Today’s supply of joy comes courtesy of Kate Middleton, who took the most adorable photos of her youngest son, Prince Louis, in honor of his 2nd birthday.
Prince Louis turns 2 years old on April 23, but Kensington Palace decided to share the pics Middleton took of him a day early. “Sharing a sneak peek of Prince Louis’s handiwork ahead of his second birthday,” reads an Instagram post from the palace. “We are pleased to share images ahead of Prince Louis’s second birthday tomorrow, taken by The Duchess this April.”
Check out the adorable snaps for yourself, below. From the looks of these, Prince Louis is becoming quite the little artist. I’m living for him using so many colors in his finger painting!
Kate Middleton and Prince William, like the rest of us, are currently quarantining at home. Of course, they have the company of their three children: Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis.
In early April, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge gave a rare video interview where they opened up about life in quarantine. Apparently, they’re using video chat to stay in touch with extended family, and Prince Louis keeps doing the funniest thing during the calls.
“We’ve been talking to all the family online,” Prince William told the BBC in mid-April. “It’s been a really good way of keeping in touch and seeing each other.”
Middleton added, “It gets a bit hectic, I’m not going to lie, with a two-year-old,” which is when Prince William revealed, “For some reason, he sees the red button and always wants to press the red button.” Yup, sounds like exactly the kind of shenanigans a 2-year-old would get up to on FaceTime.
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“As you can imagine, the younger generation are a little bit more tech-savvy. But only just,” Prince William said about the family’s online chatting. “I think we’re getting there now, the family are getting a little more used to being able to contact each other and pressing the right buttons and not dropping the computer halfway through.”
The couple reportedly already has some big plans in the works to celebrate his first birthday. An Us Weekly source says they are going to be “celebrating at Queen Elizabeth II’s Scottish estate, Balmoral … and have talked to the queen about having a picnic on the grounds.” The source goes on to say the queen is “very excited” for the celebration. It’s been previously reported that the Sussexes were set to spend some time at Balmoral with (Prince) Harry’s grandmother this summer—though with all travel plans right now, it wouldn’t be far-fetched to assume things could be on hold given the uncertain and ever-changing guidelines around the coronavirus pandemic.
Queen Elizabeth II will reportedly gift Archie with a “beautiful rocking horse,” with the Us Weekly source noting he loves the animals and “squeals with excitement” when he sees them. Markle also reportedly plans to have animal-themed cupcakes for at least one of the parties for her nature-loving son. “Archie loves being outside, and you can already tell he’s inherited [Prince] Charles’s passion for nature,” a source told Us Weekly. “He gets so excited at seeing all the trees. Now that he’s just walking, he’s into everything—he’ll often end up covered in mud!”
The outlet says there are also plans for a North American celebration. “Meghan’s mom, Doria [Ragland], and BFFs Jessica Mulroney and Abigail Spencer will be invited to stay with their families for the weekend,” a source said. The Sussexes recently relocated to Markle’s hometown of Los Angeles, where her mother also lives.
As the family hunkers down in L.A. amid the current global crisis, they’ve also had to deal with a tweet from President Donald Trump about who’s paying for their security. On March 29 he wrote, “I am a great friend and admirer of the Queen & the United Kingdom. It was reported that Harry and Meghan, who left the Kingdom, would reside permanently in Canada. Now they have left Canada for the U.S. however, the U.S. will not pay for their security protection. They must pay!”
A spokesperson for the couple quickly responded that they never had any plans to ask the U.S. government for money to cover their security detail and were paying for it privately.
It seems everything is on hold in the era of the coronavirus: schools, restaurants, stores. You name it. Bars across the nation are also shutting their doors to promote social distancing and try to keep the number of COVID-19 cases from completely overwhelming our health care system. But just because the clubs aren’t open doesn’t mean American kids have stopped turning 21.
One of those Gen-Zers is Jack Torchia, who returned from college to isolate with his family in New Jersey. When his plans to party with his family and friends fell through, his mother, Carolyn, took it upon herself to make sure he had the full club-hopping experience, even if it had to happen in her husband’s “man cave.”
At midnight on March 22, Jack’s 18-year-old sister, Emily, captured the whole thing before putting it on the popular social media app TikTok. It currently has over 4.5 million views.
“Let’s see some ID, please,” father/“security guard” Anthony Torchia requests before allowing his son to enter “Club Quarantine.”
His mother was situated behind the bar to provide drinks. “It’s our policy that we give you a free green tea shot,” she says in the video before pouring one out for her son, the “bouncer,” and herself.
Emily, who returned home from Penn State due to the coronavirus pandemic, told Glamour that this type of gesture is par for the course with her family. “My mom comes from a very big and passionate family, so we do stuff like this all the time, surprisingly,” she said over Instagram. “It took about a day since my garage is already a ‘man cave.’ My parents just moved stuff around and then added decorations!”
With two kids home from college earlier than expected, the Torchia family has been using this time to reconnect. “My family has always been very close, but this situation definitely made us closer, which I didn’t think was possible,” Emily said.
“My dad is the most excited, which is the funny part,” she adds about her parents’ reactions to their new TikTok fame. “My mom was very touched by the positive comments people wrote about them as parents, as well.”
It looks like these DIY birthday parties are becoming somewhat of a trend on TikTok and Twitter while the nation hunkers down to protect themselves and others from contracting COVID-19. CNN’s Saba Hamedy shared a few more of these makeshift celebrations on her Twitter:
Honestly, all these parents are killing it right now.
Simone Biles, one of the greatest athletes of all time, turned 23 years old this Saturday, March 14. On Instagram, Biles shared a sweet snap with fans saying she was excited and “ready for my Jordan year!”
To honor the Olympian, USA Gymnastics also sent a tweet to the star (though they tagged the wrong account) saying, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most decorated gymnast of all time, @simonebiles! We know you will only continue to amaze us and make history!”
However, Biles wasn’t amused by the tribute from the organization that recently offered a settlement to athletes who have sued the organization over sexual abuse suffered at the hands of sports doctor Larry Nassar. In response to the tweet, Biles fired back with a birthday request. “How about you amaze me and do the right thing…have an independent investigation,” she tweeted.
This isn’t the first time Biles has requested the organization take further action. In February, following USA Gymnastics’ announcement that it will give $215 million to sexual assault survivors in an effort to settle lawsuits over its failure to protect them from Nassar, Biles tweeted that more needed to be done.
“Ugh at the airport,” she tweeted. “Heading to team camp. Still want answers from USAG and USOPC. Wish they BOTH wanted an independent investigation as much as the survivors & I do. Anxiety high. Hard not to think about everything that I DON’T WANT TO THINK ABOUT!!! “
As of Sunday, her tweet had more than 428,000 likes and fellow gymnastics Olympian Aly Raisman took to Instagram to praise her teammate. “This. Is. AWESOME. @simonebiles I love you!!!!” Raisman wrote in the caption of a screenshot of Biles’ tweet.
Biles, who shared that she was also abused by Nassar, isn’t alone in calling out the need for an independent investigation. In 2019, a bipartisan Senate committee announced at the conclusion of its own 18-month investigation that both USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee “knowingly concealed abuse by Larry Nassar, leading to the abuse of dozens of additional amateur athletes from summer 2015 to September 2016.” The report added, the organizations and Michigan State had a chance to stop Nassar and “failed to do so.”
Following the investigation’s rulings, and just prior to competing in the 2019 U.S. Gymnastics Championships, Biles told reporters, “They couldn’t do one damn job. You had one job. You literally had one job, and you couldn’t protect us. And it’s just really sad because every time I go to the doctor or training, I get worked on and I don’t want to get worked on, but my body hurts. I’m 22. At the end of the day, that’s my fifth rotation, and I have to go do therapy, but it’s just hard, and we try to work through it, but it’ll take some time.
She added, “I’m strong, I’ll get through it, but it’s hard.”
For Eileen, the marathon event was a no-brainer: “This definitely felt like a bigger milestone than previous ‘big birthdays.’ Most of us are settled into careers, have expendable income, and for those of my friends who have children, they are old enough that their parents feel comfortable leaving them for a few days.” Plus, she adds, “40 is the new 30!”
Of course, having such a large celebration can be a considerable expense—not just for the host, but for the guests as well. “I was nervous at first,” Rachel admits. She also felt torn over asking friends to spend time apart from their families for a weekend. But in the end she felt the trip could be a positive experience for the group as a whole. “I realized that because I hadn’t married, many of my friends hadn’t met and I wanted to stake a claim that my life was worth celebrating, too,” explains Rachel. “I wanted my friends to all meet each other after decades of hearing stories and know that they were all so special to me and how much I appreciated their friendship.” After attending countless events for them—weddings, anniversaries, showers—the weekend was a chance to gather her friends to cheer for her: “I realized that I’ve been there for all of them during their life celebrations, so I knew they’d be there for me.”
Even for lifelong friends, it can still be hard to make time to get together. Meredith Fahey, a management consultant, sees her imminent 40th as a chance to reunite a group of her dearest friends—over a dozen women who became close as freshmen at the University of Wisconsin over two decades ago. “We used our 30th birthdays as an excuse to get together in Key West, and we’re using our 40th as an excuse to rent a fancy house in Mexico…and all spend time together.”
Part of the allure of the destination celebration, several women tell me, is that it gives a big group of people a chance to escape to paradise for a weekend—something that in overworked modern life is almost easier to get people on board with than a simple nighttime event. “I’ve only ever really had small, low-key celebrations,” explains Courtney, a 38-year-old in the advertising industry who has just started to plan a trip to Napa or Sonoma with her friends to mark her 40th. “It has also become difficult to see friends and family, let alone get people together for a one-off night due to careers, families, and just general life responsibilities. By making it a big event, I hope everyone can truly let loose, reminisce, and just generally have fun.”
Destinations for these parties span the globe and budgets run the gamut. But in general, according to Burton, the Texas-based travel advisor, popular locations in the United States are Nashville, Charleston, New Orleans, and parts of Florida. “I choose [the location based on] my clients’ dates and on the weather, of course!” Burton explains. “And all have unique charming areas to walk safely, great restaurants, music, spas, and bars.” And while the costs of these excursions can add up, Burton stresses that it’s still possible to hold a great celebration no matter what a person can afford to spend. “I truly think that if anyone has any type of budget, that trip is there for them,” she says.
Outside of the United States, the Caribbean and Central America are popular as well. “It had to be by the ocean,” Eileen insists of her own celebration, which is how she settled on Bermuda. Other considerations? Not too expensive for her friends, not too hard to get to, with great food and an accessible spa.
For groups where more than one woman is celebrating her 40th—as in the case of the University of Wisconsin reunion group—requirements tend to be even stricter. “A lot of thought, thorough research, opinions, and a survey were involved,” admits Patty LeBaron, another member of the cohort. The women settled on a rented house, complete with a staff for cooking and cleaning, to make sure the vacation felt as relaxing as possible. “We also looked for places where we would each have a bed as opposed to a pullout couch, because our backs are 40, too,” she adds.
On February 1, Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott celebrated their daughter Stormi’s second birthday with another Stormi World-themed birthday party. And let’s just say her second birthday party was even more over-the-top than her first.
Just like last year, the party was a direct homage to her dad’s AstroWorld album, featuring a custom-made theme park, Stormi’s very own store, and a star-studded guest-list that included all the Kardashians and Jenners, Hailey Bieber, Rosalía, Chrissy Teigen, John Legend, and their daughter Luna.
Ahead of the birthday party, the Kylie Cosmetics mogul shared a photo to her Instagram Stories of all her daughter’s birthday presents. “I can’t wait for my baby to wake up in the AM,” she captioned the image.
But little did everyone know Jenner was about to out-do herself.
Guests arrived at the party to find a massive inflatable version of Stormi’s head complete with a map to navigate their way through the maze that included Trolls and Frozen-themed rooms. There were also Trolls tree characters as well as an ice sculpture of Olaf the snowman and a meet-and-greet with Elsa.
The proud mom captured Stormi’s adorable reaction to her party.
Those working at the party wore aprons that read “Stormi Word 2 is Better Than 1.”
There was also a Dumbo ride and a huge inflatable slide.
And a sweet table that looked super delicious…
…let’s not even discuss Stormi’s four-tier birthday cake.
Jenner and Scott, who split in October 2019, also proved they’re still on good terms as they came together to sing “Happy Birthday” to their little one.
There was even a life-size a claw machine (!!) filled with tiny Stormi-head pillows.
And let’s not forget the people walking around in giant Stormi heads.
Before the big bash, Jenner shared a touching tribute for Stormi on Instagram, writing, “And just like that she’s two ⚡️⚡️ happy birthday to my Stormi. February 1st 4:43pm the moment my life changed forever. We were meant for each other stormiloo ?”
