Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Family Birthday Roster

My family has grown from six to eighteen in recent years. We currently have nine adults and nine kids in our growing family. It is getting harder to remember everyones birthdays as our numbers climb. We celebrate every single birthday as a family. To help us all remember birthdays I have created a Family Birthday Roster. This roster only lists the birthdays in our immediate family. You could certainly add extended family if you wish. The grandchildren that read love to read the roster to keep track of the upcoming birthdays too. 

 I work to keep the roster current as the new little ones come along or as we gain more in-law kids. The roster is just a quarter of a computer generated page that lists the birthdays by month, the date, and the name of the birthday person. I also decorate it a bit by adding some fun birthday graphics. I mount it on another piece of scrapbook card stock to create an 1/2" border on the edges.  I then put a self sticking magnet on the back so that it can be stuck to the fridge or to a magnetic board in our homes for easy reference.

This has worked very well for our family. It is nice to have the reference handy and it is a good reminder of who's birthday is coming up next and that it is time to start thinking of our gift ideas!

Sample:

Our Family Birthday Roster

January.....16th  Peter.....28th  Sue
February...5th  Bryan
March.......11th Chris.....19th  Jack.....30th Pam
April..........
May...........3rd Tiffany

I did it this way so that I could get a lot of information into a small space. If we don't have any birthdays in a month I still listed the month so that all twelve months are there. As babies are born or a marriage adds an in-law son or daughter they can be easily penciled into any month until the birthday roster is updated.

This idea has served our family very well. So, if you have trouble remembering birthdays in your family please feel free to give this idea a try. 


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