Tess's 6th Birthday

Tess’s 6th Birthday

Tess’s birthday was is on July 31st! She’s the only summer birthday in our entire family and her birthday always brings us to discuss when THE best birthday is. Britt thinks she wins because it’s close to Christmas and she gets to have the elves visiting and the Christmas decorations up. Most of us think Tess is the winner because a summer birthday means you can do literally anything you want all day since you don’t have school. However, the downside is she also never gets to celebrate her birthday at school either!

Def some pros and cons either way!

We learned last year that Tess’s birthday has the added advantage of being shared with…Harry Potter! His birthday is July 31st as well so this year she wanted a Harry Potter celebration.

I love me some birthday parties but once we bought the house at Disney we transitioned into Disney birthdays over parties so we had just gotten back from her birthday celebration EVENT a couple days prior to her actual birthday. I was team LAZY DAY for sure which made it even easier for her day to be super fun because mama just wanted to CHILL.

We keep actual birthdays pretty simple but we do love traditions.

We kick off the day with ALL coming together to wake up the birthday child with a birthday song. It’s always a special moment! You can see the far left picture was Tess’s last night of being FIVE and the ones beside it are her waking up as SIX – doesn’t she look older? Thankfully she asked her Mama to snuggle her and carry her to breakfast.

Tess had a bit of a tough time transitioning from five to six. Which is funny because so did I as a kid! I’d say “I’m five and I’m going to be five forever.” Tess told me when I tucked her in that she was just going to pretend she was still five. I like to tell the kids a bit about the day they were born when I tuck them in before their birthdays but Tess was NOT having it. She got very emotional and said she just really wanted to pretend it wasn’t her birthday. Thankfully that was a passing emotion as she was all about the celebration the next day!

Another tradition is to have special donuts at breakfast. We don’t often buy the bags of donuts (something I grew up LOVING because my dad ALWAYS had them!) and it’s an easy birthday treat! I usually try to get a few decorative items in the theme of their choosing (a banner and plates) and then a birthday balloon 🙂 I’ve bought this Hedwig one a couple times now!

It was a TESS YES kinda day! She wanted to have solo play time with each of her siblings so she spent time in Kye’s room building LEGOS with him and time with Britt playing Harry Potter.

She also got to decide the menu for lunch and opted to have a picnic outside and then go SWIMMING.

My kids are OBSESSED with Pasta Roni which is so random. They call it “stringy pasta” and she was thrilled to have it for lunch. She also requested yogurt, orange cheese stick, pretzels, strawberries and a juice box. Easy enough!

I found my childhood Barbie pool and the girls were THRILLED to get to play with it. I should have saved it and wrapped it up as a birthday gift because it was a huge hit! I’m glad I had them play with it in the bathtub because it def has a few leaks 😉

They were adorable setting up the “Mommy” with her book laying out watching the kids swim. Very accurate 😉

They also did NOT like the bathing suits that the Barbies had. They told me they were “inappropriated” and asked if they could use some of the clothes to make their own bathing suits to make sure the girls were covered. Proud mama moment for sure!

Tessie got to choose what she wanted for dinner and rather than going out to eat she asked to have Daddy’s pancakes which worked out great! She also got to wear her “special birthday outfit.” Ya’ll this mermaid costume has been a long-time hit now!

All the kids pick out gifts for each other on their birthdays and write super sweet cards to each other too. It might be my very favorite thing on their birthdays 🙂

My dad is obsessed with Elvis and it’s so cute that Grandpa and Grammie have started gifting the kids Elvis stuff (This year’s book is Shake Rattle and Roll) 🙂

Aunt Katie always busts out the epic presents and this color change Barbie is SO COOL. The girls LOVED revealing her and it’s def a must-have item on a gift list as it’s affordable and has that unique element!

The thing Tess asked for and wanted most was a Beanie Boo Owl and she was SO thrilled!

I also FINALLY made her a Shutterfly book from our special solo trip together. The girls LOVE having picture books and I love giving them as gifts for them.

Kye passed down his Star Wars 5 Minute Stories book for her which was such a thoughtful gift. I also bought my THIRD purchase of these marker making kits as the kids love them so much and Tess asked for her own set for her birthday.

Her big gifts though were focused on her new room! Perk of a kid getting a new bedroom near their birthday…I could blend my bedroom budget with the birthday budget 😉

We got her this super awesome hanging chair for under her treehouse bed and then also got her a Beddy’s set for her new bed that matches her new room!

Even better? Beddy’s hooked me up with a Discount Code for anyone on the hunt for one 😉 Shop through this link and use code JOURNEY for 15% off your Beddy’s purchase (code shouldn’t ever expire!).

All the BIRTHDAY SWAG!

Tess said she wanted a Harry Potter birthday cake so I ordered one from Sam’s. This was my first ever Sam’s cookie cake experience. Yall. $18 for THIS!!!! And it’s double decker with icing in the middle. A-MAZING.

I told Zach we’ll save the cost in the yearly Sam’s membership just on cookie cakes alone!

To end her special day Tessie had her first sleepover in her new room! We didn’t officially move her in until the next day but she kicked off the excitement with her fellow big kid siblings 🙂