Living Lovely

Milestones.... How do we celebrate milestones such as acheivements, birthdays, graduations and well milestones? That was the question posted by Mt. Hope Chronicles in the latest of the Living Lovely With Family series:

Birthdays: We live away from family but it has happen with great frequency that someone [family and or friend] comes to visits around/during one of the boys' birthdays.
Here is a special birthday occasion:

This was during Dan's first deployment and he came home for his two week leave and we celebrated Cyrus's first birthday.
And because 1st birthdays are so cute:

Solomon has yet to have a birthday party because it is around Labor Day and many of his friends are away vacationing one last time or super busy getting ready for school so we'll be doing something extra special for his birthday in lieu of a birthday party. I am halfway tempted to give a kid party one last shot for mid-September this coming year... So we usually celebrate both of their birthdays with just family.

Acheivements: Dan puts his acheivements on the fridge and for other less tangible acheivements we celebrate with nice homemade dinner or we go out. Praise and high fives seem to work well for the boys. My acheivements are usually an end result of something: making dinner, making or doing something, etcera so usually I get the "I love yous" and "Thank yous" which works for me since I am thankfully not working in a 9-5 job with a boss and that rocks. My greatest acheivements are my marriage to Dan and our two boys which I get to enjoy everyday...

Graduations: So far we have only celebrated Solomon's graduation from Preschool. It was a lovely affair of pining homemade butterfly wings so that the kids could soar in the upcoming year and cake/ice cream. Dan is still only 3 classes shy of his college degree and I'll let you know what we do when that is finally done! Graduations from diapers to being potty trained was a nice stash of cool underwear- Batman, Superheroes, Transformers, Sharks, etc

Cyrus believes that everything should be celebrated with ice cream which is why an ice cream maker is on his birthday wishlist and then cake or cupcakes but we usually mark the milestones with words of love and affection...