how to celebrate a golden birthday

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Golden Birthday: that rare and exciting birthday when the date of your birth matches your age.

Yes! It’s true! So special? It’s golden.

You were born on February 10 and this year you turn 10?! Waaa-hooo! Golden Birthday!

This year you will celebrate your big 1-6 on the 16h of January?! Yippppeeee! Golden, Baby!

12 on August 12? Golden! 31 on October 31? Yes!!! Golden! November 16 finds you turning 16?

I say ‘golden’ You say ‘birthday’.

Me: Golden!

You: Birthday!

Me: Golden!

You: Birthday!

So how does one celebrate his or her Golden Birthday?

Easy. Lots o’ gold and lots o’ glitter.

We celebrated our family’s first el cumpleaños de oro this past weekend, and it was. . . golden.

Here’s the skinny. . .

• How to Celebrate a Golden Birthday: We got lucky with this one, because Maddy wanted to kick off her birthday in the wilds of inflatables. So because it was her very special Golden Birthday, we did just that.

We’re not ones to outsource this way–when possible, we celebrate on the home front. Or the pool front.

But for this one, it was fine. It was special.  So huge inflatable birthday place it was.

At home, however, we did a few things to make her Golden Birthday special, and these are things that anyone, anywhere can do, with a few simple decorations. (And we didn’t even have balloons on hand!)

What Golden Birthday girl doesn’t want to brush her teeth with a blinged out toothbrush?

• We blinged out her toothbrush, hairbrush, and the bathroom–in gold. Just the star garland and gold curling ribbon. But it looked so pretty–so simple–but so glittery and golden.

• We decorated her bedroom. We hung a simple Happy Birthday banner in her bedroom with tons of gold curling ribbon hanging from it.

Yes, everything yellow was gold for the day. It was glorious.

Golden Birthday place setting: sure, would have been maaah-velous if the utensils were real gold, but Ikea kid-cutlery in yellow will do.

• We set a special, special Golden Birthday place setting just for her.  We blinged out the Special Plate like nobody’s business. Stars, ribbon, garland all golden and all gorgeous.  Yellow (golden!) fork, knife, and spoon decorated with star garland and ribbon.  Yellow (golden!) wine glass blinged out with star garland and ribbon.

• We created a golden centerpiece.  Using a trifle bowl and dollar-store gold ornaments, and of course, gold curling ribbon.  So inexpensive–because we had most of the items, and two packs of gold balls and a few golden trees at $1 each? Who could resist?

From Cake Mix Cooking for Kids, Maddy found Lemon Sandwich Cookies (yum!). . .

. . . and she baked Snickerdoodle cookies, two batches of cupcakes, and iced ‘em all!

A gum ball on top makes them look fab–but they tasted great, too!

Maddy’s sweets–incredible!–and beautiful with a golden garland around them! Small cupcake stand–one of our faves.

• So we ate sweets made by Maddy.Though the party was not at home, we did do a few things to make the pizza- and sweets- eating part of the party a little more personal.  And a whole lot is due to Maddy’s latest baking craze.And really, along the way she was learning a ton. In order to complete this massive sweets order, she had to do a lot of planning; she created a ‘work’ schedule for the week, and she really stood by it.

She read recipes, made some mistakes, and had to try again.  We tried a new icing technique–for us–by putting the icing in an icing bag without the special top and putting it in a swirl pattern.  They looked fabulous.

In the end, looking at her finished work and listening to her buddies gush over the dessert, she was one proud birthday girl.

Maddy lined up the Scratch Art Fashion girls, bracelets, and keychains–

. . . while I prepared bags.  And then she stuffed away!

• The goodie bags were simple–and full of a few fun and affordable activities for tweens and her Golden Birthday buddies. I wasn’t sure how much time we’d have after the jump-o-rama, and I was worried the girls would be bored in the party room of the huge inflatable party place.

So I leaned on my friends from Melissa & Doug to help me find a cool, perfect-for-a-golden birthday party bunch o’favors.  No, no wooden toys this time.  They’ve really expanded their craft line lately, and the Scratch Art Party Packs were perfect!

Want a copy of the Golden Birthday Goodie Bag template? Download maddy’s birthday thank you new (word) or maddy’s birthday thank you new (as a pdf). I created the template using PicMonkey.

We thought these goodie bags were perfect for tweens–and a golden birthday!

We picked up some cool zebra-print goodie bags from Michael’s Craft Store, I created a quick bunch of fun labels (click here to check ‘em out!), and we filled the bags.  We used about two sets of the Scratch Art Girl Fashion Party Set, two packs of the Scratch Art Bracelets Party Set, and the Scratch Art Keychains (or the Scratch Art Stickers or Magnetic Frames would work, too!)

The girls were busy, busy, busy for the last ten minutes of the party–thanks to the goodie bags!  And from what it seemed, they loved them!

Just like Martha Brockenbrough shares in her article, Are Kids’ Birthday Parties Out of Control? our party favors were double-duty: they doubled as a party activity.   So it was a win-win for every party-goer.  And really, I think that we did an amazing job of keeping things manageable–financially and otherwise–with Maddy’s Golden Birthday celebration, thanks to some creative thinking and careful spending.

Though Golden Birthdays are new for our family, I’m a big fan of anything that can add a little extra zing! to our lives without adding a whole lot of added stress or expense.   Golden Birthdays are special–and I think they’re a fun tradition to add to the mix!  No matter where you celebrate a Golden Birthday, you can do a few things at home to make it–golden.

It’s amazing what kinds of awesome golden you can find at discount stores this time of the year, so perhaps stocking up on all things golden now–so you have them on  hand for your own kiddo’s big Golden Birthday–might be wise!?

Does your family celebrate Golden Birthdays?  Please let me know what you guys do–I’d love to learn!

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