They Say It's Her Birthday!

This week's EtsyBloggers Team Carnival is celebrating the birthday of our glorious leader, Joey and Aleethea by writing about birthdays. I have had so many wonderful birthdays that it's hard to pick one to write about, so I have several tales to tell.
When we were children in the 1970s, our mom always did AWESOME parties at the house. There were always games that she devised, except for the year I insisted on the store-bought pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey.

Giant potatoes in spoons for a relay race, pushing peanuts with our noses, 3-legged races, all the classics. When we were old enough to read there were elaborate treasure hunts. She would put the clues all around the yard, our little grove of woods, which at the time seemed like a forest, and house while we were at school. The clues were riddles or rhymes and must have taken a while to devise. Everyone would take the school bus to the party and all was ready as we arrived. And when we were even older and allowed to run around the neighborhood like "wild Indians" there were scavenger hunts begging neighbors for a matchbook that had never been used, a dirty sock, or a colored paper clip. She always made the cake, and even took a cake-decorating class My sister has taken these traditions and really run with them for her children, make 3-dimensional firetrucks, princesses, and Power Puff Girls, having fun games like panning for gold and conducting science experiments depending on the theme of the party.

As an adult I enjoy celebrating my birthday, but don't feel the need to have it acknowledged with gifts or celebrated on the exact day. I've had a few fun parties for myself, including a Chuck E. Cheese  party the year I turned 25. I know my friends thought I was nuts, but once we were there playing Skeeball and Air Hockey, it was one of the most hilarious evenings we ever spent together. A few years ago I had a jewelry party at a local bead store. Everyone got to pick out their beads and make something, and the woman from the shop showed us how to put the crimping bead on to hold everything in place, and then use the pliers to attach the clasp. The store was closed for the evening so we had the whole place and a table for our "cake" of whoopie pies!

My best birthday of recent years was when I turned 40. As a single person and a teacher, saving large sums of money is a challenge, but the week before I turned 40 I was able to close on my first home, a pretty yellow town home in a great location, with a nice deck and protected town forest in the back. The feeling of home ownership is so amazing, and almost every day I look around and get a little internal giggle that it's all mine!
So what's your great birthday?