How a 7th born celebrates his First birthday...

When Aslan (Sweet Savage #1) had his first birthday, we had a big shin dig. All the grandparents came. There were mounds of presents all over the place. 2 cakes, the whole shebang! When we let him eat his cake...he stuck his hand in it, looked at how messy it was and cried and cried.
We washed his hand, changed his diaper and gave him a nap.
His favorite presents were a small football and an empty box.

Fast forward 13 years to our 7th born's birthday. We have learned a lot since then.
We had a small birthday with Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Gabe. Homemade cake. A few pizzas from Pizza Hut (for us mainly not him since he just started solids and hasn't quite got up to devouring pizza yet.)
He enjoyed his cake more than Aslan did...no tears.
The only gift we bought him was a BRAND SPANKIN' NEW Toilet Brush. His very own! That's right. $3.00 from the Dollar Store and that boy was one happy 1 year old!! See, he's spent the last few months stealing our dirty toilet brushes from the bathrooms and carrying them around the house, only to be told, "No Gil, yucky!" Followed by tears of sadness. So....when his birthday rolls around, do we get him more toys (let's face it...he has SIX KIDS worth of toys to play with every day.) So we got him his hearts desire---his very own blue toilet brush. Out of 7 kids, this gift was the most treasured...more than empty boxes, Duplos, balls and even stuffed animals. So there ya have it.
Go against the flow....being a great parent isn't equal to spending tons of money on our kids' birthdays. It's making memories, eating cake and unwrapping beautiful toilet brushes!!!