Rawrsome SIX - Celebrating my Son's Dino Pool Party during the COVID Pandemic

Hi friends,

Last weekend we celebrated my son’s sixth birthday! Can you all believe that tiny baby boy who spent a week in the NICU is now six! I am still in shock at how quickly he has grown up. Rian is big character and knows exactly what he wants. That is why this year when he shared with me what he wanted for his birthday celebrations, I listened. It was going to be a Rawrsome Six Celebrations with all of his Dino-mite friends!

Normally my son’s birthday falls during summer time when he along with most of his class mates are out of school. Because of this we have celebrated at Disney or at home with family, sans school friends. Before the Corona Virus was even a thought we were suppose to be in New Jersey for a wedding during his birthday. We had plans to celebrate his birthday while in New Jersery with family. However like many of you, our plans came to a sudden halt in March changing the way we all celebrate. I had no intentions of planning two pandemic birthday parties for my kids this year. But here we are month five of Corona Virus and celebrating our second pandemic birthday party, hopefully our last.

I shared some of our birthday celebrations over on my Instgram and received a flood of questions about the decor, cake, food, and most importantly saftey of guest. Celebrating certainly has changed for many of us due to the Corona Virus pandemic. Here in Broward county the number of COVID cases continues to rise which meant that celebrating had to be safe. I’ll be answering all your questions and sharing what we did to make it safe and entertaining during the COVID pandemic?

Food, Drinks and Cake

This year celebrating wouldnt include lots of guests it would be small and initmate with those closet to us. That is why I took the time to put the extra effort into the smaller details. I am so lucky to have found The Cake Lovers Cakery a award winning local Fort Lauderdale baker that is in our neighborhood. They also made Neve’s pink Safari cake that was hit back in March. That’s why I knew they would be making Rian’s birthday cake. What I love about them is they have a great selection of pre-design cakes for you to choose from with sizes and cost listed right on their site. I was able to show Rian a few dinosaur designs and he choose the Dinosaur Artisan 6″ brown drip cake with fondat lettering and age. The little dinosaurs and palms were not edilbe but the rocks and sand are!

Since were not having a huge celebration investing in a creatively designed cake was one way I choose to make our festivies extra special. The cake was hit with our guest and I have had a few leftover peices since the party.

Rian made it very clear what he wanted on the menu for his birthday. Spagetti and meatballs was one of his request along with a chocolate WAWA donut for breakfast. During the week I stocked up on the ground turkey and chicken at our local BJ’s. My husband and Rian rolled out the meatballs the evening before the party. The day of the party there wasn’t much cooking since we were able to prep ahead. The pizza and wings were both ordered from our another local fave ours. All the food turned our perfect and tasted delish!

It’s been sweltering hot here in South Florida so I thought it would be a good idea to get everyone drinking more water while by the pool with some infused fruit water. This water jug was only $5, I filled it with water and cut the strawberries into heart shapes for more interest infusing the water, add ice to cool. Rian espeically enjoyed my strawberry infused water and now wants us to make it regulay at home. Best part this jug fits in our fridge. So we’ll be enjoying infused water for the rest of this year.

Not pictured here I also put out in a dollow store container capri sun friut juices and entemen chocolate chip mini muffin and fruit snacks for the kids to grab at their lesiure.

Decor and Entertainment

Birthday Balloon Surprise!

Since my son’s birth I have had to share the morning of his birthday with grandparents and aunts because we only recently moved into our home or been on vacation with family for his birthday. Eventhough we are home because of the pandemic, I was really excited to be home and have him wake up to a birthday surprise. His birthday fell on a Saturday so during the week I was able to use the electric balloon pump from Amazon to blow up two garbage bags full of green, blue and clear balloons.

The night before his birthday I kept trying to get him to go to bed but he was so excited that it was difficult to get him to calm down and fall asleep. Eventually dad laid down with Rian and was able to get him to drift off. Once my husband was able to escape quietly we got to work taping the plastic bags to his room door and filling up the doorway with ballons. It was fun to see and hear his reaction the morning of his birthday when he opened his door and a waterfall of ballons came tumbling down on him. His squeasl of excitement the jumping up and down thanking us for such a cool birthday suprise is what makes all the effort worth it. That moment made my mommy heart melt because I was able to make him happy.

The party decor was very simple since we’d be in the pool and just having a handful of guest over. I typically like to pick up party decor and store them throughout the year. So I had on hand different color table cloths, utensils and cups to go with the theme at home The dinosaur pinata was only $5 from five and below. Keeping with the dino them the party bags, napkins are from Target. All the toy dinosaurs belong to my nephew or son that we used to decorate around the food, cake, dining and drinks areas. Keeping everything low cost and simple.

Using blue, green and yellow construction paper and white paint for a quick easy Happy Birthday banner. I could have purchased one on Amazon but it was fun to make and I got the kids to help with cutting out the shapes. I love working on art projects with the kids during the week. So making banners or adding small details for the kids parties that I can make myself I am always happy to do.

It’s summer time here in South Florida so the pool was all the entertainment the kids needed. When they weren’t running and jumping into the pool. They did some painting on wooden dinosaurs that I found at the dollar store. Both the boys and girls enjoyed creating their very own dinosaur keepsake from the party. Although there were only four kids my neice and nephew along with Rian and Neve I wanted them to have something to do other than the pool if they wanted. Painting is always a fun activity for kids the best part is if they got messy they could just jump back into the pool to clean up.

Safety

Many of your asked about the safety of our guest. We did not have any friends or family present who we had not already been in contact with for the last five months. Many of our friends or family who we would typically include in our celebrations are still socially distancing. They all did send the birthday boy wish via text, DM, phone calls, and lots of FaceTime.

Also these Dinos were also there as added COVID protection! They look like they had the most fun.

Our celebrations were low key and spent at home with those family members closest to us. If you are celebrating during the Pandemic here are few fun Ideas.