Three (going on two-and-a-half)

Alice turned three on Friday! While she was excited about her birthday, she wasn't as sure about the specific age. Edith had a half birthday in November, so those must be the cool thing, and Alice was hoping this was her "two-and-a-half birthday." She was a little disgruntled to find she was already past two-and-a-half, never to return. Then, too, there was some talk around here about three year olds not drinking mommy milk anymore and three year olds wearing undies, and while both sounded good to her in theory, once three actually arrived, she was less sure about the draw-down timeline. There's been a good deal of baby talk and play-acting baby around here in recent weeks.

Opening a present from Aunt Debbie and Uncle Bob

..and a present from big sister, with her own special wrapping

But it was anything but babies at the little birthday party we hosted Saturday. The apocalypse must be at hand, because we had a child's birthday party with no meltdowns, no squabbles, no tears, and no spills. The three guests' arrivals wound up staggered over about 45 minutes, which probably helped with the emotional pacing. We let Alice open presents as her guests arrived--their preference and hers--and kept everything low-key. We had one art project available--each kid chose a ceramic coin bank to paint--and that engaged all parties, ages 3-6, for at least half an hour apiece. The rest of the time the girls played princesses together in the basement, until we called them for PB&J, cucumbers, and applesauce (the birthday girl's requested menu). Hard to believe it was so easy.

Alice had requested pink cupcakes with a pig on top of hers. I'd searched for marzipan pigs and come up short but located the following substitute:



And that was it. Plenty of anxiety and fuss on our part ahead of time; easy-peasy in the doing.

A couple of recent quotes from our newly-three year old:

Apropros of nothing at dinner the other night she announced, "I would never steal horses. But I would steal anything of hers [indicating Edith]."

Coming home from Edith's choir concert last night, Edith asked why some original fairy tales are so scary. I was talking about people managing their fears by making up stories about them. Alice piped up, "Yeah, because if people don't have happiness, then they just have mad-i-ness." Indeed.

Speaking of the choir concert, a video appears below of  the "Friendly Beasts" number, performed by the 1st/2nd-grade choir. I inadvertently cut off the beginning , but there is plenty here: David Sedaris could write a full review based on this clip. Edith was a bit short-changed when it came to the microphone, but she did fine for all that, singing the same first solo (or duet) that was her mother's first solo in a choir performance thirty years ago: "I, said the donkey, shaggy and brown..."