Sorry I have been a little quiet. I think I have been in shock!
My son recently turned four years old and we had an awesome soccer party planned. The invites had been sent, the decorations had been planned and now….well I had to try and explain to my little one that we have to postpone his party.
He didn’t quite understand but was devastated!
So a very difficult question I had to answer was how do I make a birthday the great experience it is meant to be without the big party?
Here a few things that I came up with:
Start the day with a bang!
My parents had a lovely tradition that I have continued with my little family. The whole family would wake up the birthday boy/girl by walking into their room all at once, singing happy birthday at the top of their lungs and usually out of tune with presents in hand. We then all jumped on the bed to watch the birthday boy/girl open all their presents and get a couple of embarrasing photos.
Make the cake baking an ever bigger event
We always spend time deciding on how we will decorate the cake, and we usually bake the cake together. This year my son opted to play with his new lego instead of baking the cake with me and also decided last minute to change his cake design.
Because it was his special day I decided not to argue the fact that I had already organised all the pans to make the soccer ball cake and spent the time printing and cutting out soccer players to make little paper cake toppers instead.
My littlest one came in to join me bake the cake right at the ‘licking the batter from the bowl’ stage. Clever little boy.
Decorate the house just like you would for a party with friends
We hung up all the decorations that we had played for the party. No doubt we will use them again for his party which we decided to postpone and not cancel. He loved them and kept saying “Its my party!”with a big smile on his face.
Play party games
Mum and dad, brothers and sister, get involved and all play the games together. You can still play pass the parcel or pin the tail with 3 or 4 people
Remember to take photos
I know it does not feel like the big celebration you were all hoping for but it is still a celebration. We don’t know how long these restrictions are going to last for and a photo of your four and a half year old at their big party will look very different to your four old on his actual birhday.
Happiest of birthdays to your Little Ones!
