Is there a birthday coming up in your family? We’ve just had two in our house during the month of April. Since COVID-19 has turned the world on its head, we put our thinking caps on and came up with a great formula for celebrating in cyberspace. 

The boys’ birthdays were packed with fun from dawn to dusk. Family sent presents in advance, and since there was no official birthday, we were lenient with opening, starting with a lego set first thing in the morning; perfect for letting them start the birthday fun while letting me enjoy my first cup of coffee.

After lunch, we kept our social distance while dropping off cupcakes to a few of their friends. And then, it was back to our house for a birthday call with family.

The Call

Zoom group calls can be a little bit tricky, it’s not a business meeting and there’s no agenda to stick to, you want to be on the call with your whole family, but what do you do? How do you keep the conversation flowing among a dozen people over the interweb? For our parties, the call was a mix of chit-chat interspersed with singing happy birthday, watching the birthday boy open a few presents, and playing a game!

Party Packages

In preparation for the party call, I sent out “party packages” about a week in advance. The packages contains a few things to help us feel connected and to set the mood for the parties.

Our party package formula went something like this: decorations + game + party favor + treats

• DECORATIONS : we included garland in each box, one time it was colorful pompoms and the second tie it was glittery stars. Here are a few great choices: colorful tassel garland and a variety of stars and colorful dots! Don’t forget the balloons.

• PARTY FAVOR : in one package we included party blowers, in the second package we included the paper masks from Masks in the Forest (this was after a kiddo requested a costume party!).

• GAME : For the first box, we played bean boozled, it’s a game that Luc loves and that the rest of us suffer through for his entertainment. ha! To play it, I sent a variety of beans in a sealed envelope and told the receivers not to open it until instructed. They were definitely surprised to open the envelope and realize that they could be subjected to a dog food, dirty dishwater, or stinky sock bean. yuck! For our second box, we played black jack. Again we hid the game in sealed envelopes which held the first two cards for each player (I used an old deck that we didn’t mind splitting up). I kept the remaining cards, and then, during the call we finished the game.

• TREATS : and finally, don’t forget to add a little something sweet for your guests to enjoy during the party.

As you can tell from the pics, both parties were a big hit for both the birthday boys and for everyone who couldn’t be here to celebrate in person.

Have you had a birthday since the stay-at-home orders started? Have any fun suggestions about how to celebrate with friends and family? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments! xo