History’s (a more literary version, although not every day of the calendar is full).

In the meantime, help me out. You’re readers. What other birthdays in fiction can you recall?

Hey Shorty! It’s Your Birthday.

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Birthday height

Ok, I do love the Go Shorty, It’s Your Birthday song. Of course, I do. It’s a birthday song!

Yet a recent study in Britain also reveals that your birthday has an impact on whether or not you really will be a shorty or not.

October babies (me again) are on the lower quarter in terms of expected height! December’s babies are the real midgets on the chart drawn by the Telegraph’s infographic team.

A UK study examined the growth and development of 450,000 men and women to find:

  • Children born in June, July, and August were heavier at birth and taller as adults.
  • Summer babies were 10% less likely to be short — under 5 foot 9 inches for men and 5 foot 3 inches for women.
  • Girls born in the summer started puberty later.
  • Individuals born in autumn vs. summer were more likely to continue in education post age 16 years or attain a degree-level qualification.

The authors suggested the results were related to how much sunlight the mother gets during pregnancy, since that in part determines in utero vitamin D exposure.

Oh, and the Telegraph had another article along this lines, reporting on a study of 400 people that said “babies born in the summer are much more likely to suffer from mood swings when they grow up while those born in the winter are less likely to become irritable adults.”

I guess these are more things we can blame on our parents. That is if we’re willing to even consider the fact that our birth month reflects a certain effort on their part nine months earlier.