5th birthday on school day

[Chillijams]

Hello!
My daughter is turning 5 on a school day next week - her first one in school! She’s having a party at the weekend and probably will do our gifts the morning of her birthday before school (??). What do people do after school to make it extra special? Any quirky ideas?! I’m worried she’ll come home from school and just want to watch TV or something!!

We usually do tea of their choice, could be lasagne, could be a takeaway, and cake for afterwards.

Put balloons and/or a banner up on the house as a surprise. Also on the car if you pick her up. Have a lovely birthday tea with birthday cake. See extended family if local.

I’d recommend sending her to school with a big “it’s my birthday” badge so that everyone makes a fuss of her all day. We always just do favourite meal for tea (and birthday cake!) and a normal evening - the party at the weekend is the main event!

What's wrong with coming home and wanting to watch TV?

I decorate the kitchen with bunting etc after bedtime the night before, special breakfast, presents, sing happy birthday and show them the cake for later. Then after school have cake, playground if it's fine.

We usually go for an early dinner around 5.30pm out locally and let them choose where. Typically it's Pizza Express! They love it as it feels quite special to go out for dinner on a school night.

Balloon's and decorations put up after she goes to bed the night before. Gifts, cards and a birthday badge laid out and a special birthday breakfast (M&S choc chip pancakes with Nutella and strawberries are a firm favourite here).

After school park or soft play as a treat then home for cake?

Are any of her birthday gifts something she can play with when she gets home from school? Making time to play her new game / read her new book with her or set up her new toy would make the afternoon special I think.

Depending on how many presents she was getting I might save some for her to open after school and do a little tea party for her and any siblings and then just play with her and her new toys.

Favourite dinner at home, then play board game as a family?

Pizza Express good if you want to go out as often have discount codes midweek.

Or pre-prep bases and toppings and home then make pizza as a family activity ?

Whole family watches her favourite film together at home, with popcorn?

I love the idea of the surprise balloon decorations, could be a or just giant colorful balloons everywhere. You can make a birthday video with her photos and have a , that she would see the minute she gets home. Going to park or a cafe of her choice for meal and dessert, or cake of her choice at home would be good.
We never did gifts before the school, it would always wait till later, so maybe do the gifts after school as well, but give her something small before classes and tell her there is more to come!

Ugh, the formatting is killing me!! The first video is about a DIY balloon arch and the second is about a homemade Happy Birthday banner

We have always done an activity of her choice after school on birthdays...so cinema or go out for dinner, or bowling or soft play etc!

Decorate overnight. Pile of gifts and cards ready to open.

Extended family round after school for pizza and birthday cake with candles.

Fit around any usual after-school activities or clubs.

Make time to play with gifts etc.

Any quirky ideas?!
What do you mean by quirky?
We used to do a buffet tea and go out bowling or cinema which would be unusual mid week but a treat for a birthday.

We did...
One present before school. Special breakfast nd badge. Not usually time for more than this. Take sweets to school.

Then after school presents, plying with them, favourite dinner.

One year DH was leaving on a work trip on DDs birthday so we had cake and candles for breakfast at 6am before he left!

This! My daughter came out of school crying on her birthday because the teacher had some kind of special routine for each child's birthday and forgot hers.

Other than that, nice tea and birthday cake. Invite somebody round - grandma or friend.

We also save presents for after school, and now dd can tolerate staying up a but later, we invite relatives for dinner

A couple of friends found after school and their favourite dinner or going out for a pizza?

We had his best friend (known each other from 18 months) round for a play date and dinner of his choice (pizza!)

Hope she has a lovely day OP. She might return from school absolutely exhausted and a bit grumpy (very common in the early weeks of reception!), so be prepared to go with how she is on the day. Some great ideas above 😀

Hope she has a lovely day OP. She might return from school absolutely exhausted and a bit grumpy (very common in the early weeks of reception!), so be prepared to go with how she is on the day. Some great ideas above
The child whose birthday it was is now nearer to her 6th birthday than the birthday the op was referring to nearly 9 months ago.