<p align="center"><strong>HERE ARE SOME POSTINGS ABOUT HALF BIRTHDAYS </strong></p>
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"February 29th comes once every four years. August 29th comes EVERY year. Just think - a birthday celebration of my own and it's on my OWN day!"

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"My own birthday is the shortest day of the year. It's official. That meant that when I had birthday parties on my real birthday friends were arriving in the dark. I found that depressing.

It also meant that my birthday was so close to Christmas it often got swallowed up by the winter break--and then there were no kids around. Sometimes the fact that it was close to Christmas meant that friends would do wacky things with gifts, that would be unthinkable with a summer birthday. Here's a pair of earrings for you, one's for your birthday, the other one's for Christmas. How clever? What a drag.

Then this girl named Sharon moved to town and she had the good fortune to have her birthday on the longest day of the year. Upon closer investigation, it turned out, that she and I had the same birthday, but her parents just decided to do her celebrations on her half-birthdays instead of her whole birthday.

More festive, more options, etc. It was an obvious improvement for her. I wasn't willing to throw in the towel completely on my own real birthday, but thanks to her manipulation of the calendar, I got to be keenly aware of my half-birthdays. And it does seem like something to celebrate. After all, until we're about eleven, those halfs kind of matter...doing wonders to separate an old eight from a new eight. When those distinctions can be really important.

So in the middle of summer, my mom would make half a cake, and everyone would sing something along the lines of "hap bir, t- y-, hap bir t- y-." A crazy, and often secret, family celebration.

My older daughter has this issue in reverse. Her birthday's flat in the middle of the summer, and no one's ever around. Ever. Most schools these days do a half-hearted nod at kids with summer birthdays."

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"At the school where I teach, Magnolia cupcakes and Dunkin' Donuts are delivered proudly by children on their birthdays (as the art teacher who teaches every kid in the building, you can imagine how this adds up--in more ways than one). And then in the last few weeks of the year, kids parade around delivering their summer-birthday treats--sometimes two, three at a time. You can't say a real Happy Birthday to them because of course their birthdays are many weeks into the future.

My own kids' school does one big park day for the summer birthday kids. It's fine and dandy, but she was still eager to half a special kind of day. So we started to let our summer birthday daughter celebrate her half birthday in school. She brings in chocolate chip cookies cut in half and we make sure that the teacher knows not to do anything other than distribute them as snack that day. We don't really need the whole class to come screeching to a halt on this day, but she does need to bake some goodies, cut them in half, and bring them in proudly."

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"My younger daughter has the dead-of-winter birthday which is fun to celebrate in school. This summer though, it was fun to have her own special day to look forward to. As a parent it was super convenient to have this one day, a month in the future, to anticipate with her--a great way to break up the long weeks. So on the day she turned five and a half we picked up a friend (one of the few in town) and went to her favorite restaurant for breakfast. We mentioned the occasion to the waitress, but that was it.

Just a nod, a half year older, and nothing else. And on the longest day of the year every year, when people are busy standing eggs up on end, and flocking to Stonehenge, I know that I'm half a year older.

Just a little something for myself."

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"Yesterday, my son celebrated a half birthday! 2.5! I can't believe he's 6 months away from THREE! Anyway, I won't bore you with the "where did the time go" thoughts that every mother has at these times.

I love the idea of half birthdays! Let me tell you why. I had a December birthday, as does my son. Growing up, I loved the pool and water and other summer activities and always envied other children that could have fun, summertime birthday parties. Those just didn't happen in December and especially not in my town where indoor pools were virtually unheard of.

Half birthdays are a perfect way to mark another milestone within a different season.

Now, while I envied summer birthdays, who knew that some of them were envying ME.

People with summer birthdays are not usually fighting weather conditions, but attendance issues. What are the odds that several of your friends are going to be on vacation on your big day? Or at a camp that they've already signed up for? Children of divorced parents often spend the summers with the other parent and some children spend a considerable amount of time at a grandparent's house.

The grass is always greener, right?"

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"We're celebrating in a small way this year. My son still doesn't understand the concept of birthdays, but like most children, he does understand cake and fun decorations! And he especially understands people gushing over and celebrating him.

And that's what it's about really. Celebrating him and the amazing time he's been in our lives!

The HALF cake. All you need is one round cake pan. Cut it in half and stack! I will probably only have five people eating this cake so it's perfect! If you have a larger crowd, since you have leftover cake mix, make another half.

I've seen a lot of half birthday cakes where 1/2 was piped on with a pastry bag. I decided to use the traditional numbers and add a decimal for a modern touch.

The decimal is made of one piece of dot candy "glued" onto the flat side of a white chocolate melt with icing."

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"I've had birthday parties on the brain lately. It seems like it is always a struggle to help children feel unique and special when their birthday falls during a busy time of the year.

In our household, we have three birthdays within the two weeks before and after Christmas. It is such a chaotic, busy time of year it's difficult to plan birthday celebrations. One of those birthdays happens to be mine, and I remember feeling slightly cheated each year when my birthday rolled around. I'm trying to find a way to avoid my children feeling that way since the other two birthdays belong to them. They're too young to understand now but one day they will.

One solution I used when I taught preschool was the half birthday party. Everyone has one and when you're young half birthdays mean you are just that much closer to being a year older. Clearly you are so much cooler, and more grown up, at four and a half than you could have possibly been at just four. I think this will work well with my kids because my December baby can celebrate in June and my January baby can celebrate in July. Not to mention we don't have to worry about snowstorms canceling our plans like we do in the winter (gotta love the Midwest!)"

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“When Robin Lentz was a little girl, she felt she had the saddest birthdays. For her, the most important day of the year occurred on the shortest one. Even worse, it was only four days before Christmas. It would already be dark outside before she got to start her party. Many of her friends wouldn’t be around because they had already left town for the holidays.”

“But the worst part was the gift giving, says Lentz, now 43. “They would do unthinkable things with gifts that they’d never do with a summer birthday,” the New York City art teacher said. “They would give me a pair of earrings and say one earring was for my birthday and the other for Christmas.”

“Then her mother got an idea from one of the neighbors. One day, in the middle of summer — June 21, to be exact — Lentz came home to find half a cake and her family waiting for her. They sang, “Hap— Bir— t— Y—” and threw her a party. Her half-birthday, “a crazy, secret family tradition,” was born.”

This is part of what Della Hasselle wrote as a Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism about half-birthdays for Columbia News Service on March 12, 2010. Check out her story at <a href="http://columbianewsservice.com/2010/03/happy-half-birthday-to-you/" target="_blank">http://columbianewsservice.com/2010/03/happy-half-birthday-to-you/</a>. This is a wonderful description of how the half-birthday came to be a tradition in our family except we had two December birthdays. One was on the 12th and the other on the 21St.

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