Birthdays are a pretty big deal around here. Let’s be honest, any excuse to celebrate just about anything, we make a big deal out of! This year, Thomas’s 7th birthday would be no different, well maybe just a little!

While celebrating a birthday during a pandemic can be somewhat of a challenge, especially when it’s your second pandemic birthday, we had to get a little creative! Last year was the first year Thomas didn’t have a big birthday party, surely we thought by this year things would be different, yet here we are! So, a few weeks ago I got to planning! We knew it would be something small and just with our family. We definitely wanted to make it extra special for a few reasons. One, we wouldn’t be with him on his actual birthday two, so much attention has been on Sprinkle lately, he deserves his own time too, and three, we barely leave the house, we all needed a change in scenery!

We decided that we would celebrate all weekend long, from Friday to Sunday. Luckily, this would fall over spring break and Easter. When he got to our house Friday morning, everything was ready to go! We gave him a majority of his presents that morning and one of those presents would be a “yes day”.

Recently Netflix debuted their movie, “Yes Day”. Truth be told, I didn’t watch the movie with Thomas and Joel because I was taking care of Sprinkle, but they made sure to tell me all about it. I had also seen floating around on Instagram the “yes day challenge” and I loved the idea! You know who loved the idea more, Thomas!

I was ready for some pretty outlandish requests, but really there weren’t any! If you follow me on Instagram, then this past weekend you saw Thomas’s itinerary and were able to follow along for the day, but here’s what he planned:

• Eat candy and drink Sprite for breakfast
• Have a marshmallow fight
• Take a nap with Sprinkle (really this meant watching YouTube while Sprinkle slept next to him!)
• Go to Mima’s house and have a sleep over (his grandmother’s house-always an automatic yes day there!)

So, overall pretty tame, pandemic friendly and the best part…when we asked Thomas what his favorite part of the weekend was, his response, “spending time with you guys.” Doesn’t that hit right in the feels?! We ended up loving this idea so much we decided we would do this for every birthday. I love that we’ve found a new little tradition out of this!

While the yes day dominated the weekend, we can’t overlook the other small things we did to celebrate! On Friday we had set up the house with Minecraft birthday decorations, all from Amazon, and we gave him a majority of his gifts! We typically do one big gift and a few smaller ones, this year he got a Nintendo Switch! Another way we love to celebrate is getting him a themed birthday cake. This is definitely a splurge, but have found it to be so worth it year after year! Since our weekend also fell on Easter weekend it gave us the chance to relax and enjoy with family. On Easter Sunday we planned to spend the day with Thomas at his grandparents house. I made us our favorite brunch casserole dish, did a small egg hunt, we set up this fun slip and slide in the back yard, spent the day by the pool, and enjoyed some yummy cake!

While it may not have been the traditional party he’s grown up used to, this year gave of us the opportunity to create some new traditions. At the end of the day, I hope he looks back and remembers how loved he is and how special he is, not only on his birthday, but everyday!