To ask what you have been doing for your kid's birthday's during lockdown?

[AngryAngel]

My little girl is going to be 8 next week. I have been in denial about it tbh. Have you any ideas to make her lockdown birthday party special? We are lucky as she has siblings to contribute to birthday cheer. So far my ideas are:

1. Pretend sleepover in the living room. Popcorn. Film. "Midnight" (as if!, We would all be snoring by 10pm at the latest) feast.
2. Participation in cake making (yay or nae? Is the surprise nicer?)
3. We have disco lights somewhere, so a crazy family dance off.
4. I honestly cannot think of anything else.

Help, please!

My DD was 9 on Tuesday. We visited a local country park for a walk and picnic which was lovely. She chose the breakfast and we had dominos for dinner, obviously followed by birthday cake and a film of DD’s choice. She enjoyed it.

Our eldest DD was 13 earlier this week and she had what she's calling her "best birthday ever!"

She had lots of lovely presents, then I drove her to her friend's house, where his DM had decorated their front garden with Birthday bunting and another of her friends met them there (all socially distanced) and they spent a couple of hours catching up for the first time in 3 months - whilst I sat in my car in the sweltering heat for 2 hours!

We had a delicious lunch back at home, then mid-afternoon set off for another of her friend's houses, who is lucky enough to live on the river, and they (again, all socially distanced) went paddle boarding and kayaking for a couple of hours - though I realise not everyone is lucky enough to have friends who have these available!

Home for a quick shower then off to a local forest, where we met up with my DM for a (socially distanced) walk, then home for a delivery from Domino's (birthday girl's choice) and chocolate cake - decorated with chocolate fingers and Lindor chocolate balls, a properly indulgent birthday cake!

We managed to keep everything as a surprise for her and the fact that we were doing things out and about, rather than being at home (in our city centre flat with only a balcony as outside space) for the first time in months only added to the excitement!

There are lots of lovely ideas here - I hope your DD has a wonderful birthday, I'm sure you'll make it one to remember!

@thenewaveragebear1983

My ds was 8 today! We've had cake, kind of a free for all on food/switch time/ sweets all day. Grandparents visited yesterday in the nice weather. Tonight we've got 'happy meals' and fries and nuggets in paper bags, and ice cream sundaes. I got his friends mums to send me a little clip of them all saying happy birthday which I made onto a little vid on iMovie.

That's good!

BetsyBigNose, that sounds brilliant. I have teens too, and to be honest they have found the lockdown harder than the little one. They really crave companionship at that age. And the days/weeks seem much longer when you are a kid. My 13yo's birthday is coming up in a couple of months. I'm already panicking about that!

We have managed to hire a bouncy castle (a disco one!) for my son’s birthday next week. I’m not sure if she’d be too old for that?

@GlumyGloomer

DD turned 4 this week. We did a pirate treasure hunt for her presents, all the rooms were different parts of the ship, ie loft room was the crows nest, living room was the hold. In each location we video called friends/family (who were the pirate crew) to give her the next clue. We made the cake together, and then I decorated it by myself as a surprise.

Sounds great. I'm not sure my extended family would be organised enough to make this work. (Cough. I mean myself, obviously.) Very clever idea. I very much like the idea of making the cake together and then the surprise decoration.

@WeveGottaGetTherouxThis

We have managed to hire a bouncy castle (a disco one!) for my son’s birthday next week. I’m not sure if she’d be too old for that?

Are you kidding? I'm not too old for a bouncy castle. And I'm cough twenty something cough. Can't afford one at the moment though.

These suggestions are all great. I'm compiling a list.

@OneIsAWorldOfBooks That is amazing.

My youngest dd turned 5 in May. We had to cancel the party booked for her class friends but she still had a good day. She is obsessed with unicorns so I used some of the unicorn themed invitations I had bought and posted them through the letter box to dd and her sister the day before. It was inviting them to the party in the garden. So she was all excited to get an invitation to her own party. We did invites to her auntie , uncle , nanny and cousins and took photos and sent them via whats app. So they could be invited to join in via zoom on the day

On her birthday we just decorated the garden with unicorn birthday banners and just did traditional party games in the garden , and had a big unicorn piñata which was a big hit. Her nanny paid a socially distant visit to see her blow out the candles on her choccy birthday cake. As long as there was unicorns and birthday cake she was happy. Her sis turns 8 in July and I thought it might be too young for her but she said she wants the same day.

We hired a commercial bouncy castle for our 9 year old's birthday last week. It was pronounced the best birthday ever! Definitely not too old, her almost 11 year old brother and her slightly older parents enjoyed it thoroughly! We had a couple of bonus days with it too as they were stacked out with bookings so couldn't get back to collect it . It was delivered damp (just cleaned) and we had to stay indoors while they put it up, but will definitely do it again when all this is over. It came with a rain/sun cover so was well protected.