AD – GIFTED | This post, which I write every year, is quite possibly my favourite blog post to write. Flora, our beautiful, kind, intelligent, loving, magical nutcase of a birthday girl is going to be ten years old this month. TEN YEARS OLD. How can it be possible that she’s been around for this length of time already? As regular readers of this blog will know, I ask her the same 20 birthday questions every year, and have done so since she was three. It’s an idea I first came across on Pinterest (back when I used it as an online scrapbook, before we bloggers became obsessed with using it to drive blog traffic…) But I’ll save that little moan for another blog post, so for now, let’s see what she has to say this year.
What did the birthday girl say last year?
Last year the focus continued its three year trend on dragons and marine biology – which is why this gorgeous Blue Marlin* was one of her favourite recent presents. And tigers and cats were also firmly in favour, along with some excellent taste in music (Bohemian Rhapsody).
And what does the birthday girl say this year?
| 1. What is your favourite colour? | Yellow |
| 2. What is your favourite toy? | Schleich horses |
| 3. What is your favourite fruit? | Nectarine |
| 4. What is your favourite tv show? | The Voice UK |
| 5. What is your favourite thing to eat for lunch? | Nibbly bits (cheese, bread, olives, etc) |
| 6. What is your favourite outfit? | My yellow Matalan top |
| 7. What is your favourite game? | Wildcraft |
| 8. What is your favourite snack? | Tunnocks caramel wafers |
| 9. What is your favourite animal? | Horses and ponies |
| 10. What is your favourite song? | Casino Royale (Herb Alpert and the Tijuana Brass) |
| 11. What is your favourite book? | Anything horse/pony related |
| 12. Who is your best friend? | Lucie |
| 13. What is your favourite cereal? | Crunchy honey nut cornflakes |
| 14. What is your favourite thing to do outside? | Bounce on the trampoline (she’s still banned when I sunbathe on it) |
| 15. What is your favourite drink? | Lime and soda |
| 16. Where is your favourite holiday destination? | Lanzarote |
| 17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? | Bessy (toy cat) |
| 18. What is your favourite thing to eat for breakfast? | Bacon toasties |
| 19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? | Pizza and cheesy chips |
| 20. What do you want to be when you grow up? | Marine Biologist |
Our family tradition
To my amazement, our birthday girl has elected nectarines as her favourite fruit, bumping olives off the top spot for the first time ever. And this year sees dragons completely outed in favour of horses. If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll be aware of Flora’s all-consuming passion for our equine friends. Not something I’m at all unhappy about, although my dreams of early retirement will have to be put on ice. Riding lessons, and all the horsey accoutrements, are not cheap! But I’m thrilled she still sees marine biology as her future career. STEM girls rule, oh yes.
Year on year, our family tradition of birthday questions still has the same appeal, it’s a list she really looks forward to completing. And it’s such a lovely thing to do for your children, I think. When she’s 18, I’ll be passing our newly adult birthday girl a folder with all her answers from each year, along with birthday photos. Very scarily, that’s just eight years away, so we’ll be making all the memories we can before then, to give her something to look back on. And in the meantime, Happy Birthday to Flora, our brightest and the best!
Do you do anything like this with your children? Or your nieces and nephews, perhaps? What do you think they would say? Is this a family tradition you’d like to start too?
The Blue Marlin* was kindly gifted to us but all thoughts and opinions are our own.
Love this tradition. It’s got to be interesting to compare answers year over year! Thanks for sharing!
Oh yes, it’s always fun to see what she comes up with each time!
Wow – I remember reading Flora’s answers from last year, how has it been a year already!? As always, it’s lovely to see what Flora is loving each year and what stays the same and what changes. Pizza and cheesy chips sounds like a winning combination to me and a fab choice for the birthday meal. Tunnocks caramel wafers, bacon toasties… this post is starting to make me hungry, haha! It’s awesome to see that the Marine Biologist career is still the number one choice! Go girl! Thank you for sharing Lisa, this is such a special tradition and a very enjoyable post to read. Have an amazing birthday this month Flora!! <3 xxx
I know, time has absolutely swooshed by, how can it be a another year already! Her answers this year did make me laugh – I was expecting a lot of horsey influence but my word, not at much as we got! Thank you so much, Bexa, that’s very sweet of you to say so, it’s definitely a collaborative effort, and one we always love doing 🙂 xxx
This is such a lovely idea Lisa.
Happy birthday to Flora, I hope you all have a lot of fun celebrating x
Thank you, Claire, I’m sure we will! x
Ahh… I missed the previous questions but this is really interesting tradition. It will be even interesting when you hand her these and read it again. Also, don’t worry time flies so quick lol.
Thank you! In one way I’m looking forward to handing her the complete folder but in another way, nooooo, that’s too scary to contemplate 🙂
NIBBLY BITS. A girl after my own heart! I literally have a “nibbly bits” lunch every day I can when I’m at home which I have pittas, hummus, olives and all that good stuff! xxx
Oh you two are so well matched, that’s her dream snack, she’d have it every day if she could! xxx
This is such a cute tradition! I definitely agree with her on the nibbly bits for lunch haha x
Thank you – and yes, so do I! x
Such a lovely post and tradition, it’s always interesting to find out what changes over the years!! And she wants to be a marine biologist when she grows up?! Amazing. Enjoyed reading this and I love your blog, from the posts to the layout, everything is lovely.
Holly x
Ah, thank you so much, that’s so very kind of you! And yes, we’re super proud of her, fingers crossed her long-term career ambitions don’t change 🙂 xx
Sounds like this year is full of yellow sunshine and horses for Flora!
I love the ever-evolving folder you add to as each year goes by; it will be a very special item to have once one sets off down the adult path, and will offer a peek at the past as the years continue to go by.
It is scary how time flies.
Ah, that’s a lovely way to look at it, perfect wording! Thank you, I hope she enjoys looking back on it when she’s 18, I think there’ll be a few surprises 🙂 x
Happy Birthday! I hope that she had a great one!
I love this tradition, it’s too much fun both to go through now and also to reflect back on down the road.
Thank you, Britt! Yes, that’s exactly what I think, I love looking back on the last few years already 🙂
This post is so sweet! What an absolutely wonderful idea, and a great way to a) check in every year and b) compile a wonderful keepsake for when she’s 18. Happiest birthday Flora! Good luck with the ponies! PS – I wanted to be a marine biologist when I was ten too 🙂
Thank you so much! I’m hoping she’ll love looking back on her answers in the years to come, and it will be fun for us too. How funny that you wanted to be a marine biologist as well – must be something about that age, haha x
Ehat a great idea! Happy birthday to your little girl. Double digits!
Isn’t it? Thank you, I know, scary times!
What a lovely tradition! Congratulations xxx
Thank you, we are very lucky 🙂 xx
Lisa, this is literally one of the cutest posts that I have ever seen in my life. It’s so heartwarming! I love that she picked yellow as her favourite colour x
Wow, thank you so much, that’s so lovely to hear! And yes, yellow is one of my favourite colours too 🙂 xx
Awe this is such a sweet post! How much fun to be able to go back and see what her answers were year after year! Happy birthday to her!
Thank you so much, it’s been a lot of fun already, long may it continue!
All happy birthday my darling, have the best day!
Love, Amie ❤
The Curvaceous Vegan
Thank you! 🙂
Oh, this is such a lovely idea! not only for yourself but for Flora too! It will be lovely for her to look back on and see how much she changes over the years. I’d love to do this with my daughter but she’s 9 months old so I wouldn’t get much out of her yet 😉 maybe in a few years!
Also, happy 10th birthday sweetheart!
Love Ashleigh x
Thank you so much, that’s exactly how we feel 🙂 And yes, it would be a lovely one to do with Alexis when she’s a bit older, I bet she’d love it too! x
This is such a gorgeous tradition!
It must be wonderful to be able to look back and see what’s changed.
Cora | https://www.teapartyprincess.co.uk/
It’s lovely, isn’t it? In one way I can’t wait until she 18 but then I think nooooooooo, haha!
This is so precious. Who doesn’t like dragons? – I wish I had one of these to refer to so I can see what I was into as a kid! :]
It’s great, isn’t it? And yes, I wish I’d done this when I was her age too 🙂
What a great birthday tradition! She’s my kind of girl picking Schleich horses as her favorite toy. I am guilty of still buying them every now and then because they are such high quality and I adore horses.
Thank you 🙂 Yes, they are really high quality, aren’t they? I hadn’t realised they’re all hand painted, she’s full of nuggets of wisdom like this, haha.
Aww what a lovely post! A marine biologist! What a great job! My little sister said she wanted to do that a while ago. Happy birthday to Flora! I hope she had a great time xxx
Thank you! And yes, what with all the changes, I did think horses might have replaced sharks this year, but luckily not! xxx
I love this tradition! Great post!
Thank you, I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
This made me smile like crazy. I kinda wish my parents had done this with me when I was a kid 🙂
x Envy
verdwaaldinvertaling.blogspot.com
Oh so do I – I would love to know what my faves were back then, there’s no way I can remember now! x
I’m not gonna lie, when I first saw this pop up on Twitter earlier I was hoping this was you sharing an older post because it CANNOT be a full year since I read the last one??? I’m slightly disappointed olives are no longer in first place, it was always really impressive that someone so young loved them so much. However, it’s amazing she still wants to be a marine biologist. I hope that sticks! ❤️
Sophie
Haha, I know, I mean how fast have the last 12 months gone! I’m a little disappointed about the olives too, although she still snacks on them every day so it’s not all bad. And yes, I hope the marine biology thing sticks, not least because she has a full fish tank in her bedroom and I don’t know what we’ll do with the fish if she doesn’t! x
This was such a fun, lovely read 🙂 Yellow is a lovely colour too x
Thank you – and yes, yellow is one of my faves too 🙂 x
This was so interesting for reading. Pizza is great choice for birthday dinner.
Thank you – you can never go wrong with pizza 🙂
This is such a sweet post and tradition. I love the idea of looking back when she’s older and marveling at who she used to be. Such a wonderful idea. Thank you for sharing!
Thank you! That’s exactly what I’m hoping will happen, that she’ll love looking back at what she wanted to be – fingers crossed 🙂 x
I love reading this post every year Lisa. Flora will love it when she is 18. I have never done anything like this. I love you continued your tradition. 🙂
Via | https://glossnglitters.com
Thank you, Via, I love looking back on previous years already, so I hope she will too in due course 🙂
Happy birthday to Flora! Oooh, I can see a lot of her personality through these answers. She is such a sweetheart. She definitely has a thing for the outdoors! I don’t have children in my family, but this would be something cool to do. This is how you get them to think and maybe push them to think outside the box! Hope she’ll enjoy her year!
Nancy ♥
Aw, thank you, Nancy, that’s so kind of you! Yes, she’s an outdoor bunny for sure, which is great, although the iPad does get a fair bit of use too – all about the balance, haha! x
Sounds like an amazing year. Happy Birthday, Flora!
Thank you so much!
This is such a great tradition! I bet it’s fun to see how her answers change from year to year. I hope she has a wonderful birthday! My daughter turns 13 this month. I’m not ready for those teen years yet.
It’s great, isn’t it? I think it will be so much fun to look back on in years to come. Although I’m not ready for the teenage years either, haha!
This is such a wonderful tradition Lisa and I love reading her answers. It’s great to see that she still wants to be a marine biologist. 🙂 And I completely agree with having “nibbly bits” for lunch.
Thank you, Kim, luckily she still loves answering the questions every year 🙂 And yes, fingers crossed that her passion for marine biology will continue!