half birthdays

This time of the year is proving to be a birthday celebration time. In addition to Little Miss' birthday, and Mike's birthday, it is also Mini Mister's half birthday. Mini Mister's school celebrates half birthdays for those who were born during the summer months. It really is quite a wonderful and very special celebration at school.

Parents and siblings are invited into the classroom. We created a poster displaying photos for each year, and one extra at birth. For each year, parents describe to the class what Mini Mister was like. He was a very active baby, always deconstructing his environment. He picked the scholarly pencil at his Tol, traditional Korean first birthday. He liked to play with cars when he was two and started pre-school when he was three years old. At four years old he started to play with friends, read books, and he got a new baby brother when he turned five.

After each year, the birthday child takes the planet earth and walks once around the sun, symbolizing all the days he has been alive. At the end we light the candle in the sun, sing happy birthday and he blows out the candle. Then he gets to pick two friends to share his birthday snack with and his little sister got to share too.

After a late-night cupcake making session, a middle-of-the-night baby waking, and an early rise, I was still able to enjoy the celebration, even if a bit still asleep.