A lot of you are probably having the same conversations we had leading up to Lucian’s birthday: Should we have a party? Should we cancel? Should we postpone? Should we do a drive by party? Should we party over video chat?
We ran so many scenarios. We actually originally planned to postpone his party. But with so many unknowns, I was afraid we would end up at his second birthday and never have celebrated the first. During this time, it is so hard to balance keeping everyone safe and healthy but still giving them the things they need (like time with family) and you want for them (like birthday parties). We decided on an outdoor, socially distant party with only our closest family and friends.
We spent Lucian’s actual birthday at home with just the three of us and it was a blast. We did cake, balloons, bubbles in the bath and planted a tree to grow with him. We even talked about keeping the tradition of spending time as a family of three every year, then party later!
The party theme was Peace, Love & Lucian. I really wanted to celebrate not just our little guy but also everyone who helped us through this first year. So, we provided dye but asked everyone to bring something white. So, everyone got in on the fun and left with something special that will last. Bonus: Tie dye requires gloves making it a great activity to do during a pandemic!
For safety, we set up areas for families to hangout that were six feet from each other and us. We tried to include everything they needed except for the dye. Of course we had the cleaning and sanitizing supplies readily available as well.
My mom makes all of the kids a birthday shirt every year. I LOVE how Lucian’s peace sign shirt turned out.
We had given Lucian cake the week before on his birthday, so we knew he didn’t like icing.. So his cake was a little less cute than I would have liked, but he devoured it!
We ordered cupcakes from my favorite local shop and those got devoured by guests!
Of course, Lucian got some really great gifts. We all laughed a lot because he climbed on almost every gift.
One of my favorite gifts that he received was a book written by my niece. She wrote and illustrated a book about Lu and our dog Packets. She included the theme of his nursery and it was really cute!
We ordered our dye from Dharma Trading. I was so glad we decided to do the tie dye theme. It was totally groovy. So fun!
I wanted to do a fun picture that showed the time we are in. I wasn’t thinking a mask picture since that makes it hard to see how happy everyone is. So, we made this frame and stapled a plastic shower curtain to the back to create a shield. I love how the pictures turned out. Definitely a fun way to remember the strange time we are in!
All in all, it was a great day. We missed friends and family that weren’t able to come. And we wished people could hold Lucian for snuggles and pictures. But everyone made the best of it, and Lucian had no idea it could have been better.