We love birthday celebrations at our house, and I always have a big party for my children! They invite all of their friends and I’ll decorate the entire house and make food platters. My sister always makes the birthday cakes. Our house is filled for hours with friends and family, and it goes on into the evening. 

For me, I was devastated that that would not happen for my daughter. She turned 12, her last year before she's a teenager. To make matters worse, she was supposed to have been on an amazing field trip in Biloxi to study marine biology. I think she was more upset by this being canceled than not having a party, to be honest! We promised her that we will throw a huge pool party and all her friends can come when quarantine has been lifted and decisions about school have been made. Until then, we partied at home! If your little one has a birthday coming up,  I hope these little tips will help you make your child’s birthday at home a success.

Decorations
You don’t have to go overboard with decorations. We opted for only decorating the yard. Baton Rouge Yard Cards was the only place in town doing the yard signs. The others that were contacted were not available or just didn’t respond to us.

My daughter decided that she was going to open up as many gifts as she could in front of the sign because it was her favorite part. She would even go outside with her brothers and would get a kick out of the cars, walkers or bike riders passing by who would honk or yell, “Happy Birthday!” Every hour, she would go out for about 15 minutes because she said it was too hot to last any longer!

Cake
I ordered her favorite cake. Luckily, most businesses are doing delivery or curbside pick up, so that part was easy. 

For cake time, we had a Zoom call with family only. Everyone sang “Happy Birthday,” and then the birthday girl ate her cake. The original plan was to deliver everyone in the family a care package for cake time, but life got in the way with schoolwork, real work, computer work, you know, everything!

Birthday Wishes and Presents
Friends were calling and texting her all day. We received some videos of friends wishing her happy birthday, and all of the Facebook messages I received, she really enjoyed reading.

Birthday presents were fun. My boys and the neighbor’s son (who is in quarantine with us), hid presents throughout the house for her to find. To be a part of the search, her father and I hid ours as well. She enjoyed this, plus it kept them active for a bit! 

Extra Celebrations
To finish the night off, one of her teachers and two of her friends with their families did a night bike ride past the house, singing “Happy Birthday!” This was the best way to end the night.

I happened to catch the lady picking up the signs and Kylee went and told her thank you for setting them up for her. It was so sweet. She didn’t stay up to her real birthday at 11:09 p.m., though; she crashed about 9:30 p.m. It was still a perfect day, though!

Things We Wanted to Do!

• Drop off pre-cooked burgers and a small bundtlet to the family. It would have been six drops. I could have done it if I had like 12 more hours in my life!
• Include games. I wanted to make the same Bingo sheets and send them out to the family to print. We thought about playing Pictionary or Charades. 
• Have a parade. I wanted to do a parade where her friends could drive by at a certain time and throw confetti at her, or just sing, something fun to make her day.