Favorite Milestone Birthday

Beau-Coup asked me what my favorite milestone birthday memory was. I was torn between two. One already happened (duh - it's a memory). One happens next year and I'm in the planning process.

First, the one that happened. My 40th. My husband was going to be out of town for work and was not able to reschedule his trip. Normally we don't make a big deal out of each other's birthdays, but come on. This was 40. And we were going through a lot of job stress at home. I realized I could not sit back and wait for him to plan something special for my birthday.

I had to do it myself.

And so I did. I secured a private room in an Italian restaurant and invited all my girlfriends for dinner. Though the restaurant didn't normally serve family style, I insisted. Friends would be arriving at various times depending on their babysitter or husband's schedules, and some wouldn't stay the entire time. I didn't want them spending time staring at the menu and waiting for their food to arrive - especially if they weren't on the same schedule. We had a huge table, lots of wine, great food and conversation. Though I didn't decorate, I did come up with some table questions, placed at each plate, since those coming didn't all know each other. It was a perfect evening.

So next year my daughter turns 13, which is a big deal if you're Jewish. She's studying for her bat mitzvah. While we're not doing anything over-the-top to celebrate, I'm still having fun looking at the details to make them special.

She is making beaded jewelry to sell, with proceeds going to Breaking the Chain through Education (BTCTE),
which frees child slaves in Ghana and provides them with a school for education. To say I'm proud of her for doing this in an understatement. She's already reached her first goal of raising $880 to rehabilitate one child slave, and her next goal is $1,000 to provide school supplies for 100 kids. As the girls' party favors, she will make them all custom beaded bracelets (I'll make a donation to BTCTE for the jewelry). She'll give them in cute containers like this - we haven't decided which one yet (all images are Beau-Coup products):

We look forward to celebrating her milestone birthday in meaningful way.

Here's some great information on kids' birthday party locations in the Bay Area.

Thank you to Beau-Coup for sponsoring this post.