Making 4 year olds birthday day feel special

DS turns 4 on Monday (:o) and since his Dad will be at work all day and has a work dinner to go to that night I was trying to think of ways I could make his day feel a bit special. It will be just the two of us all day.

He is having a party tomorrow, but its just not the same as doing something special on the day, yanno?

Anyway, I was going to blow up lots of balloons and put them in his bedroom -with his nightlight on and not around the base of the ladder on his bed, so he wont trip over them in the middle of the night. DF doesnt think its a good idea as he will come into our room early in the morning. He loves balloons and even if he does mostly ignore them I think he'll still love it when he goes in there a little later.

Im planning to make him banana pancakes for breaky.

Any other ideas?

My first thought was balloons :) Maybe tie some to his chair for breakfast too. A special birthday crown made out of paper? He could help decorate it.

Sounds great! Can you go on a special outing together? Lunch or morning tea at a cafe? A tea party with his fave toys or a picnic lunch in the backyard? A new park he hasn't been to before? Can you bake or decorate a cake/muffins/biscuits etc together? Watch a birthday themed DVD together? A special art or craft activity (tell him you've been waiting for him to be four so he was old enough to do it!)?

Every year we do balloons in the lounge, my girls love it.
We do pancakes with ice-cream for breakfast (cos it's their birthday)

Could you go to a play centre, out for a slice of cake or lunch?
Dinner together or he chooses dinner?

Special brekky (I did pancakes with strawberries, cream and mint) and balloons everywhere (just cheap and cheerful ones - the $2 bag style) and maybe a special afternoon babychino with you, or a special picnic in the park (with gumboots and muddy puddles if it's not super weather).

:)

We took DS1 to his first real movie at the cinema. He loved it. He got popcorn and thought it was the best thing ever. I also bought an ice cream cake to have after dinner.

Thanks ladies! Some great ideas.
It needs to be free, or very close to it as his party was super exxy (well for us it was). - At a play centre ZF LOL
Park for lunch and a play could be good then his choice for dinner and we have LOADS of left over birthday cake.

I'm not really sure what else we could do. I would bake something with him but we have no oven (or kitchen actually :wall:).
Maybe some painting, we don't do that very often.
Make a Cheezel necklace (we have a packet in the cupboard)? lol
Lots of mummy attention with no distractions? That has been lacking lately.

I feel like most of it is things I should be doing anyway but just haven't been capable of lately because Ive been sick. I really wanted something Birthday-ish...

Wonder if I could find some cheap markers that we could use to draw faces/ animals on balloons... Or paint balloons.. that might be an outside activity. haha or paint WITH balloons... or cars... hmm some kind of painting could be good as long as its not wet outside. Get in the bath and paint each other? LOL

I've suckered my kids into a choc ripple cake birthday tradition. Initially because I am a cake fail, but it is actually a really fun activity to head to the shops together and choose ingredients, because most bikkies work, we've used ginger snaps and butternut snaps too, with any flavour cream, and then super easy to decorate. And you won't need an oven, just some patience while it softens. (Pro tip: bikkies stuck on the outside make good wheels)

Can you ask him what he'd like to do, with some suggestions to guide him? Sometimes I have huge ideas for mine and they just want to play cars with me and then watch 400 episodes of Mr Maker on iview.

If I was offering cheap options, feeding ducks at a local pond, a library trip or a 50¢ cone and playground trip would all be on my radar. Hope it's a lovely day. =)

Thank you everyone!!
We had bluberry and choc chip pancakes and banana pancakes for breakfast and he woke up to a bedroom full of balloons which he is currently crashing headfirst into LOL and he has opted for a pyjama day. Probably play with his new lego..
not sure what the rest of the day will hold but I guess we'll figure it out as we go.