For Your Sweet Tooth: A Sprinkled Special!

I love it when I discover a birthday theme that is clever, cute, and well designed. How about Sprinkles? Yes, these colorful collections can be found throughout this theme, from decor the activity ideas. Kirstin of Kojo Designs created a fabulous setting, favors, and fun with this adorable birthday theme.

How about throwing some of that sprinkly fun to a Birthday Wall, showcasing more of your child's loves? Yes, you can easily incorporate the funnest of themes to your creation celebrating your child's personality in all of their glorious dimensions.

Have some sprinkle-based fun and celebrate the best of your child for their special day!

A Pretty Princess: Pink Playfulness

This Mom, Abby Larson, who wrote the post, SMP (Style Me Pretty) at Home: Audrey's 4th Birthday, showcases how you can have a terrific birthday and use what you've got (with a bit of super frugal spending to fill in the gaps). With pink enhanced photos galore, Abby shows all the dimensions and elements of her daughter's 4th birthday, with activities, decorations, and costumes. A Perfect Party for a Pretty Princess, indeed!

When you have a birthday party with such adorable decor, you'd want to embellish your child's Birthday Wall with some of that glitter going on! There are so many wonderfully fun and fancy options with how you can visually please while enhancing the self-esteem of your wonderful child. Add some pizzazz and have some fun!

Fun at Home with Bounce!

I love the simplicity shared in today's featured post, In Praise of the Old-Fashioned, DIY Birthday Party by Katie Granju; it amazes me how something as simple as a bounce house can make a child's day on their birthday. You may be surprised when you ask your child what would make their birthday special; it is often met with something simple and doable.

One of the elements of The Birthday Wall is focusing on what makes your child happy. When we listen to what our children want and why, we can discover what is in the hearts of our kids. And that's what we really want to know anyway, isn't it?

Themed Inspiration: A Penguin Party!

I thought this penguin themed party was the cutest, from the decorations to the cupcakes and then some. But I think what inspired me most about Noah's First Birthday Party: Penguin Style was the celebratory aspect of friends and family for this one-year-old named Noah with his parents, Abby and Rick. This was the perfect birthday story of how one life can change another for the better in ways that are just awesome and wonderful.

This post truly inspired me with the application of what makes a child truly special--one of a kind--in reference to The Birthday Wall and how we can show this clearly as a visual in ways that help our children understand how much we love and appreciate them. Noah's story is a perfect example.

Outdoors, Anyone? It's a Summer Time Party!

Are you looking for some great summer-style ideas for your child's birthday? Well, Becky Sher provides quite a few, from food to activities, invite ideas and decor. This fun outdoor theme post is sure to spark some inspiration for the outdoors as you celebrate your child.

Some of the decor ideas Becky provides can be incorporated into the birthday wall you can create in conjunction with this very fun, summertime outdoor theme. I provide some terrific theme ideas in Chapter One, A Thoughtful Thread: Choosing a Theme in my e-book, The Birthday Wall: Create a Collage to Celebrate Your Child..

An Affirmation Celebration!

We all want our kids to feel special, don't we? And their special day, their birthday, is the perfect time to show them how much you appreciate them. My good friend, Sarah Bryant, who recently shared about her and her son's Birthday Wall experience, also shares how she affirms her son on a daily basis with her post, Affirming the Good in Your Child.

One of the distinct benefits of creating a Birthday Wall for your child is being able to affirm your children by showing them how much they are loved and valued with a custom visual display just for them.

Reconnecting with My Son through The Birthday Wall

Reconnecting with My Son through The Birthday Wall

By Sarah Joyce Bryant

My seven-year-old son, Cody, was hospitalized in a residential psychiatric treatment facility for eight months. There were two months when his aggressive behavior was so severe it was determined he was not safe to come home for his bi-weekly weekend visits. We were left with ten minute phone calls each night, and two hour visits every other weekend. The unique bond that we had shared suffered tremendously. Cody refused to take my phone calls, and when I came to visit he was distant, not the loving, cuddly boy I knew. I believed because of his Asperger’s, I had just become a person who visited him, not someone he really knew and loved. He started to call me by my first name. I was no longer mommy. 

Cody’s birthday was coming up, so I started reading “The Birthday Wall: Create a Collage to Celebrate Your Child” by Dawn Herring. Herring focuses on learning what is important to your child and what your child loves and making a beautiful birthday banner that celebrates your child using the things you’ve discovered. Displaying the banner on their birthday shows that you know who they are and you are listening. It is a keepsake for them, something they can look back on years from now and have a sense of who they have been and who they are now. I didn’t get a chance to make a birthday wall for Cody the way Herring suggested, but her book sparked an idea. Instead of making a birthday wall that Cody wouldn’t be able to display in the hospital, I decided to put it all into a binder with each page depicting a special time we had spent together over the last year or something special about him.

Cody with his Birthday Wall Binder

Cody's Favorite Things in his Birthday Wall Binder

The day I brought him the binder, his entire face lit up. He went through each page and read all about himself and his family. It was the first time in months he spent the entire visitation with me. He was so proud of it that he walked around showing all the staff. It was a reminder to him that I loved him, that I was listening to him, and that I knew who he was. Our relationship changed after that. He started taking my phone calls again. He started to call me mommy again. He had something beautiful to look at every day that was all about him, but that also served to remind him of his family and the times we had spent together and how much we loved him. He still goes through the binder even though he is at home now. Each time he has the same reaction of pure joy.

I am so appreciative to Dawn Herring for creating such an amazing book that helps parents celebrate their children. I am so grateful that it had such a positive impact on my son when nothing else seemed to work. He needed me to SHOW him that I loved him because words were not enough.

Editor's Note: This story was shared by Sarah Joyce Bryant who purchased my e-book, The Birthday Wall: Create a Collage to Celebrate Your Child; she took the idea of the Birthday Wall display and put it in binder form for her son. This shows there are different approaches you can take with The Birthday Wall and create a wonderful, self-esteem inducing effect for your child. Thanks to Sarah for sharing her story for her son Cody.