How To Celebrate a Birthday in Quarantine

I cannot imagine having a birthday while being self-isolated from all of my friends and family! Your birthday is supposed to be one of the best days of the year, but how is that possible when you are restricted to staying at your house?! What’s so special about staying home for your birthday when you have to stay home every day? I am sure this is what a lot of people with birthdays coming up are thinking. There are definitely ways we can make a birthday special while in quarantine.

With technology as advanced as it is today, it is easy to have all the people you care about in one room … on a computer screen. Zoom is a popular tool around the world right now. Zoom is a web-based video conferencing call that can connect many people at once. After you sign up for a Zoom account here, you can connect with people on your computer that has video capabilities. All the people on your conference call will show up on one screen, and you will be able to see everyone that has connected. For more information on how to schedule and join Zoom meetings, go here!

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Photo Credit: Sonken

Now that you have the guest list figured out, we should figure out decorations, food, cake, and games! Have each of your “guests” decorate their “conference area” with a different theme or color – you can either designate colors and themes to your guests or you can let them come up with something on their own. Streamers, balloons, and posters are some of the decorations that you can use to decorate your conference space. If you want it to seem like everyone is in the same room, ask everyone to decorate their space similar!

Food! It will make the celebration feel even more special if all the guests are eating the same thing. Come up with an easy meal that everyone will be able to make. Some ideas are: tacos, nachos, pizza, wings, and pasta. It won’t be a birthday without a birthday cake! Ask if all of the guests can make their own cake and add candles. Then, when it’s time to sing Happy Birthday, each guest will have candles to blow out, and everyone will have cake to eat with the person celebrating their birthday!

Games – one of the best part of a birthday party! This is not going to be as easy as if you were in the same room, but it is definitely possible. One game you can play over video call is Bingo. Have everyone make a card and fill out whatever numbers they want. Have paper numbers cut out and ready to be called randomly to all the guests. You can have prizes for the winners and mail them to them! You can also play a modified version of Wheel of Fortune. You spin the wheel for the next contestant and have pre-made phrases made up! A few other games you can play over video call include: Charades, Cards Against Humanity, trivia games, Pictionary, Yahtzee, Scattergories, and Jeopardy.

You now have all the necessities to throw a virtual birthday party! You can keep it a secret and surprise the birthday girl/boy or you can tell them what plans you have for them. Now that you have all you need to give someone a special birthday they will never forget, start inviting guests and planning your party! Leave a comment if you have any other ideas for planning a virtual birthday party!

Talk to you later!

Samantha

Date Night In Quarantine

Just because we are all quarantined to our houses either all day or immediately after work does not mean that we cannot have a date night with our significant other, as long as we are quarantined with them of course! It’s important to show the people we care about how much we love them during this stressful time. Everyone is reacting to this situation in their own way, but that does not mean that we can’t do it together … while staying 6 feet away from each other. After almost three weeks of self-isolation, I am sure couples are itching to have date night back!

A traditional home date night before quarantine would have involved board games and movies, but that is what typical day in quarantine looks like these days. So, let’s think outside of the box and come up with some ideas for some special quality time with your significant other. Some of these ideas might even be watching a movie or playing a board game, but we can always spice them up a little bit! The best part of home date night is the option to dress up as if it’s an actual date, or you can stay in your jammies!

Cooking Class Date Night

Did you know that Food Network has an app that you can download and experience cooking classes for free for 30 days? If you download the app on your phone, iPad, or other smart device you can have a cooking class date night right in your own kitchen! To download the app from Food Network click here!

Spa Date Night

You can Google or search Youtube for some basic massage instruction videos. So, grab the lotions and essential oils and find the perfect video for you and your significant other! You can even turn your bathroom into a spa locker room with a steaming hot shower or a warm bath before your massages. Oh, and don’t forget your fuzzy bath robes!

Karaoke Date Night

This is even better than going to the bar and singing karaoke because there is no line! Start with your favorite wine, beer, or cocktails and get to singing! Solos, duets, and sing-off battles are all options. You can make it even more fun by choosing each other’s next song and seeing how well that turns out! You might even come to enjoy home karaoke date nights more than bar karaoke nights! If you’re missing the audience, you can always have a Zoom session with all of your friends and take turns singing karaoke!

Painting Date Night

If you have ever been to a clay canvas painting business, you know how much fun it can be to paint your own project! A lot of the clay canvas businesses are selling curbside to-go kits with canvases of your choosing (mugs, plates, frames, and other miscellaneous items), paint, and brushes. After you take them home and paint them, you drop them back off to get fired! Once they are finished getting fired and glossed, you pick them back up!

Fight Date Night

This is one of my personal favorites! Surprise your significant other by filling multiple Nerf guns and placing them all around the house. Leave a note for them to find letting them know that you two are now at battle! Keep track of how many times each of you get hit and think of a reward for the winner!

Home Camping Date Night

Set up a tent in the living room with all of your camping essentials! Turn off the TV and act as if you were out camping. Have a camp out dinner, play games, and use the stove top to make s’mores! It will feel just like you’re camping and will get rid of that camping itch I’m sure everyone is starting to get as summer gets closer.

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Photo Credit: Sheecho

Newlywed Game Night

See how many questions you can get right about each other! Get small prizes for whoever can answer the most right. Be careful, if the competition starts to get too heated, you are still stuck in the same house as your component! Here are some directions and questions to start off the game!

Movie Night at Home

As I mentioned earlier, this might not sound like the most fun idea because you and your significant other might be watching more movies together than normal, but there are ways to spice it up! You and your significant other can each pick a movie you guys have not watched together, but don’t tell one another what the movie is. Have a concession stand dinner ready in the kitchen: hot dogs, nachos, pretzels, licorice, candy, beverages, etc. Set up a fort in the living room to make it feel like a room you haven’t been spending all of your time in lately. Watch each other’s movies together while eating your concession dinner and candy!

Sushi Date Night

I know I said that Fight Date Night was my favorite, but Sushi Date Night definitely beats it! If you and your significant other love sushi, this is a fun thing to do together! With sushi restaurants closed right now, it’s a good time to try to make your own sushi! There are kits you can buy to help assist you. There are so many websites and videos on Youtube you can find to help you make your sushi at home. To be on the safe side, I would start this date early enough to order curb side sushi if your homemade sushi doesn’t turn out the way you want it to!

I hope these are some ideas that you and your significant other can use for a special date night during self-isolation! If you have any other home date night ideas that you’d like to share, please comment below!

Talk to you later!

Samantha

A World of Hearts

As I am sure everyone is well aware at this point, we are going through a very trying time after the outbreak of COVID-19. The country has officially been “social distancing” for about two weeks now. A majority of the country has been issued stay-at-home orders to stop the spread of the coronavirus. Many people and events have been impacted by this entire situation – non-essential businesses, schools, high school proms, graduations, hospitals, and many others. All of this going on in our world is not stopping neighbors all around the world from spreading hope in the windows of their homes and businesses. People are calling this act of kindness ‘A World of Hearts’.

To participate, all you have to do is place hearts in your window. Many people are cutting hearts out of construction paper and placing them in their windows for everyone to see. Along with construction paper, families are painting their windows to participate. The goal of A World of Hearts is to bring smiles and joy to people that are leaving their homes to go to work at their essential businesses or families that are taking a drive or walk for fresh air. Not many people are smiling during this difficult time, but these hearts are cheering people up all around the world. Everyone is encouraged to participate in this event.

Along with the hearts, people are encouraged to write words that resemble hope and love. A World of Hearts has gone viral on many social media platforms. If you search the hashtag “#aworldofhearts” on Facebook, you will see a group of over 439,000 members that are sharing pictures of hearts that they have either placed in their windows or have found in someone else’s window. The world is practicing spreading love and not germs. This event is brining people together and gives families an activity to do while obeying the stay home order. A World of Hearts gives children, patients, workers, and families something to look forward to in these dark times.

So, if you and your children, family, or roommates are looking for something to do while staying home and staying safe, think about sharing your heart activities with your community. If you are looking for heart activities to share, here are some ideas. A World of Heart is not limited to our windows. People around the world are coming up with ideas to share hearts on their sidewalks, fences, porches, garage doors, nature, and even cars.

A Fargo, ND resident, Elizabeth Burns Thomsen, shared this photo of hearts on the Facebook page ‘A World of Hearts’ – her daughter decorated her dad’s cop car with hearts

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Taylor Wilke shared this photo to the Facebook page ‘A World of Hearts’ of the flower she designed out of hearts in her window in Blaine, Minnesota.

If you or your kids are like my little brother, who is 15 years old, and don’t know how to cut out a heart from construction paper, you can find directions here. I know what you’re thinking, how does a 15 year old not know how to cut out a heart?! I thought that was something you learned in first grade, but I guess not everyone does. So, hopefully that is a helpful link if you have young kids in your house that have not learned how to cut a heart out of paper the easy way.

Now, please don’t forget to stay home and stay healthy! How about we all go share our own hearts for A World of Hearts?! Please share your creations with me, either in the comments below or to my email samanthalynnsamuelson@gmail.com

Talk to you later!

Samantha

Let’s Fill Those Easter Baskets!

It’s that time of year again! Just because the world has gone crazy does not mean we cannot make this time of year just as fun for the family! It might be even more of a reason to make it extra special this year. Waking up on Easter morning to see what basket the Easter Bunny had left me used to be just as exciting as waking up Christmas morning! When I was a kid, Easter baskets were traditional wicker baskets with treats, toys, and candy. Nowadays, Easter baskets can be shoes and umbrellas … literally anything can be a basket!

Let’s put together the perfect Easter basket! Just so you know, you’re child can never be too old for an Easter basket – I have been reminding my mom this every year since I graduated high school. With all that is going on with non-essential businesses closing due to the COVID-19 situation, it would really help your community if you were able to purchase any of your Easter supplies locally to help out your small business owners.

The first step is to find your “basket”. As mentioned earlier, your basket can literally be anything! Here’s a list of ideas for your baskets:

• A normal basket
• A string basket – you can find directions to make these here!
• Rain boots
• Umbrellas – you can find an idea here!
• Camping chairs
• Hats
• Toolbox
• Baking pan/mixing bowl
• Fishing tackle box
• Backpack
• A small kiddie pool
• A beer cooler (for the recipients older than 21 of course)
• A new lunch box

Next, let’s fill those baskets! Who says that Easter baskets need to be filled with candy?! When choosing a basket, you can use the basket as the theme. Let’s take the mixing bowl for example. If i were giving an Easter basket to someone who loved to bake, I would make the mixing bowl the basket and fill it with related baking items: cake mixes, frosting, measuring cups, sprinkles, muffin tins, food coloring, etc. Let’s take our list of baskets and fill in a few ideas for each of them!

• Rain boots – outside games like jump rope, chalk, rain coat
• Umbrellas – rain coat, rain hat, sidewalk chalk
• Camping chairs – items for s’mores, new camping gear
• Hats – some of your child’s favorite snacks and movies
• Toolbox – a couple new tools, candy
• Baking pan/mixing bowl – baking supplies and candy
• Fishing tackle box – fishing line, lures, bobbers, hooks
• Backpack – art supplies, a lunchbox, jacket
• Small kiddie pool – a new swim suit, swim toys, beach ball, towel
• Beer cooler (for the recipients older than 21) – beer, snacks, movies
• New lunch box – snacks and candy, small table games

Of course, if the basket is the main gift, you can always fill it with candy instead of other items that fit the theme. Mom, if you’re reading this, Reese’s Eggs are my favorite – no need for a basket! There are also creative ways to make baskets with candy!

Photo Credit: Jill

If you’re looking for ideas on how to support your community by shopping locally for your Easter basket gifts, you can always purchase gift cards from them and stuff them in your Easter eggs. Here are a few other ways you can support your local businesses during this tough time:

• Eat locally for Easter dinner – most places are doing a curbside or delivery service
• Gift someone flowers on Easter from a local florist
• Buy your groceries for Easter dinner at the local grocery store
• Buy the kids hot chocolate Easter morning from the local coffee shop as a treat
• Purchase a gift card from your hairdresser to use once this storm calms down – your children will love the idea that they are “paying” for something with their gift card
• Buy your chocolate treats for the baskets from a local chocolate shop

If you’re looking for a few creative ways to dye your eggs for Easter, check out this website! Hopefully you are able to make this an Easter your kids will not forget during this crazy time! If you have any other Easter basket ideas, leave a comment below!

Talk to you later!

Samantha