I will remember this celebration for many reason. One that I am in disbelief that my baby turned 8, second for the beautiful day we had with very warm Hawaiian like temperatures, and third for the exhaustion I felt once the day was over. However, it was the good type of mama exhaustion. When you feel like things turned out like the way they should have (except the charcoal BBQ grill which just didn’t want to light up that day – but we all laughed about it).
Weeks before his birthday we knew it had to be in nature. One thing that the past 8 taught me about mothering and parenting was that I loved doing it in nature with my children, and that my son thrives when he is in the forest. We are lucky to have a large forest just 5 minutes from our house thus found our decoration, treasure hunt ideas, and inspiration for everything from our rosemary decorated cinnamon swirl cake, to wild berry forest fruit punch in custom mason jars, and smores grilled on individual little terra-cotta pots directly from the forest. Thanks pinterest for many great ideas and inspiration.
The children decorated with me and we truly enjoyed the process. The garland above the table is now hanging above my sons bed in his room for fond memories of this special day. The bottom picture shows a dream catcher I made him on this special day. It was something he spoke about often this past year and he hasn’t had bad dreams since his birthday – he happily reported recently.
We made a gnome village in our backyard this summer and had a great time incorporating it into the celebration. My son didnt know about it until his birthday but he was surprised with a sweet story I made up about a traveling gnome from Polynesia who came to rest in our gnome villages’ hammock one night and then decided to take it into the forest with him. The hammock and other items from the village had to be found by the friends my son invited that day.
I don’t think I could have had a better idea than to take six wild nature boys into the forest for a hike that day. They were so excited to find all the things the gnome took with him. A special crow who wrote them a letter had little helpers in the forest who remembered which way he took. When they wanted to scare him away he dropped a few items from the village on the way to a special treasure … I think you get the idea.
It was a wonderful story to create and experience with the children. My favorite picture is the one with the cut wheat field that the kids ran across when they noticed that the treasure was on the other side of the field. Nothing felt better than to see them run in excitement.
If you want to see more about the gnome village there is a separate blog post here.
Do you celebrate your children’s birthdays with a theme? If so which one?
Mahalo for visiting my blog.
