Cohen's birthday party is usually pretty big. He invites his whole class, and we plan a bunch of activities here. This year was totally different, just like everything is totally different this year due to Covid. In our area, we have very little community transmission, and our borders are mostly closed, so a couple weeks ago Jon and I realized we could probably actually have a little party for Cohen's seventh birthday. We tried to make it as safe and easy as possible for the four kids who were invited. This is what we did:
- We only invited four kids. Three of the kids have already been in each other's bubble because one of the moms babysits the other two kids. And the fourth kid has been socializing with Cohen since the bubbles opened a month ago. All the parents knew who was coming.
- We kept it outside. We know that the research is showing that being outside is WAY more safe than being indoors. So we committed to a completely outdoor party, which was a little weird for us because we live in a condo-style house, so the only way to get to our teeny backyard is through the master bedroom. But it was totally fine.
- I kept party shopping to a minimum. I am always trying to keep my potential contact tracing to a minimum, so for this party, I made one special trip to a store (the Bulk Barn), and bought everything else during my weekly grocery store trip. I didn't order anything online. In some ways I feel like it saved me money, because I wasn't just going to party stores getting more stuff like I normally would. But in some ways I spent more because I wasn't looking for sales, and I knew I had to buy everything in one shot, so I was throwing everything possible into my shopping basket. The party was for sure cheaper though, just because we only had five kids (plus little brother Will) attending.
- We didn't order any food. Normally I would order pizza for lunch and also order a cake from Dairy Queen. But I wanted to keep the risks super low, so I bought frozen pizza from the grocery store during my normal grocery store run, and we made the cake. Wow, the cake was a lot of work! Cohen's favourite food is for sure avocado maki, so he really wanted a sushi cake. Cohen and I worked on it together, and we were so happy with how it turned out! We used the tutorial from chelsweet, which worked out awesome. I borrowed a cake spinner from my assistant, and I was glad I did. I don't think you could make this cake without a spinner.
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| (giant buttercream avocado maki) |
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| (the low-key setup) |
- Totally unrelated to Covid, I have been trying to buy less party decorations for the last couple years. So all the tissue paper decorations are our hoarded ones that I pull out for every party, I leave out certain colours depending on the celebration, and of course I make a pinata with whatever craft paper I have. I feel so much better about these decorations compared to the hundreds of balloons I used to blow up for arches, and then pop them and throw them out right after the party.
- We set out every single piece of outdoor equipment we own, which wasn't much. I borrowed a sprinkler from my parents, put out soccer balls and nets, and washer toss. We had colouring and a really lame craft that I found in the back of our craft closet. And the kids had a great time. They loved the sprinkler, and were very into kicking the soccer ball around. Normally I would be trying to pack as many activities as possible into two hours. This time, there was no schedule. We did the pinata halfway through, which was full of pokemon cards. The kids loved looking at their cards and trading them. Cohen opened his presents slowly, and for the first time, I was able to watch him since there weren't 20 kids running around. His friends all gave him thoughtful gifts like a homemade pokemon book and hand painted rocks.
Jon and I feel like even though we were forced to have this kind of small, measured party due to Covid, we will not go back to the way we used to do it. We feel like all the kids had a better time because it was so small and freeform.
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