As many of you with January birthdays know, it can be a tough month to have a birthday. I tend to be recovering from Christmas both on an energy level and a financial level when it's time for my daughter's birthday. She turned 10 yesterday.
By the time we ring in the new year on December 31st and get the children back to school on the 4th, we are really scrambling to put together her birthday. Add the fact that three of us were sick this year left us with a procrastination mess.
When it comes to birthday and Christmas presents we lean more to retail presents rather than thrifted. They often get something small nearly every weekend from a yard sale. On Saturday I picked up eight pieces of clothing (gap, H&M, Children's Place) for Cerys that cost me $8.00. She's aware of the difference of the thrifted dollar versus the retail dollar so splurging a few times a year in the retail world is a special treat. In order to stick within our budget and our frugal ethics I do try to find quality items on sale. This year I hit the Hanna Andersson sale on December 29th and picked up tights ($8), organic pajama's ($20), a hoody ($20) and some leggings ($12) all for drastically reduced prices. It's not often they receive clothing with original tags attached.
She wanted to go somewhere grand for her birthday like six flags. She was also interested in going ice-skating and even threw in the idea of going to Traintown. Yet with Cerys still on the mend from being sick and the fact that we were very conscious of our money so close to Christmas we asked her what a dream day would be. It turned out that she wished for her best friend Arah (and family) to come over for lunch, eat cake, play board games all afternoon, share a dinner together and finish off with the opening of presents. I loved the simplicity of her ideal day.
It's the kind of birthday that I could handle both financially and energy wise. She asked for a chocolate cake and I gave her this based on our favorite pancake mix; Pamela's.
This caked is just smothered in the richest icing that I have ever tasted let alone made. The entire cake was incredible and the recipe very simple. You don't even realize that the cake doesn't have a crumb of gluten in it. I used three cups of her pancake mix for this recipe. I buy Pamela's mix at Amazon and have a 6 month subscription which lets me buy 3, 64-ounce bags for $11.33 each. This automatically arrives every six months. This is the best price that I have been able to find. For those in Sonoma County, Pamela is based up in Ukiah and I would consider it local.
For lunch I served seaweed wraps with wild smoked salmon (from Costco), avocados (organic and on sale for .99 cents each) with olive oil & sea salt. To accompany the wraps I made a large bowl of coleslaw.
While we were planning to play games all afternoon, the children decided it would be more fun to kick around the soccer ball and rollerblade for a couple hours. The adults didn't mind this one bit as we sat around the table drinking wine and enjoying conversation which led to quite a bit of laughter. (post holiday stress release maybe?)
The cake was so filling that our dinner plans changed to a simple bowl of brown rice, green onions and tamari sauce. Cerys opened her gifts and we said our "thank yous" and "goodbyes" to our friends. Cerys was all smiles when she went to bed. A truly happy girl having experienced a soulful and unbeknownst to her, a frugal birthday. I found with Cerys merely being around people who cared for her was equally as good as renting a bouncy castle or heading to an amusement park. And as a family we saved a lot of money by keeping it simple.
***thank you for all your comments on Friday's post. I plan to spend part of my workday going through each one and taking note of your preferances and sending you each a reply with my thanks****
Oh, what a great birthday!
Your sweet girl will always remember this.
Awesome Selena!
Posted by: Sandy | January 11, 2010 at 09:58 AM
What a lovely, lovely birthday. That cake looks so yummy.
I had only a few birthday "parties" growing up--most birthdays were spent doing simple activities like these. I loved it. and one of the only gifts I ever remembered and still love? A beautiful ring my mom passed to me that her mother had given to her. It's not worth much in the dollar sense (and, of course, my mother spent zero money), but it's still one of the few possessions I have that I'd grab in a fire.
Posted by: This Thrifted Life | January 11, 2010 at 11:42 AM
What a happy day for you all. My birthday is two days BEFORE Christmas, so that really stinks! At least you can find birthday presents when there are so many wonderful sales. Good job!!
Posted by: Jeanie | January 11, 2010 at 11:51 AM
Happy birthday to your daughter! And a milestone birthday. The day sounds lovely. And congratulations on raising a daughter who would delight in such a day!
My birthday was Saturday (I'm a tiny bit older than your daughter, LOL!) The only person who every complained about it was my ex-husband. My son who lives out of town called (and posted happy birthday on facebook). My older son, who lives in town, took me out to dinner (inexpensive, which is the best anyway!). It was a day off, so I sat around like a slug most of the day, watching DVDs while working on a quilt I'm making for a wounded soldier. I took the day off from taking down my Christmas tree (a work in progress). A great day!
Posted by: Sue Kreft | January 11, 2010 at 01:26 PM
My birthday is in a few weeks and this is exactly the kind of day I wish for.
Posted by: Jessica Star | January 11, 2010 at 03:54 PM
My Hannah has a January 6th birthday, so I know exactly what you are talking about! Ours was also a simple celebration. She loved it!
Posted by: Donnelly | January 11, 2010 at 05:37 PM
My youngest is born three days before christmas so i understand the madness. I always feel guilty as his celebrations seem to be consumed by the festive season. I must say that your cake looks lovely and even though it is 7am here i am drooling.
Posted by: allison | January 11, 2010 at 08:58 PM
Happy, Happy Birthday to Beautiful Cerys. You made her B-day perfect Selena. Sending you both hugs.
Posted by: DeeAnn | January 12, 2010 at 03:16 AM
Happy Birthday, Cerys! My older son also has a January birthday, he turned 16 on Jan. 3rd. We used a Christmas gift card to take him out to the Mongolian Grill, which is his favorite (a fun experience, and a safe choice for gluten free too!). I made him a gluten-free angel food cake, which is his yearly choice (from scratch using the Bette Hagman recipe).
It sounds like you had a lovely day, honoring the wishes of the bday girl and spending time together. Perfect!
Posted by: Paula (Momma Pajama) | January 12, 2010 at 05:42 AM
Happy Birthday Cerys!
Posted by: Nancy S | January 12, 2010 at 10:08 AM
Can you post your cake/frosting recipe?
Posted by: Holly | January 24, 2010 at 11:21 PM