Two. My baby is two. She turned two during the most bizarre time. This celebration did not go as I thought it might. Birthdays during this time of social distancing look very different. It would have been a small celebration anyway, but we certainly missed the few family members that were going to be there. It seemed like much less of a production than birthdays past. I did feel disappointment, as I’m sure many people do during this time. Life during this pandemic is so different than anything we have experienced before.
On a positive note, this birthday taught me to let go of some things. I spent less money than I would have. I didn’t stay up until the wee hours of the morning several nights before preparing. While I had already purchased several things, I also used many materials I already had. Not having the convenience of running to the craft store helped me to stay focused on what mattered and as a result I wasted less time, money, and resources. Yet I still felt like Claire was honored. I didn’t miss the things that I cut out. I hope that writing about it will help me remember this for future birthdays!
On to the details…
For the main activity, I wanted to have the kids pretend they were at a flower market stand, buying and selling flowers, and then later create arrangements with those flowers. I wanted to use real flowers because my kids love growing and picking flowers in our yard and looking at flowers on walks. I thought it would be more special to entrust them with real flowers, as precious and delicate as they are, as opposed to artificial flowers.
In all honesty, this didn’t happen how I’d pictured it. I waited to introduce everything until an evening Zoom date with my family and they just weren’t that into it. Too late in the day perhaps, too much pressure, the audience, who knows? But actually the following day the play flowed more naturally.
We used our IKEA DUKTIG play kitchen for the market stall. I covered the stove top with a piece of scrap floral fabric I’d gotten at a local thrift store. For the makeshift cash register, I took an old wooden box I had gotten from a distillery years ago in France and put a calculator on top. Most of the flower containers and baskets were from thrift stores or were ones I had or borrowed. The fabric bunting was made by my mom for Claire’s baby shower. That one was actually the inspiration for me to start making fabric bunting for my kids’ birthday parties.
I sewed aprons for my three kids and the two cousins that were not able to be with us. I used a simple tutorial. The leftover fabric was the perfect size for a tablecloth. The intention was for them to wear the aprons for the market play and for arranging flowers. Truth be told, my kids didn’t wear the aprons much, but hopefully they will for future projects! Aprons are incredibly useful.
For party favors, I bought nice gardening gloves and seeds for all five of the kids. The gloves were from Bella Luna Toys and the seeds were from a beautiful local flower farm called Floret. I can hardly wait to plant them! I love that, since there were such a small number of kids involved, I was able to make something handmade and get each child something of good quality.
I made Claire a birthday crown out of a piece of 100% Merino hand felted wool that I bought from the LilSprings shop on Etsy. I added some very amateur embroidery and sewed on an elastic band covered in vintage fabric. I found the inspiration and guidance for the crown in Natalie Trusler’s Magical Birthdays for Children. I had wanted to purchase the ebook for a while and she offered it for free a few weeks ago, just in time for Claire’s birthday! I know I’ll use it as inspiration for many family birthdays to come.
My mom made the gorgeous naked cake. She was a florist for many years before becoming a pastry chef and everything she touches turns out so lovely! I asked for something simple and it was perfect. It had strawberries in the filling, which Claire adores. It tasted like strawberry shortcake and we ate every last crumb.
For the flower arranging, I wrapped strips of fabric around mason jars and the kids filled the jars with water and helped cut the flowers and arranged them in the jars. We had a lot of flowers left over after the party, so the next day, we made several arrangements and dropped them off on some of our friends’ porches. It felt so good to spread a little bit of joy and to see a few familiar faces. I intended for it to be a surprise, but a few friends caught me in the act and we chatted at a distance. It was good for the soul. I needed that very much.
We gave Claire only two gifts. Our kids get things from family as well so we like to try to keep our gifts minimal but meaningful. We gave her something useful – a Hydro Flask water bottle like her brothers have. But the big gift we gave her was a wooden cradle that my parents gave me as a child. It makes me so happy to see it in her room and to see her lay her baby dolls in it. It really was such a sweet little birthday. I know she felt special – and that is the most important thing isn’t it?!
