A LOCKDOWN BIRTHDAY! A few months ago, none of us would have imagined a world where hugging a close friend or family member would feel like a luxury from a past life. And while that’s a sad and difficult thing to deal with every day, it can feel especially hard on a birthday. We had so many plans for our little ones birthday and we are feeling incredibly guilty that we can't celebrate the way she wanted.
We made plans to visit the Harry Potter Studios and spend a weekend in London visiting all the special landmarks, well as many as we could cram into one weekend. We all knew that wasn't possible. But with a little ingenuity and a lot of online ordering, celebrating our daughter turning six wasn't too bad at all - and according to our little girl it was the best birthday EVER.
Our daughter was fully aware that her party plans had to be a little different this year. We could see on her little face that she was disappointed that we couldn't go to London or visit the Harry Potter Studio, and she wasn't the only one - we were all looking forward to a London adventure. But children are so resilient and tend to adapt easily with change. So a smaller, more intimate celebration was on the cards this year.
We had pretty pink party balloons, played games, opened present and of course tucked into a little sausage dog cake to go along with her brand new puppy she got a couple of weeks ago. We also had a couple of socially distanced visits from family, and honestly it was so good to finally see them in the flesh but again it was hard for our daughter to understand that she couldn't give them a cuddle. Hopefully this nightmare will be over soon. We also enjoyed a little afternoon tea which was so delicious but in this heat, hot tea was the furthest thing from our minds and so we opted for some nice cool smoothies - it was such a great way to celebrate turning six.
We did take Winston to the vet that morning, but if anything that was the highlight of our girls day. As many of you know our daughters life dream is to become an animal doctor so she jumped at the chance to come go to the vets. But seeing as it was her birthday she wanted to go in her brand new Wonder Woman dress which caused quite a lot of attention which she lapped up of course.
The veterinary nurse at the surgery made a complete fuss of the birthday girl with some chocolates and even took her through that back to see the animals and talk to 'real-life' vets. As you can imagine she came out with big smiles telling us that she was allowed to hold a teeny kitten who needed surgery so her cuddles helped calm him down - it was the sweetest gesture. Not only that but she has been invited back for the day to spend some time at the surgery once this is all over.
If there is one thing that our lockdown party has taught us, it's the impact of expectations. While nothing can quite make up for not being together in person, keeping things small, intimate and connected is the way forward. Just don't forget the party bags!!! Even if it's for three people.
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