My Covid Birthday – Tips to Celebrate a Quarantine Birthday

A DATE NIGHT IN BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION

Heading into this year,  I did not expect our birthday celebrations to look quite the way they did. If you had come to me on New Years with all the major headlines from 2020, I probably would have laughed in disbelief. Shelter in place? What does that even mean? California is closing down for a second time? That’s outrageous!

Yet, here we are. After the initial reopening of businesses in our state, the governor ordered another shut down of businesses, including restaurants indoor dining. On top of that hospitals are implementing strict regulation to minimize the risk and spread of Covid. Put that together with the fact that I am expecting my 4th child in less than 3 months, and you get very limited options for a celebration.

My husband was planning a surprise party for me before our county experienced the new spikes in cases and before he heard me venting about my worries of contracting covid before the baby comes. With those plans out of sight and mind, we planned a quiet date night instead, which has been a rarity since the first shelter in place began.

If you’re planning a quarantined birthday, here are a few tips that I learned from my mostly locked down birthday celebration date night in.

SHOP MY LOOK

 

FIND SAFE CHILDCARE

It’s important to consider risks and regulations in your area, if you are still dealing with Covid cases spiking like we are. We have been fortunate to have family close  by and were able to have my husband’s mom watch the kids for us, so we could have a kid- free night. However, if you can’t get a sitter, the date night in celebration can include the whole family.

First, we dropped off my kids with my in laws. They have been the only people we’ve seen regularly throughout the covid crisis. We’re currently looking for a bigger place to rent, so we headed to a showing, face masks ready.  We walked through the house, careful not to touch surfaces and maintained social distancing practices.

CURBSIDE PICKUP DINING

My how things have changed. After we finished the showing, it was time to pick dinner. Mama was craving pasta, and since most restaurants are open for take-out only, we called in an order to Olive Garden for curbside pick-up.

If you’re looking to share your favorite restaurant meal, curbside pickup is a great option. You could always opt for delivery if that’s an option in your area. I have heard that restaurants prefer take-out orders over delivery, especially the smaller local owned restaurants.

CURBSIDE PARTY SUPPLY PICKUP

Since we weren’t able to have a party, I wanted to have a mini birthday photo shoot with my birthday balloons. I ordered them from Party City and we picked them up curbside before we grabbed dinner. This is a fun option to add a little extra to your at home celebration.

ONLINE STREAMING WATCHLIST

We have Hulu and Amazon Prime, so we had several movies saved in our watchlist that we haven’t seen yet. Since movie theaters aren’t an option, picking your favorite streaming option is a good way to plan out movie nights. If you aren’t able to get a sitter, opt for a family friendly option.

Try Amazon Prime for free for 30 days to stream all your favorite movies and shows.

But let’s be honest, there is something so exciting about being able to choose a movie without worrying about every word or scene being appropriate for kids, or having the songs stuck in your head for days. So when we got home to our kid-free home, we set up to eat dinner while we watched an action comedy.

PRESENTATION MATTERS

I ordered a shirley temple (my absolute fav) with dinner. Since it was my birthday and I wanted to feel fancy, I poured it into a stemless wine glass.  Sometimes the little things make all the difference, especially in such unique circumstances like the shelter in place. So even if you ordered takeout, bust out that fancy china and glassware! I promise you it will feel so much nicer to take this little extra step (unless you don’t want to do the dishes later!).

DO YOUR RESEARCH

A new old fashioned ice cream shop opened up in a town near us and I had my heart set on going. So we paused the movie and drove to the ice cream shop. When we arrived, we saw a line down the street and full tables full of people for the small outdoor dining space.  With indoor dining shut down, face masks required, and entirely too many people I opted to skip the newly opened ice cream shop.

Instead we headed to Baskin Robins that is right by our house. We still had to wait in a small line outside, as they were only allowing 4 people into the store at one time and were required to wear face masks while inside. I ordered a dipped waffle cone because it looked yummy and I thought it would be super cute in a photo.

If you’ve made plans to go somewhere in public, I would recommend calling ahead or making a reservation. Whatever it is, do your research so you don’t waste time figuring it out in the middle of your date like I did. Lesson learned.

HAVE REALISTIC EXPECTATIONS

Along with doing research, try to have realistic expectations for the evening. Is it going to be hot? Windy? Check the weather, look into local regulations, and keep those in mind when planning your evening.  I learned this the hard way.

Cue pregnant mama meltdown as my ice cream began to melt down my hands before I could have my hubs snap a cute photo. It’s laughable now, but in the moment I was SO upset. My sweet husband was trying to help me with balloons in the wind, melting ice cream, mid mama- meltdown. I ended up getting a bowl for the ice cream and heading home to finish the movie.

When we got home, I wanted to  do our mini birthday photo shoot with the party balloons we picked up earlier. Of course I did not plan for how difficult it is to position super large balloons, thus causing a few more mama meltdowns.

It’s all so silly, but when this pregnant mama has her heart set on something, it’s really difficult to cope when things don’t go as planned. My hubs is so sweet and helped snap some super fun pics, all while making me laugh and forget about how upset I had been just a few moments before.

 

MOM LIFE IS THE BEST LIFE

By the time we were done with the photos, it was already getting late and the reality of mom life kicked back in. Our boys didn’t nap so I knew we would need to go pick them up since it was getting close to bedtime. So we headed over to my in-laws to pick up the kiddos. They were definitely tired from no naps and playing at grandmas.

I should note that I also stuck my ice cream in the freezer earlier and hadn’t even touched it at this point. So when we got home, bedtime shenanigans began. I put my 19 month old daughter down, while my hubs got the boys ready for bed. We tag teamed bedtime songs for the boys, before my hubs had to head to bed because of his early commute.

So then in typical mom fashion, after everyone was asleep, I finished the movie we had started earlier while eating my yummy Baskin Robins Ice Cream. Everyone was so tired from the day, I had a completely uninterrupted solo movie & ice cream night to finish the evening.

So it wasn’t a huge party and I didn’t even get cake, but for this introverted mama, it was still a mostly perfect day. Even though I would have preferred dining in a restaurant and my ice cream not melting down my hands (since I was wearing a face mask in the shop), and the wind made it difficult to get that “perfect photo” for the gram, I still felt celebrated and loved. A girl can’t ask for anything more than that, right?

Whatever type of celebration you’re able to pull off at home, remember to focus on the memories shared and the wonderful moments with the ones you love.   Mom life really is the best life and it is so fun to be making memories together every single day. What are your plans for your quarantined celebrations?  Will you be staying in or venturing out into the real world?