Birthdays: A Day in the Life Sunday

Happy Birthday fellow Leos!

This is the time of the year when the lions celebrate their birthdays. Birthday celebrations vary from the quiet and serene to the all-out bash. New to me is the idea of a birthday week where the birthday girl is treated to a week of celebration. I like!

I also like this fun facts about your birthday link from Lifehacker. My fortune cookie reads: You will be invited to an exciting event. Ok, let the invitations roll!

My birthday celebrations are focused on the one day and usually center on breakfast, relaxation, something sweet to eat (I am hoping for a DQ cake this year) and cards.

Did you know that the custom of sending greeting cards can be traced back to the ancient Chinese who exchanged messages of good will to celebrate the New Year, and to the early Egyptians, who conveyed their greetings on papyrus scrolls.

Today, there are over 2600 birthday cards available from Hallmark and with the new Go Card app, you can select, personalize and send a paper greeting cards from an iPhone anytime, from anywhere.

I am partial to paper cards. There's something about opening a hand addressed envelope, opening a card and seeing the birthday greeting chosen especially for me inside. I like thank you notes after interviews too.

Low key is OK on my birthday but this will not do for the kid and we go all out (read; overboard) in our plans. Our party themes have been princesses, snowflakes, polka dots, puppies, a mystery, the theater, Harry Potter, swimming sleep over and my all time favorite - a morning party with pajamas, pillows, breakfast and an ahhsome Finnish storyteller.

So while the kid is making me scones in our new mini scone pan and the husband is pouring the Bailey's in my coffee this Sunday birthday morning, do tell, how do you celebrate your birthday? What's the best tween theme you've seen?

Photo credit: iStockphoto

Back-to-School Shopping: A Day in the Life Sunday

As the Sunday papers expand with back-to-school ads, I begin to plan for school shopping now as I flashed back to my own school shopping days.

We had a school shopping day where we headed out to make the rounds and we likely didn't stop until the last item was in the bag. There were the necessary items we picked up from Genovese drug store like notebooks, pens and a pencil or two (I don't remember having the long lists the kids have now) . . . and then there were the clothes.

One of 3 kids from a single parent home, we had food on the table, a roof over our head and there was not room for extras and one school shopping day, that's where the needs and wants of a teenage girl clashed.

Raise your hand if you remember selecting your designer jeans by the stitching on the pockets. Raise it higher if you were glued to the TV whenever the New York Rangers danced to Ooh la La Sassoon.

While the car was headed for the Long Island discount stores, the pull of the Jordache Look was too much for this girl to resist - even if it meant blowing the budget on 2 pairs of designer jeans when I could have had 5 others with cash to spare.

I don't remember what our back-to-school budget was then but I know it was more than just a bit shy of the $500 sixty-three percent of consumers plan to spend up to on back-to-school today. Take a look at this Back to School 2012 infographic shared by David Erickson at e-Strategy Trends.

I need your help. I have been rather fortunate that I've been able to get by with buying most of the kid's clothes for her in the past but with some of the items I purchased last year still hanging in the closet - unworn - that has come to an end.

Any tips for shopping with tween who has a mind of her own and and no money to go with it?