This past Saturday, Leif has turned 3. He is now a big boy going to school, talking in sentences, using the potty by himself, having opinions (usually strong ones), sleeping in his own bed, and all kinds of other big boy things. And to celebrate his big boyness, we had him a little birthday party at the park.
We invited a few of his friends over (I know right. He has friends too), and found ways to entertain them all. Starting with water balloons. There weren’t many of them and each kid got only about 6 balloons. Only one balloon out of the bunch actually exploded on a child. The rest either missed or bounced off and exploded on the ground. Totally lame as far as water sports go. Luckily I had Holly come and save the day with some pizzas out of the oven.
Shortly after, it was my turn to make a trip. Holly got the easy job of letting the kids have a whack at piñata Spongebob while I went to fetch the buttercream cake from the fridge. I grabbed what I needed and went back hoping to catch some of the action, but by the time I arrived, Spongebob had met his death and the kids were all trading innards. Delicious.
But now it’s cake and presents time. Yay! Leif was excited by this notion of course. What 3 year old doesn’t like cake and presents? So we proceeded. The cake was topped with chocolate cream icing and little Spongebob characters (as if life-size ones would fit). We sang happy birthday to the boy and he blew out his candles with enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, the kids were all into their cheap store bought piñata candy to fully appreciate the lilikoi butter cream chocolate cake that Holly made. Poor Holly was sad about that. But once the kids weren’t allowed to have cheap candy anymore, they all snarfed slice after slice of the yummy cake. Good kids.
Back to the presents. Leif tore open many presents, which he paused after each one to play with. This made for a longer present opening ceremony, but the other kids didn’t mind once he opened the strange flower water sprinkler Gavin picked for him. I quickly set up the sprinkler so that the kids can all run around and finally get that water-logged feeling they were hoping for with water balloons. Leif joined the sprinkler fun as well. He returned shortly to finish opening up his presents. Besides, he was getting shot heavily in the face which he wasn’t all that fond of.
Once all the major activities were over, we let the kids run wild. At this point it didn’t take too much on our part to entertain them. They had enough to keep them busy for a while. They played through the day until the sun threatened to disappear. That was when the cows stampeded to the roadside and started a thunderous mooing competition. This was our sign to wind down and pack up. We cleaned up all broken water balloons, dirty cups, candy wrappers, napkins, plates and bottles. We packed up all the leftover cake and supplies. We folded up and discarded the table cloth. We joked about all the gruesomely silly things we could do with the Spongebob carnage. Then we buried him good and proper.
Ok, not that good and proper. But we didn’t have a lot of time. The cows were shooing us away and we had to rush over to catch the sunset before it faded away.
Leif was very pleased with his birthday and all the presents he received. At the end of the day, the floor was sprawled with trucks, cars, planes, and little plastic Angry Birds, which he refused to stop launching at things as Holly “bathed” him with wet wipes. When all was said and done, Leif crawled into bed, teeth brushed and potty utilized, and was sang half a song by Holly before his eyes were closed and he was snoring.
Happy 3rd birthday kiddo.