The Everlasting BIRTHDAY Banner

Not sure how long I have done this...hmmm...it started when we lived on the lake...I know it was for Kane, originally and he was pretty little...maybe 7 or 8? I was feeling bad that we were not going to be able to do anything real special on his ACTUAL birthday...since it was on a busy day in the middle of the week. Gosh, I am now wondering if Pete was even in town that week? Anyway, I created a BIG sign for him that said, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, KANE! (It did say the year...but I cannot remember...7th, I think.) I hung it on the garage door...IN THE RAIN! It was SO much fun because we lived on a fairly busy street...so kids on the bus saw it as well as other friends and neighbors. Needless to say, Kane got LOTS of birthday wishes that year.

Well, from that day forward, it has been a tradition in our family. If you do not wake up to a sign...there will surely be one on the front of the house - somewhere -  when you get home. I HAVE had to resort to hanging the giant signs INside for the kids whose birthdays are in the winter when it is nasty outside....or for the springtime babies whose birthdays battle bouts of insane Chicago WIND.

Now that I think of it...we even had birth announcement signs for the younger kids. I can distinctly remember the one I made ahead of time for Tatum or Fynley. We did not know if they were girls or boys, so there were multiple choice CHECK boxes for Pete and the kids to mark once I gave birth...along with a blank line for them to write the chosen NAME  and actual birthweight of our new arrival. (Yes...we are goofy like that.) I know I have made at least one sign for a little girl I watch after school...and there simply MUST be a cousin on uncle in there somewhere who received this special Smith family honor.

Now I am turning a corner...and I will have to see if it is a HIT or if my children are heartbroken by it. I went to the store today to purchase fabric to create a more permanent Happy Birthday sign. It was so much fun to pick out all the crazy fabrics and I plan to use the scraps for a flappy banner of triangles in all the groovy prints I purchased. I am hoping it will be a classy replacement for the butcher paper and crayon creations I scrambled to hang on each child's special day. I am still working out the details of how I will attach the birthday person's NAME to the sign when it is their turn to celebrate? My mom would smile and shake her head and say something about me never conforming to a pattern or a recipe....but always striking out on my own to MAKE it "my own!" Gee, Mom....who raised me that way?!

Hope to post fabulous photos of a lovely birthday banner here real soon....

As for TOMORROW...Tatum's 11th birthday? Ummm...glad I still have enough left on the butcher paper role...and I will forever have crayons in my house! Whew! I have photos to post THIS week of the sign we made for our wonderful "new" son, Hayley. Welcome to the crazy family, sweetheart!