Who Are You? A Topic for Each Week of the Year {Week 4: Birthdays}

Week 1: Birth
Week 2: School
Week 3: Hobbies

4. How did you celebrate birthdays as a child?

There are a lot of things I remember about celebrating my birthdays as a child, and the funny thing is that almost none of those things includes presents. I only remember a couple of big presents that I got for my birthday as a kid. What I really remember is spending time with friends and family. As the birthday girl, I would get to choose my dinner. I never had a set thing that I always asked for. I remember asking for taco salads once, lasagna another year, and pizza another. It just all depended on my mood. I wasn't a terribly picky eater, so there were lots of things that I liked.

I also remember that on the Sunday nearest my birthday, my grandparents would come and visit. I always got so excited when they would come. Both sets of grandparents would usually make it out, and we'd have cake and ice cream and I'd get to open a couple of presents. I really loved having my grandparents come over just for me; it made me feel very special.

When it came to the cake and ice cream, I generally didn't care much about the cake. I've never been a big fan of cake, and especially not of icing, but I LOVE ice cream. I would always have to get some kind of fruity-flavored ice cream because I'm not a huge fan of chocolate, either. There were quite a few years where I didn't even eat any of the other cake; my mom would make it for the benefit of those attending my parties. I would just eat a bigger portion of ice cream.

Isn't that cake adorable?

My brother Ben is on the left and my Grandma Brown is on the couch in the background.

I also usually got to have a friend birthday party. My birthday is in the middle of July. It gets hot in Utah in the middle of July. So the main theme I remember from my childhood birthday parties is water. We would always end up playing in the yard with water balloons or squirt guns. One year my parents got me a Slip 'N Slide for my birthday, and it became the main event at my birthday party that year.

We would also do cake and ice cream at those parties. One of the most memorable birthdays in that respect was one year when my parents decided to put trick candles on the cake. No one but them knew they were trick candles, and when the candles would not blow out, my friend Andrew laughed and laughed and laughed for way longer than was necessary. He thought they were the funniest things ever.

The birthday party that always sticks in my head the most, though, was my tenth birthday party. I got to invite a few select friends to go to Classic Skating and Water Park with me, and I still remember it being the funnest birthday ever. We got to go roller skating and eat pizza and go on awesome water slides.

L to R: Clifton, Andrew, me, Brindi. I was a little excited, I think.

L to R (I think, sorry it's kind of fuzzy): Brindi, Amelia, me, Elise

Me and Elise

Andrew and Clifton look thrilled in this photo.

The whole group. Shaun is on the front left, and his mullet is amazing. Pretty sure my mom cut his hair.

One of my favorite memories from this birthday party is of Clifton. He was terrified of the big slides, so he spent two-thirds of the time playing in the kiddie pool. The rest of us finally convinced him near the very end of the party to go on one of the big slides, and he LOVED it. He was so sad that he only got to go on the slides a couple of times before we had to go home. This has been made an especially sweet memory because Clifton passed away about seven years ago from brain cancer. He was one of my very best friends growing up.

I always loved my birthdays, and I think that's because my parents and siblings did such a great job of making me feel special. It's interesting to look back and not remember most of the presents I got, but I always remember the people I was with and the fun that I had.