Last week, we celebrated my stepdad Sam’s 75th birthday! We were supposed to go away for a family weekend in the Poconos. My mom got a house for everyone to stay in (my family, my sister’s family and both my stepbrother’s families), but of course, that is no longer happening. Instead, we had a surprise party over Zoom. See above. My stepdad Sam is the older gentleman in the middle left photo. He’s also in the middle right photo and the bottom right photo because everyone started using his photo as their Zoom background.

We also had a birthday party for my stepmom over Facetime, although I can’t tell you what birthday it was because I do not know! Allie celebrated her 26th birthday. We had a virtual surprise party with the entire Mommy Shorts team, freelance contributors included. And my sister will turn 40 on April 4th.

One unfortunate part of social distancing is all the canceled birthday parties.

I know it’s a small thing in the scheme of everything happening, but it can especially hard for little kids, who put way more thought into their birthday parties than adults. I thought it would be nice to take the opportunity each month to wish “Happy Birthday” to all the kids who had to celebrate at home with their immediate families and thank them for doing their part to social distance.

I put out on @mommyshortssquad and in the Remarkably Average Parents face group and have gotten pictures from all across the US, as well as places like Italy, Japan and Poland. There something comforting knowing we really are a global community right now, going through the same thing.

Here a few people who celebrated their birthday in March!

Henry and Grace turned 6 and celebrated with Shake Shack!

Holden turned 7!

Mariana had a big virtual birthday party!

Lilly turned 6 on March 21st!

Sam turned 3 on March 30th!

Miles turned 5 on March 28th!

Dom turned 12 with a chocolate smash cake!

Jamie turned 11 on March 16th!

Kirsti turned 3 on March 29!

Sarah celebrated her birthday on March 15th!

Elizabeth turned 2 on March 29th!

Alexa turned 7 and her whole class sang on Zoom!

Camden turned 11 and celebrated with two cakes!

And finally, Rebekah had a virtual baby shower!

My best wishes to you all.

I will continue featuring birthdays in the coming weeks, so when the time comes, post a photo of your kid’s at home party and hashtag #mommyshortsquad or tag @mommyshortssquad on the photo. I am also looking to feature weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, baby showers and special events like recitals and school plays, so hashtag #mommyshortssquad on those too.

We all need some more reasons to celebrate right now!