Birthday dates + Books we gave our kids

One of my favorite traditions that my husband and I have for our kids is a birthday date in place of a big birthday present. We do like to give them something to unwrap on their birthday, so I also always get them a book. I love this combination!

When my oldest was turning two, we had a four month old as well. I had the idea to take her to the local dinosaur museum (she was very into dinos as a toddler), with just Mom and Dad. She hadn't had a lot of time with just her parents since the baby had come. We did this in place of a big present and got her a book to unwrap and she loved it! We also loved it, as it meant making memories with her for her birthday and reducing how much stuff we were bringing into the house.

Now that we've had our final birthday of the year (for the kids anyway), I wanted to share what we did for each child's birthday date and what book/s we ended up getting them!

Parker

Birthday date: Cereal Party watching a favorite TV Show

Book: Game Over by Benjamin Bird

The book we gave Parker is a short little one (I think it has three chapters in it) called Game Over. She found this book on her Kindle when we had the free trial of Kids Kindle Unlimited and loved it. She would read it over and over again until the free trial ended and then she missed it, so I thought it would be the perfect book to buy her.

All of our kids ended up choosing lower-key dates this year, which ended up being perfect as we are juggling older kid traditions with our new baby (I tried giving them each a different option, but this is what they wanted and we weren't going to complain).

There is a little bit of back story with Parker's desire for this date--when her older sister turned 10, we started doing a late night movie night with her each week after her siblings are in bed. Parker has been very jealous of that and can hardly wait until she's ten to join. This date was a way for her to do a movie night like that a year early and she loved it.

For the show, we let her watch Leverage with us. Leverage is one of our favorite shows where we got Parker's name. We've talked about the show and shown her some different clips of the character she was name after, so she has wanted to watch it for many years now. She was super excited to watch some episodes with us before she officially turned ten (and before her older sister watched any as well). It made the night even more special to get out cereal (something we usually only eat on Saturday mornings after chores) as the treat.

Rylee

Birthday Date: Cereal Party with special cereal and a movie

Book: Barb the Last Berzerker by Dan Abdo

Barb the Last Berserker is a graphic novel that my kids have checked out from the library many times and loved. Rylee recently got very into them and kept renewing them and rechecking them out (until I decided to buy them for her, then I made her return them). It's a fun series and I wanted to own them. We got her the first three in a box set.

Rylee wanted to do a cereal party for her birthday date as well, after seeing Parker do hers. I was open to the idea, but we didn't have a show that would make it special for her the way we did for Parker, so I was worried it would be a bit of a letdown. To make it more special for her, we added a little twist--I took her earlier in the day to the store and let her pick out a new kind of cereal to have that evening. She loved picking it out! It was a hard choice, with so many to pick from, but she eventually picked ... Fruit Loops with Marshmallows! For her movie, we watched The Karate Kid, which she loved. It ended up being a very special night together and she was glad she picked it as her date.

Oliver

Birthday Date: Coldstone Cereal and Playing Video Games

Book: Magic Treehouse Graphic Novel and The Princess in Pink: Cat Catastrophe

Each night after scriptures and before I read a novel outloud, Ben reads out a book to Oliver in bed. At the time, they'd been reading through the Magic Treehouse Graphic Novel and the Princess in Black books and loving both. We owned most of both series, but not the newest ones of either, so that's what I decided to get Oliver for his birthday. He was so excited and loved having Ben read them to him!

For his date, he really wanted to go get ice cream at Coldstone, so he could get blue ice cream with candy in it (one of his sisters brought some home from an activity they went to earlier in the year). We took him to Coldstone while my sister-in-law watched the kids and he got his blue cotton candy ice cream and picked putting gummy bears in it. He also took some home, just like his sister, and couldn't be happier. Then during Leah's nap, we took him into the office for the second part of his date--playing video games with Mom and Dad. He loves to play video games, especially on Ben's Steamdeck, but he is still young enough that he needs a lot of help, so this was the perfect date for him.

Ashtyn

Birthday Date: Play Harry Potter Legacy with Treats

Book: Just Add Magic by Cindy Callaghan + Fun and Easy Crafting with Recycled Material

I bought these same books for her cousin just a month earlier for her birthday, so Ashtyn was excited to match! Just Add Magic is a book I've never read, but I've heard it's really cute and it combines cooking with magic--a perfect combination for Ashtyn. She and her cousin are really into crafting, so this crafting book is practical and fun for them.

For her date, she wanted to play video games with treats--it's her favorite birthday date. Because she did a Hogwarts themed birthday this year, she leaned into the theme and played Hogwarts Legacy. For the treats, I made them "Harry Potter" themed as well (we did things like cream soda for butterbear and pretzels for wands). I even made little notecards for each food to label what it was. We had a lot of fun eating treats and playing through the game together.

That's what we did for our kids for their birthdays this year! We had a lot of fun helping our kids feel special on their day and making new memories with them. What birthday traditions do you have? I'd love to hear from you the comments below!