Birthday Wall
When my son had his birthday in the middle of the month we decorated with a birthday sign and the cards he had gotten in the mail. We decorated the wall in the kitchen the space where we always do the big wall behind what we call the kitchen table, which is really a banquet table that we got on sale a few years ago. The sign was long and we stretched it as far as it could go on the wall. Almost from one end to the other. It fell down a few times because for some reason tape has trouble sticking to that wall, or most of the walls in this place. My mom thinks it is because of the type of paint that is on the wall and she is probably right.
We had a small family celebration for Christmas and everyone noticed the decorated wall. Ok, I know his birthday was about 2 weeks ago, give or take a few days, but I guess either I was just too tired or jut too lazy to move the table find a box to put these decorations in and then find a place to store them until we move and until next year. Therefore, they are still up adorning the wall along with my grandmother's picture and a few pieces of my son's artwork. I even have a picture up there from last year with Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, since he had a Toy Story cake last year. I just didn't take them down either. I don't know why. I guess it was just easier to leave them up. I hadn't really noticed them still there since I guess they just became part of the art on the wall.
My sister took a long look at the "birthday wall" and she commented on the number of cards and asked how long I was going to keep it up. I just shrugged my shoulders. When she and I were small we didn't have a birthday wall. We got a few cards from relatives and we always had a cake and ice cream and a couple of gifts. My favorite gift was a Cinderella watch I got when I was 8. But, we never decorated in any birthday decorations. Most of the time we put the cake on the kitchen table or dinning room table and everyone sang happy birthday and the candles on the cake were blown out, if there were candles, and that was that. The gifts were opened and the gift givers got thanked and that was extent of our party celebration at home.
Once and only once I had a party with a few friends. I remember that my best friend who shared the same the birthday, we had parties on the same day. One at her house and mine at my grandmother's house, since we lived in an apartment at the time and my grandmother had a big backyard, so it was decided to have the party there. In hindsight the smart thing to do was probably either change the dates of the parties or had one big party but we didn't do that. So, most of the people went to her party and I got 3 people that came to mine. Probably why I never had another party again. We had fun though and it was more cake for the rest of us was the way I looked at it back then. My aunt was there also with a short green mini dress, loafers, and a white party hat. She wore sunglasses also and to me she looked like she was really in the party mood. She helped serve cake and the rest of the adults were sitting in lawn red wooden patio chairs with party hats chatting among themselves.
My grandmother put on some music from the radio and we just listened to it and then after a while sang and danced.
So, I started this tradition, new tradition, with my son and every year on his birthday I try to decorate for his special day. When he was 2 he had an Elmo party. Not a big party just a few relatives but I decorated with pictures of Elmo and a big sign and a clown that my grandmother had. He had a glass head, sad clown eyes that were painted red and dressed in a stripped, red, white and purple stripes, and on his clown feet were black and white clown shoes. He also had a balloon that had a 2 on it but in the picture it looked more like a z, a 2 turned backwards.
Now, many birthdays later I am still decorating walls and making and taping up birthday signs for him. I don't know how long he will allow me to do this for him but I am hoping until he is at least 30.
We had a small family celebration for Christmas and everyone noticed the decorated wall. Ok, I know his birthday was about 2 weeks ago, give or take a few days, but I guess either I was just too tired or jut too lazy to move the table find a box to put these decorations in and then find a place to store them until we move and until next year. Therefore, they are still up adorning the wall along with my grandmother's picture and a few pieces of my son's artwork. I even have a picture up there from last year with Buzz and Woody from Toy Story, since he had a Toy Story cake last year. I just didn't take them down either. I don't know why. I guess it was just easier to leave them up. I hadn't really noticed them still there since I guess they just became part of the art on the wall.
My sister took a long look at the "birthday wall" and she commented on the number of cards and asked how long I was going to keep it up. I just shrugged my shoulders. When she and I were small we didn't have a birthday wall. We got a few cards from relatives and we always had a cake and ice cream and a couple of gifts. My favorite gift was a Cinderella watch I got when I was 8. But, we never decorated in any birthday decorations. Most of the time we put the cake on the kitchen table or dinning room table and everyone sang happy birthday and the candles on the cake were blown out, if there were candles, and that was that. The gifts were opened and the gift givers got thanked and that was extent of our party celebration at home.
Once and only once I had a party with a few friends. I remember that my best friend who shared the same the birthday, we had parties on the same day. One at her house and mine at my grandmother's house, since we lived in an apartment at the time and my grandmother had a big backyard, so it was decided to have the party there. In hindsight the smart thing to do was probably either change the dates of the parties or had one big party but we didn't do that. So, most of the people went to her party and I got 3 people that came to mine. Probably why I never had another party again. We had fun though and it was more cake for the rest of us was the way I looked at it back then. My aunt was there also with a short green mini dress, loafers, and a white party hat. She wore sunglasses also and to me she looked like she was really in the party mood. She helped serve cake and the rest of the adults were sitting in lawn red wooden patio chairs with party hats chatting among themselves.
So, I started this tradition, new tradition, with my son and every year on his birthday I try to decorate for his special day. When he was 2 he had an Elmo party. Not a big party just a few relatives but I decorated with pictures of Elmo and a big sign and a clown that my grandmother had. He had a glass head, sad clown eyes that were painted red and dressed in a stripped, red, white and purple stripes, and on his clown feet were black and white clown shoes. He also had a balloon that had a 2 on it but in the picture it looked more like a z, a 2 turned backwards.
Now, many birthdays later I am still decorating walls and making and taping up birthday signs for him. I don't know how long he will allow me to do this for him but I am hoping until he is at least 30.
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