Category Archives: “how to have a happy” photo series

Revisited: how to have a happy celebration (lessons learned at the beach)

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We are at the beach this week, and the days correspond exactly with how the dates of our first family visit to Santa Rosa Beach five years ago (which is to say, that year, the 4th of July also fell on a Wednesday). Because that week ended up being quite a momentous one for us, I have felt a lot of nostalgia and tenderness this week, especially now that our boys seem like full-on long-legged big kids these days.

So with a bit of wistfulness, I’ve been remembering this old blog post, from our first 4th of July here, and decided I would like to reshare it.

Here’s what I wrote five years ago, about how to have a happy celebration:

1. Be prepared.


2. Try new things.
Hold hands if necessary.

3. Start the festivities with a nap.
Preferably with other people.

4. Add some sparkle.




5. Write your name in lights.

6. Look super-cute.
Matchiness optional.



7. Get a little nutty.

8. Sleep like you’ve earned it.
You have.

Hope you had a happy 4th, however you celebrated!

How to Have a Happy Birthday: Lessons Learned from two 4 year-olds

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1. Don’t take yourself too seriously.
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2. Make a wish. Or two.
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3. Open yourself to learning new things.
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4. Prepare yourself accordingly.
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5. Don’t be shy about telling your age.
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6. Share the yummy.
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7. Let people love you.
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It was a very, very good birthday, and I think four is going to be a fantastic age. (Lots of birthday craftiness details to share soon.)

How to have a happy celebration: lessons learned at the beach

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1. Be prepared.


2. Try new things.
Hold hands if necessary.

3. Start the festivities with a nap.
Preferably with other people.


4. Add some sparkle.




5. Write your name in lights.

6. Look super-cute.
Matchiness optional.



7. Get a little nutty.

8. Sleep like you’ve earned it.
You have.

Hope you had a happy 4th, however you celebrated!

How to Have a Happy Birthday: Lessons Learned Upon Turning 36

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1. Get up a couple of hours before everyone else, so that you can start the day – and the year – on your own terms, and quietly.

2. Stop and smell the flowers –
especially if they are sweet peonies from a friend’s garden


3. Give good hints.


4. But be open to surprises!

5. Let yourself be serenaded.

6. Review your year, and see how it compared to your hopes.

7. Look forward to another trip ’round the sun!

How to Have a Happy Birthday – Lessons I’ve Learned from two 3 year-olds

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1. Greet the day by announcing, “Party time!” and “Where’s my cake?”

2. Eat early and often

3. Let people celebrate you
4. Keep your eyes on your cake (serious focus required here).
If necessary, stake your claim by sticking your hand in the frosting first.

5. Act appropriately thrilled when opening gifts.

6. Party yourself under the table.

7. Say lots of thank-yous.

Thank you for all the kind wishes for my two little boys. It was a great day for them, and for me (though my old body is still recovering from the chaos of celebrating). I read the boys’ birthday post* to them, and when I was done, Little Buddha finished it off by saying, “And they lived happily ever after.” I hope so!

*[In that post, written in the early morning hours without enough java, I failed to say where I got the poem “Little Boys of Three.” A 91 year-old saint in my church mailed it to me last week, with a note saying she had found it while cleaning out her things. She didn’t know who had written it (I did a Google search and think it may be by a poet from the 1930s/40s named Monty Blandford), but she had held onto it since her own boys were three, and after all these decades passed it on to me.]