Birthdays come but once a year, and if your child’s planned celebrations have been dampened by social distancing, then it’s time to get creative.
Here are 6 ways to make your birthday girl or boy feel special on their big day. Hip, hip and hooray!
- Start with a special breakfast
Bright, beautiful food is a recipe for success, and you can add a celebratory flavour by making:
- Animal pancakes, colourful pancakes or pancakes in the shape of your child’s age or first initial
- Magical rainbow waffles
- Healthy and gorgeous apple fruit donuts
- Watermelon cupcakes, with no added sugar
- Porridge topped with 100s and 1000s
- Mouth-watering banana peanut butter bites
- Surprise them with balloons
To add to the excitement and give your child a bouncy start to their birthday, you can also blow up as many balloons as will fit in the pantry. Ask your child to get out the sprinkles or another ingredient, and surprise! The balloons will spill out.
Alternatively, you can tape a sheet to their bedroom doorframe and fill it with balloons overnight. When they open the door, a balloon waterfall will greet them.
3. Leave a birthday message
You can also surprise them by writing a birthday message, using whiteboard marker, on the bathroom mirror. If your child is too young to read, a funny or cute picture will put a smile on their dial.
There’s also the option of writing a birthday message on a street-facing window of your house or on your car window, saying ‘Beep for [your child’s name]’s birthday!’
Hopefully they’ll get a few birthday honks through the day, along with some cards and special letterbox deliveries from family and friends.
- Plan lots of party activities
A small guest list doesn’t have to limit the fun you have! To give your child a memorable cake day, you can:
- Set up a birthday scavenger hunt, using your own clues or a free printable from Play. Party. Plan. There’s the option of hiding clues leading to your child’s main birthday present, or leaving a small gift with each clue they find
- Build an obstacle course in the backyard or whole house
- Visit the zoo – virtually! San Diego Zoo has live cams and videos, and you can whiz around zoos in Australia, America and Europe without leaving the house
- Cook up a ‘top-your-own pizza’ session with homemade dough and your child’s favourite ingredients
- Have an indoor camp out with sleeping bags, stories and a tent made of sheets
- Give the day a theme, which could involve dressing as princesses, pretending to be at the beach, or basing all activities around trains!
- Host a virtual party
Even if you’re staying home for your child’s birthday, you can still share the event with their nearest and dearest. Put on party hats, play some music and host a video-call party with family and friends, using Skype, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, FaceTime or whatever works.
To share a birthday movie, you can hold a Netflix Party and watch the same flick at the same time, in different houses.
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Serve a classic cake
There are some awe-inspiring cakes out there, but for something tried and tested, you can’t go past a retro cake from the Australian Women’s Weekly Children’s Birthday Cake Book, which celebrated its 40th birthday this year.
Mum of one and busy prime minister, Jacinda Ardern whipped up a bunny rabbit from the classic book, and hundreds of thousands of parents have made the train cake, swimming pool cake and other beauties, so why not join them?
So, there you have it. With a little effort and some cupboard ingredients, there are lots of ways to celebrate your child’s cake day and make it the most memorable one yet. Happy birthday to them!
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