Birthdays are for celebrating (and a giveaway, too!)

I love birthdays.

But I really don't do a whole lot for them. We are a low-key birthday family.

Over the last year or so, I've begun to wonder if I should to ramp things up a bit. We've made some changes and they've all been great. But I think we need to keep going. After all birthdays are meant to be celebrated!

Think of what they signify:

The day someone awesome came into the world and we get to know and love them.

and/or

The fact that they managed to survive another year (thank you, angels, for saving my boys from all those close calls).

and/or

The accomplishments of the last year.

and most importantly:

The choice each of us made to come to Earth.

That is a huge one.

The decision to follow God's plan and receive a body is monumental. A birthday marks an eternal choice.

I love this sentence in the Family Proclamation (really, I love the whole thing):

"In the premortal realm, spirit sons and daughters knew and worshiped God as their Eternal Father and accepted His plan by which His children could obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection and ultimately realize his or her divine destiny as an heir of eternal life."

Birthdays are meant to be celebrated!

And I got some inspiration recently on how to celebrate more in our family.

I was asked to make a display for our up-coming Relief Society Super Saturday. I ordered the kit I was told to order and got crafting. And the result was these super cute Thanksgiving countdown blocks:

Aren't they lovely?:)

When they were done I randomly thought, "I need to make a birthday countdown."

And then I thought, "What a brilliant idea!":) The boys constantly ask me how long it is until their birthdays. With a birthday countdown they can see how long is left and the anticipation will build and build and build until the awesome day arrives. They will love this! (and so will I...I like my birthday, too;) I'm not so sure about Bret. He's not big on his birthday and eight+ years together later...I still can't tell if he's being honest or he just doesn't want anyone to go to any trouble. But that's another story!)

I don't plan to have it out all year long; just two or three weeks before each birthday. But I'm so excited for Al's and Goose's birthday to get close enough to introduce the idea to them.

And because I love you all, I'm giving you the chance to win a countdown blocks kit for your very own. They come from the amazing Poppy Seed Projects store and they're so easy to make (if I can do it, anyone can)!

Here's what the kit looks like.

I painted mine blue.

Then I cut up my paper. (I loooove my paper cutter!)

Then I mod podged the paper on each side.
(can I make mod podge a verb?...Everybody else is doing it;))

I love Mod Podge.

Then came the vinyl. And look how cute!-

A birthday countdown to ramp up the anticipation for the day we celebrate people joining our family and the fantastic decision they made to get here.

(except I just realized right now, putting these pictures up, that I had wanted the paper under the word "countdown" to have the stripes horizontal...somehow, even after carefully measuring and cutting and gluing, I managed to not see that I didn't cut the paper the right way. Oy.)

Poppy Seed Projects is graciously giving a set of countdown blocks to one of you lucky readers!

If you live in the continental United States, you can enter to win your very own kit and personalize it how ever you want. Make a countdown for Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, Halloween, BIRTHDAYS:), summer vacation. The possibilities are endless!

I want to make more.
Seriously, I love these. It's almost unhealthy.

All you have to do to enter this giveaway is leave me a comment on this post.

Make me laugh and maybe you'll get an extra entry.

Remember, this giveaway is only open to those in the lower 48 (I'm very sorry if that excludes you. I'd still love to hear from you!). Please leave me a way to contact you in your comment, should you be the winner.

And make sure you check out all the other awesome photo essays in the Family Celebration today.

AND head on over to Poppy Seed to see what other awesome stuff they have for you. I love this store so much because they give you the kit and instructions and then you can create it yourself. The projects make me feel so creative and giddy even. I LOVE making things for my home.

My favorites are the FHE magnet board, the picture blocks, the Temple memory game, and of course the countdown blocks. (I'd add pictures, but blogger is freakin' out on me!)

Thank you for celebrating family with me!