It's (almost) my Birthday! - Amuse Bouche #12

Hello and welcome to Amus Boosh. I'm Bridget. How are you? Here you're gonna get just a little bit of me before our weekly release of Dinner Plus Drinks on Sunday. And this week it's almost my birthday, so we are celebrating. Before we really dive in and get going, I just want to acknowledge that I had to consult my twin sister for this one just to make sure I didn't miss a memory. So obviously, we share a birthday. Her name is Shannon. Hi Shannon. So she shared a couple things about her memories as well, and I wanted to walk through some of my very most memorable birthday parties, plus share a few birthday traditions. And if you're looking for some ideas of how to make your birthday, your friend's birthday, your kid's birthday just a little more special, I'm gonna share a few of the things that we do every year that aren't a lot of work. I'm a busy, busy mom like everybody else out there. Um, so a fun thing or two that you can do to make birthdays even a little more special in your household. So we grew up celebrating big time. So birthdays were a big celebration, holidays were a big deal, and um there are some really fun stories from birthday parties that I wanted to share with you. Um I'm not great at remembering exact ages, but I think I'm doing these birthday parties in the right order. So I'm gonna share my five most memorable birthday parties from the youngest age to oldest. And first, this one was so special to me because um, as I mentioned, I'm a twin, and it was always really important to me and I think Shannon and my parents that we were treated as separate human beings. So we are two minutes apart in age, but we had very different interests, and we still are very different to this day. Um, so we had a birthday party at our house, and it was really fun, great time. We went to a small grade school and had um, I think 12 girls in our class, maybe 13 on some years, and I was better friends with certain ones, and Shannon was better friends with certain ones. So one year my uh parents made sure we each had our favorite theme. So instead of sharing a cake, they got us each our own cake. We each got our own treat bags and our own party hats, and that year, my favorite theme apparently was 101 Dalmatians. Well, Shannon's was trolls. Um, hilarious because trolls are back if you have kids. Uh, we were huge trolls fans as kids, and I guess I was a huge 101 Dalmatians fan. So um, we I were distinctly remember sitting at the dining room table. Shannon was on one end and I was on the other end, and we each got to blow out the candles on our respective cakes. And I guess in retrospect, looking back, um we I guess we probably made our kid our friends choose a side, which wasn't very nice of us. Um so sorry about that, friends, if you're listening. Uh, but thanks for putting up with our shenanigans. So that that party was just memorable because my parents took the time out of, you know, busy party planning season, which I can see now it's a lot when you have kids to try and like make sure you make a birthday special. Um, and they made sure that we felt like individuals. So hooray. Thanks, Mom. Um, the next party was perhaps my most memorable party. I could not wait to tell you guys about this is extra, and this just shows you how much, I guess, where I get all of my extreme party planning from. So we had a surprise birthday party. I distinctly remember walking up the sidewalk, walking in the front door, and our friends were hiding behind our island in our kitchen. Jumped out, surprise. But this was a surprise party to go to the roller rink, which was like a big deal when we were kids. I don't know if that's still cool, is it? I hope it is. Um, but my mom handmade poodle skirts for us. So I think everyone at the party had a poodle skirt. I can't remember, but we had handmade poodle skirts, and we must have been real into that at the time. I distinctly remember getting the question, you know, throughout my life of just like, hey, if you were like ever to live in a different time frame or era, what would it be? And I was always the 50s, like I wanted to wear saddle shoes and poodle skirts and go to like um, you know, have a milkshake and a cheeseburger. Uh so we had this surprise roller skating party with homemade poodle skirts, and man, I wish I still had that poodle skirt. It would never fit, but it'd be really fun to give to my daughter. So that was a really awesome one. Next up, this was fourth grade, I remember because I had a real tomboy phase, and my sister so lovingly reminded me that she went to this party in a cute floral dress, and I was wearing a tracksuit, swishy pants, teal swishy pants to be clear. Um, yes, I went through a real big tomboy phase and wore swishy pants in public, I guess. So um we went to a magic show. Now, this is no Triss and Chris magic show who we who we're buddies with now, and um, but this was some magic show, and it was held at what I think is now the Belfry for anyone that's local. Um, they did some kind of performances back there. I can remember no details about it besides that it was there and it was some kind of magic show. And because it was our birthday, we got to be the people on stage when they like call for public participation. Shannon got her head cut off in a guillotine, and I got to levitate. And like to this day, I still just fully believe in magic. And I need to know how they made me levitate. So that was super fun. Um fourth grade. I'm gonna fast forward a whole bunch of years now because I don't remember in between now. Like we were Shannon and I were both trying to remember like what was our like what do we do in high school for birthday parties? And we always knew our birthdays were special and we felt special on those days, but we couldn't remember our our parties. But the next party was a pretty memorable one, and I actually refer to it all the time because this was a a formidable year in my life, I think. This was my 25th birthday, and probably one of my favorite birthdays. If you know me at all, you know I love the city. I love to get dressed up and go out and have an excuse to do that. And we went to Las Vegas for our 25th birthday. It was eight girls and celebrating a twins' birthday party, and there's no better way to do Vegas, I've learned. Um it's actually the well, I've been to Vegas for a business trip or 10, but um, it's the only time I've been to Vegas like for fun, and it was awesome. Um, I happened to have a client that um had a very close relation to Wynn hotels um when I worked when I was planning weddings. So this client was able to give us two complimentary rooms at the Wynn and some access to a couple of the clubs that the Wynn owned. Um, and man, I we also are our friend Jody uh knew a club promoter at the time, if I recall correctly. So being girls in Vegas is certainly easier than being men in Vegas, is what I learned. And celebrating twins' birthdays with a group of eight nice-looking women also makes it really easy, which is just like Vegas is such a shisty place. But we had so much fun. Um, Brittany, our other sister, came along to, you know, make sure none of us died, uh, which was a funny turn of fate because that's not quite how it worked out on that final night, was it, Britney? Um, so our 25th in Vegas, man, super great. We just like hung out at the pool during the day, went out to every club at night. Uh, we kind of lost people like flies as the days went on. So I think there was our our birthday was the final night, I believe, our actual birthday. And by then, I think we had lost two soldiers, maybe three. So that was a super fun one. I highly suggest if you can take one birthday and it's it's gotta be that sweet spot when everyone in your um friend group, you know, doesn't really have kids yet or other huge commitments, and you can find a time to just go all out. It it was like my last big hurrah. I mean, that that sounds dramatic, but it it was just I remember it distinctly. It's how I kind of like remember those moments and that phase in my life, and it was just a super fun time. So 25th in Vegas. And then fast forward five years, and oh boy, what can change. By our 30th birthday, I was pregnant with Elliot, and we were at a rental house. Um, our sister, Brittany, um, doesn't live locally, but she always is very good at um celebrating our birthday and usually comes home for it. And we often go to Oktoberfest up in Milwaukee, things like that. Um, but this particular year it was our 30th, and she was like, wow, what do you guys, what do you want to do? And Shannon and I like to celebrate so differently often that um it was lucky and good and nice that I was pregnant because I was like, you know, let's just have a low-key. You know, I don't want to go out, I don't want to really get dressed up and go out to the club pregnant. So um we ended up renting a lake house and it was perfect. It was I lived in Milwaukee at the time, and Shannon lived in Lake Geneva. So this house was pretty much halfway in between. So we had friends from Lake Geneva and Milwaukee meet us there, and we just we had an awesome time. If you ever rented a house with a group of friends, it was um mimosas in the morning, good coffee by the lake, um, some kayaking, canoeing, uh, and then fun games and such at night. It was it was perfect. So we then proceeded to use that rental house um for another of our friend's 30th birthday, and I feel like one other time beyond that. So that was a super fun progression of birthdays. And Shannon said, I wrote this quote down when we were talking about this. I laugh because of how much it's changed. Because she's like, now you're the one in the cute floral dress, and I'm in the swishy pants. So not really. She's not wearing swishy pants, although teal tracksuit, swishy pants, Shannon. Give it a try. So it's it's fun to look back at the progression of all the different parties. I know you probably don't care about my birthday parties, but I hope that it gave you a little inspiration or ideas of things to do, or that it gives you just a minute to like look back at all of the um celebrations you've had. My husband has fond memories of having his birthday party at McDonald's, and I know that might sound silly, but those were really good memories of his. And I never had a birthday party at McDonald's. So we talked through a lot of those things, which it's always fun to just like take a trip down memory lane. So I want to end with a few birthday traditions that we have done either as a kid or what we do now for our kids. Um, when we were little, Shannon didn't remember this, but I distinctly remember every morning before school we would get to open one present. And not always, but typically that was a fun like new shirt or outfit that we would get to wear. Um, to the point where I stopped like picking my outfits out because I knew I would have a fun new birthday one to wear. Um, we then, of course, always got to pick our favorite meal, and my mom was always so great at making, you know, we each got to have a separate favorite meal. Um, because again, we were twins with the same birthday. So we she made two dinners that night, which I know is a feat in and of itself. So I I also have a friend who shared a really fun um birthday tradition that she does with her kids. They light a candle and walk into the kids' room in that morning singing happy birthday. So what a fun way to wake up. Um now with our kids, we we started a tradition that we already are regretting, and our kids are only five and two, but we started this with Elliot's first birthday and have done it now for every birthday since. We fill the kids' bedroom with balloons on their floor. Just it's a silly thing, but they every year, both of them have been so excited about it, and they just play in their bedroom with the balloons all morning, and that's a simple, cost-effective thing that you can do to start the day out. Super fun. And then we also have a mantle that let me be the first to tell you, I do not curate nicely. I try, but it, you know, right now has a random mixture of frames. Um, but on birthdays or special occasions, we always deck out the mantle with pictures of that kid. And then I just have a small whiteboard that we write, you know, we decorate with fun colored markers and we write happy birthday, whichever child or husband. I actually even think um, I'm a little bit behind and have, I don't know, first day of school decor up there still. I'm not sure. Um, but take like that's that's an easy. We just I just go around the house and collect photos I already have printed and I put them up on the mantle, and the kids think it's really fun and we take their birthday picture there. So we love birthdays. I've got my husband onto my side finally of celebrating big time and we have a lot of fun with it. I hope this gave you just a little bit of insight into ideas, fun, or walks down memory lane. Birthdays, birthdays. My actual birthday is on Sunday, so if you're listening to a moose boosh on Sunday, thanks. It's my birthday. If not, Dinner Plus Drinks comes out on Sunday, and we are recording a super fun birthday edition that will drop on my actual birthday. Thanks for listening. Have an awesome weekend!