Birthday Inspiration for Quarantine
If you’re feeling stuck because all the restaurants are closed, have no fear! There’s hope. Lock-down celebration choices: order take out; do nothing special; or create a once-in-a-lifetime-memory. This is one of my most precious memories because it was created with so much love.
Our story is about hibachi, but yours could be anything— homemade pizza, soup, sushi, casserole, whatever— choose your birthday-person’s favorite. Then let the children create a restaurant. Get them involved in cooking, decorating, menu creation, and serving. Yeah… it’s a bit more work (ok, a LOT more work) than if you were to do it yourself, but seeing THEM create an experience for someone they love is where the magic happens. This was not something I planned or tried to make happen, but I do think you can recreate a similar experience. Check out my tips below our story!
Our Story- Your Inspiration
We have been in a lock-down for the past 5 weeks because of Covid-19. The children have barely left the house, Dave has been working from home, nearly everything is closed down, and the border is closed.
Jack, Maria and Danny were worried about Dad’s birthday. What would we do? His favorite birthday dinner is hibachi, but all restaurants are closed. After some discussion, they decided that if he couldn’t go to hibachi, they would bring hibachi to him.
They planned a menu, made a hibachi hat, set the table, baked and decorated desserts, set up and performed a hibachi-style dinner, and drew him cards. My heart is so full thinking of all the work and love they put into this special birthday dinner.
Dessert first:
Maria and I baked the cake and she decorated it all by herself! It looked great (and tasted delicious)! Jack made an edible drawing of our Yardley house, complete with basketball hoop.
Setting up:
Jack practiced cooking noodles the day before, and decided there wasn’t enough room at the table, so he brought in another table and set up the station. Meanwhile, Maria made the menu. Jack helped a little.
Dinner:
The children told Dad about four hours before dinner that I had gone out to get Domino’s pizza. He was very surprised and relieved to find out this was a trick, and was so happy we were actually having hibachi! Dad, Danny and I sat down and the show began - it was awesome!
We started with salad, and then Jack cooked absolutely delicious noodles and rice and even made a flaming onion!
Next Maria made a flaming onion! Then she cooked up the shrimp- YUM! She tossed the shrimp in the air for Dad to catch in his mouth… it was a real hibachi show!
Then Jack made seconds of noodles while Maria cooked the chicken. It was a FABULOUS dinner! I’m so proud of Jack and Maria! Then we had cake!
And then I cleaned up. It only took me 2 hours :)
But it was worth it… my heart is so full!
Tips:
Choose a style of food that means something to the birthday person.
Prep as much as you can for the children. In our case, I chopped and marinated the chicken, and supervised them peeling the shrimp and preparing the sauce. I had them line up everything they would need BEFORE they started cooking.
Practice a day or two before, if possible, without letting the birthday person know. You want them to have a different/exciting meal on their birthday, not a repeat. We did this by having noodles for lunch without Dad.
Brainstorm with them what happens at a restaurant. Help them think of ways they can recreate this experience.
Assign each child tasks if they can’t decide for themselves.
Remind them of safety and best food practices!
MOST IMPORTANTLY: Let them do it. It won’t be perfect. It won’t be clean. It might not even taste good. But let them do this for someone else. (You can eat a second dinner in secret if you need to!)
A wonderful dinner made by wonderful children!
