When my children were younger, I used to pore over Pinterest boards looking for ways to make special days feel less ordinary. The internet did not disappoint. I found hundreds of ideas that looked great, from filling up dozens of balloons to decorate a child’s door for their birthday to creating elaborate signs and classroom-like sets in the front yard to mark the first day of school.
I have deep respect for the creative thinkers who came up with these projects, and I admire the parents who execute them flawlessly. However, I found most of these ideas stressful and time-consuming. Even more importantly, on the few occasions I tried one myself, my kids seemed indifferent.
Eventually, I found a simple idea that’s easy to pull off with minimal time, effort, or money and that all four of my kids love. It’s become one of my family’s most cherished traditions.
A trip to Disney World changed things
My oldest daughter has complex medical needs and disabilities. When she qualified for a wish through the Make-A-Wish Foundation, my entire family headed to Disney World and Universal Studios for a truly magical week. Although the parks were fantastic, staying at Give Kids the World Village was my kids’ favorite part of the trip.
One of the reasons my kids loved staying at Give Kids the World so much was that, during a stay, ice cream for breakfast was practically mandatory. The village is home to a large ice cream parlor with a huge amount of toppings, from standards like hot fudge and whipped cream to more unusual additions such as chocolate rocks and cereal bits.
For most of the kids staying at Give Kids the World, another birthday or Christmas isn’t promised. The staff and volunteers know this and, successfully, try to make every day of a child’s wish trip feel like a celebration.
As I discovered firsthand, ice cream for breakfast is a wildly popular, no-fail way to ensure kids start the day happy and feeling special.
We continued the tradition when we returned home
Since we returned home from my daughter’s Make-A-Wish trip more than 10 years ago, my family has adopted ice cream for breakfast as a cherished tradition.
Now, to mark special occasions, I no longer spend hours decorating the house with streamers or planning elaborate meals my kids don’t really care about. Instead, I simply go to the supermarket to buy sundae bar fixings for breakfast as a treat. Starting the day with a sugary treat isn’t an everyday occurrence in my household, but my family does have ice cream several times a year.
Ice cream for breakfast is easy to customize. To mark a birthday, I always buy my child’s favorite ice cream flavor: mint chocolate chip for my oldest son and butter pecan for my youngest. We also have ice cream for breakfast on the first and last day of school, to wish a child good luck in a school play, and occasionally just because it’s a nice surprise to wake up to a sundae bar on the kitchen table.
Sometimes I buy just the basics. Other times, I set up an elaborate array of flavors and toppings, including multiple sauces and different colored sprinkles. However, even when I go all-out, ice cream for breakfast rarely takes more than 15 minutes to set up from start to finish or costs more than $30.00. Plus, we almost always have leftovers I can use for dessert or for our next ice cream for breakfast. Crucially, ice cream for breakfast is always a hit and appreciated, unlike the expensive and labor-intensive Pinterest projects I gave up long ago.
Over the years, several friends have adopted their own ice cream-for-breakfast ritual. Most of them wonder why they hadn’t thought of it sooner.
