Family, friends of twins find creative way to celebrate their birthday while social distancing

As we social distance from loved ones, families are finding creative ways to celebrate birthdays.

For one set of twins, they celebrated the start of their teenage years with loved ones thanks to technology.

When you become a teen, being away from your friends is hard.

“They were getting pretty discouraged and then being out of school with their friends, and not being able to get together with their friends, it was just really weighing on them,” said the twins’ mother, Christa Stein-Conley.

But for Lucius and Alaina, they have a whole support system of friends, family and instructors ready to celebrate.

“Since they could Zoom meeting to kind of connect, what if I could do something to make that bigger,” Christa said.

Add in decorating kids and instruction from “Smallcakes” and you have the recipe for a perfect social distance birthday.

While connecting with friends is important, “For my daughter, it’s really big for them, because for them to communicate, of course, it’s in person and small groups is always better,” Christa said.

Alaina and her friends are part of the deaf or hard-of-hearing program in Lee County.

“She is in by no means disabled or cannot do anything. She is the most driven child I’ve ever met. She can accomplish anything and she doesn’t stop until she does,” Christa said.

Not even the coronavirus can keep this tight-knit group from celebrating the beginning of their friends’ teen years.

Christa says the twins were born in Japan on April 18 but since it was still April 17 in the United States, the family celebrates their birthdays across the two days.