Happy Birthday To Me!

I have a few friends who knit and blog and we've decided to embark on a blog project that has nothing to do with knitting. We're going to take turns coming up with a topic every Thursday and we each have to blog about it by the end of that day and post links to each other's blogs so that people can see our different perspectives on the same topic.

-Thanks to Merryland Girl for this explanation of the Thursday Blog Project.

This week's topic is from me!

"Ok, topic for 4/1/2010: Since April 5 is my birthday, this week's topic is going to be: Do you have any birthday traditions? If you don't celebrate your birthday, are there any annual traditions you participate in? Tell me about them!"

Other contributors to the Thursday Blog Project are:

Desperate Madness

Froggie Knits Like Crazy

Merryland Girl

Birthdays are a big deal to me. Especially mine!

Before my Grandma Schaeppi passed away in 1987, she would make me the best birthday cake ever each year on my birthday.

Those cakes are such a huge part of my memory, it's hard to believe that there were only seven of them in my lifetime.

It wasn't just for my birthday, all of my siblings and even my parents got a special cake on their birthdays.

A square pound cake, frosted to high-heaven with the most wonderful frosting (and I am usually not a fan of frosting. Or cake for that matter...)

Several of us had birthdays close together, and she would make group cakes, with each birthday person's name on each side of that cake.

My mom and my sister, Cheri got one together (May 21 & May 23, respectively)

My sister Stacey & her husband, Jack got one together (March 27 & April 1, respectively)

And even though my birthday came right after Jack's, I always got my own.

My birthday falls around Easter each year (some years closer than others, this year, it's the day after) and Grandma Schaeppi would make my cake in colors that were so spring-y, and each corner of the cake had a chocolate covered marshmallow bunny on it.

Birthdays are always special in our family, when we were younger, if we were grounded on our birthdays - we were exempt for the day.

As I have gotten older, we don't all get together any more but we have started an even more fun tradition: The Birthday Voicemail or The Birthday Text, lately.

Each year on my birthday, my brother in law Jack calls me and sings "Happy Birthday" on my voicemail. It's a rather profanity-laden version, but it's so funny.

When I was in high school, my sister would call the local radio station and request "Today" by The Smashing Pumpkins for me. One year, when I was single and especially broke, my mom got me a gift card to Jewel.

My best friend, Christy, bakes the most gorgeous cakes I have ever seen. On my 26th birthday, she made me a cake in the shape of a martini glass that said "Martinis & Gin, Now The Fun Begins!", took me out to dinner at Mad Dan's and took me to get a tattoo before we danced the night away at Famous Freddie's.

On my 29th birthday, my friends threw me a birthday party and allowed me to sing "Maps" by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on Rock Band as many times as I wanted without complaining, even though they were all so sick of that song. (I think I sang it 8 times, although they didn't complain, they did leave the room...)

And on April 4, 2009 my friends planned my Bachelorette Party, and made me wear all these crazy "Bachelorette" accessories and at midnight, they let me take it all off and turned my Bachelorette Party into my 30th Birthday Party.

It's all these little things, like waking up to see my text messages flowing in from everyone wishing me a happy day, that make my birthday so special.

I walk around all day with a spring in my step, because it's MY day.

In closing, I would like to say Happy Birthday to my FAVORITE April Fool, my brother in law, Jack. I love you!!