“Doh”n’t Forget

A few weeks ago, it was my son’s half-birthday. 

Normally, we don’t make a big deal about half-birthdays, but my kids’ school has an incentive program they do for when the kids are good, or show school spirit, or help others, or when it is their birthday—or half-birthday if their actual birthday is in the summertime.

They are called spirit sticks, and the kids will do ANYTHING for them. 

Anything. 

So much so, that they have been compared to crack cocaine.

No lie.

So much so, that I have considered ordering my own spirit sticks to keep my kids in line at home.

To be fair, not only do the kids like them, but I like them.  Instead of candy or a crappy little toy to reward kids at school, they get these cute little straps of fabric that they thread onto a key ring that is hooked to their backpacks.

But I digress.

My kindergartener has a summer birthday, so he had  been counting down to his half-birthday for weeks, so that he could get his birthday spirit stick.  The big day finally arrived and after school, he ran to the car to show me.  After admiring it, he says, “you know mom, it would have been nice of us to bring a treat to share with my class to celebrate my half-birthday.”

What?!

Apparently, I missed the memo on that one.

The next day after school, his teacher comes to the car with him.  “I know this is short notice, she says, but would you mind helping your son fill out this ‘about me’ poster for tomorrow.  We would love to spotlight him for his half-birthday.  Oh, and he can bring a treat to share with the class if he would like.”  Turns out, she had a whole bunch of birthdays and half-birthdays to celebrate that month, and she was a little behind with the celebrations.

Phew.

So that afternoon I asked him what he wanted to take.  After discussing several options, I learned that half of the kids in his class have some kind of allergy to pretty much everything, so we went with this instead:

This large package of these little Play Dohs had been sitting around my house  because what mother in her right mind actually lets her kids play with play doh, right?! unused for the past few years and they were {miraculously} not dried out.

So we made a little labels for each of them and sent them to school with his completed info poster.

Easy, fun, and allergy-free.

Happy Half-Birthday!