Since yesterday was my actual 25th birthday, I wanted this week’s post to be about 5 of my all time favorite birthday memories to date!

1. My 10th birthday. My family was in California for vacation, and I was MISERABLE about turning 10. I thought double digits made you old, and I was trying so hard to cling to my youth (honestly, just chalk it up to how weird kids are sometimes). But we went to my aunt’s house for dinner one night, and since she knew how upset I was, she’d actually planned a little surprise party for me. While I didn’t know most of the people there, it was just one of the nicest things anyone had done for me. I was also sad about being away from my 1 year old lab, Milo, so not only was my birthday card themed with different labs, but I was given a stuffed yellow lab to keep me company while I missed my puppy.

2. All the Florida birthdays. My grandparents lived in Florida for a solid portion of my late childhood/teen years before coming back to PA. We usually spent a week or so visiting them in Florida over summer break , and with 3 family birthdays between July and August, a birthday was usually celebrated. Even after my grandparents moved, my family continued to visit Florida, and we still celebrated birthdays there, mainly spending a day or two in the parks as a birthday gift for me. Honestly, I crave a little cake from Publix almost every year now. I don’t like store bought cake typically, but I will fight you for a Publix cake.

3. My actual 24th birthday was a weird one, as we’d just returned from Oahu, and were gearing up to leave for Orlando, so I didn’t really want to do anything on the actual day. My mom took me out for a mani/pedi, my dad baked me my favorite cake (yellow with chocolate icing). But when we got to Florida, Don surprised me with a stay at the Contemporary, one of my top Disney World bucket list resorts. We watched Happily Ever After from outside of the California Grill, returned to our room, and honestly, falling asleep to a view of Cinderella Castle was one of the sweetest birthday memories I’ve had. To read about that surprise, check out this post!

4. My 21st birthday. I’ve never been one to do big parties with friends, I’d rather do a small dinner with them and a bigger celebration with just my family. And that’s what my 21st birthday was. My cousins, who I hadn’t seen in years flew up from Atlanta and stayed up past midnight with me to ring in 21 properly. The following afternoon, family came over, I played water pong in the backyard with my grandfather (I lost), ate a million tacos catered from Moe’s, reveled in the company of family I hadn’t seen in quite some time, and then blew out the candles on a Krispy Kreme donut “cake.”

I seemingly have no pictures from this birthday, but here’s what was left of that donut cake after we got into it.

5. Not a particular year, but a recurring tradition. Every year, for as long as I can remember, my parents, despite my constant protests, would tell me the story of my actual birth-day. We’d either go out for breakfast at the place of my choosing, or my dad would make breakfast at home, or in later years, I’d just enjoy sleeping in - though my parents would wake me up just before 9am, to celebrate the actual time I was born. If it wasn’t a milestone birthday, and we weren’t in Florida, I liked staying home and doing absolutely nothing, honestly. If “nothing” meant going out for a few hours and just doing whatever I felt, great, if it meant literally just sitting on the couch and playing Scrabble while watching all the Harry Potter movies with the family, wonderful. But I just liked being in the company of the people who were quite literally responsible for my life. At the end of the day, my dad would bake my favorite cake, I’d sit in the kitchen and watch as my parents sang “happy birthday” (seriously what is one supposed to do while people sing you a song whilst holding a flaming dessert), make a wish, and then enjoy some cake together.