Oldest Gryffindor daughter is turning 11 on Sunday. I've spent most of the day carving a stamp of her favorite animal for her and would really like to plant a birthday box for her. However, all 4 of us letterbox under our trailname, and the girls don't have their own trailnames. So theoretically, if I plant it for her, we'd be stamping into our own box.

I'm not particularly opposed to the girls having their own trailnames, it's just that it's our family "thing" and we always go together. (Except in May, when Mr. Gryffindor and I are going to Maui on our own... we're just going to have to box without them!)

I just don't seem to have a good idea on how to accomplish this. I guess I could also give her the stamp to her for her personal stamp and not even plant a box at all. Who has planted birthday boxes for their kids... and what did you do?

Carianna of the GG (who is clueless... as usual)

Couldn't you plant it for her and give her the clues to find it on her own. On the first page of thelog book you could include a little back story of the box and why it is special (and why you are the first finder on your own box) If I found it later, I would enjoy the history and not think it odd at all.

Galaxy4

What if each of the girls had their one micro-mini stamp... like some we have by Lisa Frank that are on the tips of pencil looking things. If the girls had a tiny stamp they could easily stamp it around the family stamp, or stamp it as their signature in the birthday letterbox log.

We each have our own stamps in our family of five. But, we almost never hunt boxes. I'm a planter at heart. We have found, though, that trying to stamp five big stamps in a log book takes up a lot of room and I sort of wish we had the option of only using one when it was more appropriate.

-Quiet Place

I think you are trying to do a surprise box for her, so this may not help.....

We did a birthday box for my son, but it was in honor of his birthday (and after his birthday), and we planted at the place where his party was (the community center near our house ;-)) and mentioned the first names of friends that came, and it was related to the theme of his party. He had a "star party" and we did star and planet stuff, and it was at night - we were supposed to look at stars, but it was cloudy, so we had a campfire and roasted marshmallows (seven 5-7 year olds around a fire, in the dark, with pointed sticks, and flaming marshmallows - was I insane - yes I was! We all survived...thank goodness!)

The box is called "Seven Stars" (it was his 7th birthday) and he delights in telling people that's "his" box, and anyone he meets that he knows has found his box (because he remembers the sig stamp of everyone who has stamped in), he proceeds to tell them exactly why it's called Seven Stars, and all about his birthday party (of course, they already know this, because it says so in the box). He goes absolutely bonkers if he sees the stamp (which he helped design) in someone's book.

Anyway, that's our experience with planting a birthday box, after the fact....

Let us know what you end up doing - I'm always looking for great ideas!!

Mama Fox

Gweny helped write the clues for her Birthday series (The Hundred Acre Woods Throws a Birthday Party) so she knew about the stamps. If it is a surprise, I agree with everyone else, it would be neat to see the story of the box and why it is special to her! And you can be first finder of your own box, it just doesn't count towards your F-count, I may be mistaken about that but I think I read it somewhere on one of the boards.

Anyway you decide to do it, I can tell you Gweny never stops talking about her birthday series! Catherine