People weren’t kidding when they told me kids grow up fast! Wasn’t it just yesterday Gracia was that little baby crawling around the house? I miss hearing her little hands on the ground as she would follow me wherever I went. 
But even though I miss that stage, there are a lot of things I’m loving about the age she’s at now! Like when she gives me a big hug, or wants to put her “lipstick” (chapstick) on when she sees me getting my make-up on. 
Anyhoo…we had a party at the park this Saturday, mostly with family. We celebrated Gracia’s birthday and her cousin’s (it’s actually Cameron’s cousin’s daughter, but we’ll just say cousins for simplicity sake). The girls were born just 3 days apart and they really liked sharing the party! Plus since I had someone to help with food it was easier and cheaper!
Yesterday, Gracia’s actual birthday, was started with some Fruity Puff cereal I had let her pick out for her birthday. We gave her the gift from us. A duplo set…and it was on clearance! I’m not ashamed that I bought my daughter a clearance birthday gift! She enjoys the toys just as much if they’re on clearance as full price and I enjoy them more knowing we saved over $10.
Then at lunch I got Gracia a free Sonic meal that they give to kids for their birthdays (you have to sign up for it). For supper we went to Chik-Fil-A and got her a kid’s meal. Usually we just buy her some nuggets and dollar menu fries, but since it was her birthday we went all out and got the kid’s meal. lol
Then on the way home we stopped by a prairie dog town. We didn’t actually see any prairie dogs, but we did get to see lots of ants, a burrowing owl and his owl hole. We knew it was his hole because of all the dead frogs and bones around it.
Over all I think it was a pretty nice birthday for her and I’m sure thankful for the 4 years I’ve had to spend with this little girl!
I know that at this time in Gracia’s life she might not notice that you always home make cakes and other things, but dont you think it will bother her when she gets older that her mom wont spend the extra money to buy her a bakery birthday cake and wont buy her a full price toy? That might sound really shallow, but I am a devil’s advocate in most situations and I think that if I were your daughter, it would make me feel like I am not worth spending the money on.
Thanks for your concern. As far as the cakes go, when I was a girl my Mom always made me whatever flavor of homemade cake I wanted, and I have fond memories of it and that’s part of why I do it with Gracia. Also, we were thinking of getting Duplos even before we saw them on clearance, and there was no damage on them. We can’t afford to spend a lot of money on toys and things for Gracia, but we show her love in other ways, like by spending lots of time with her and giving her lots of hugs and kisses.
I didnt mean to come across as snotty or mean. I just meant that I thought it was strange that you would be so excited about getting a toy on sale. I too had many a homemade birthday cake and I enjoyed all of them. I am lucky that I was blessed with everything that I needed / wanted and was also showered with love and affection from my parents. I think that I was just trying to say that it isnt bad for parents not to buy toys on sale or make the birthday cake.
When I was growing up I preferred home baked cakes and such, and still do. Though the store bought cake at Gracia’s party was good, I liked the home made one far more. To me home made food shows alot more love than shelling out money for someone else to do it. Even at my wedding the expensive wedding cake was delicious, but the “groom cake” that my mom made was far superior in my opinion. (German Chocolate with the frosting on top to look like a Ball and Chain)
As for full price toys or what not, I never thought about things like that growing up, if it’s a toy I liked, I liked it, never cared about the price, later on it life when prices meant something to me, I didn’t play with toys, well at least not as much.
We have spent $2000 on birthday parties for my son and his 40 closest friends (everyone in his grade). My son’s favorite party was this year (for his 11th birthday) which was a sleepover. The boys stayed up all night, ate pizza, had nerf gun fights and played the Wii. They had Root Beer Floats instead of birthday cake and loved it. How I wish I could take back all of the expensive parties we gave when he was younger. It was a waste of thousands of dollars which could have been used to pay down our mortgage.
As a working Mom who has bought tons of birthday cakes, I can tell you that my son’s favorite birthday cake was the Red Velvet layer cake I made when he turned 8. He loved the clumsy decorating on top of the cake, made with love.
Lego’s rock! I wish I could send you our millions of old legos but my 11 year old still plays with them. He now creates all of his own war machines with them. They are great for creative play. It doesn’t matter that they were on sale.