Here’s our last minute quarantine-inspired birthday at home

How do we keep a celebratory spirit when we’re confined in our homes?

A few days after the lockdown became official in Manila, I started seeing “Happy Quarantine Birthday” greetings posted on social media. I thought, okay quarantine shouldn’t take that long, there’s no need to fuzz about having virtual birthday celebrations at home. But our lockdown period kept getting extended. It didn’t take long to realize that we’ve been stuck at home for four months now.

With stores slowly opening, I head to the nearest mall and found a few pieces to complete our last minute birthday setup for three!

The Jungle Animal Birthday Theme

The birthday theme: ~~Jungle~~ Animals

A day before the birthday, I found cute animal balloons at a local toy store. I bought all variants I found thinking I pulled off a jungle animal theme. But while I was completing the decor, I realized I got a cow, a cat and a monkey. I hoped that the leaf patterns would marry the concept together – it did, I guess. 😅

The cake: Mango Float by Conti’s

I kind of miss having a cake. So, the birthday celebration gave us a reason to splurge a bit and gain weight from a piece of cake! I went for something readily available. It was a junior size Mango flavored cake which was sold for 785 Php.

The party-assistant: Kerriroo

I told my daughter about the upcoming party a week before. It was my strategy to get somebody to bug me about decorations; otherwise, I would just Netflix the day away. And I was right! My little party-assistant reminded me about decorations, cake and desserts almost every day prompting me to do the actual preparations.

The home party food: Meat Depot Steak Kit

We got our party food from Meat Depot. It’s a dine-in-home kit of Classic Aged Angus Ribeye with a mushroom sauce and mashed potatoes. Ours was cooked in olive oil, butter and garlic cloves. What I love about the kit was its easy-to-follow cooking steps with spices included for a price of 1,100 Php per kit.

And of course, I’d like to say my appreciation to the person who inspired me to come up with a birthday setup. I guess if it weren’t for her, I would have simply called it a day.

She pretty much made the whole party preparation a workout but super memorable!