They say good things come in threes. I hope “they” are right ;)

What I can say is that Zoe’s third birthday party was a hit! On the day of her birth, she woke up and said, “Daddy, I’m three!” Then we had 40 people at our house in our new backyard – 15 of them children (10 of those were little boys). Reading that line, it’s doubtful you miss the tone of our party: chaos. Ok, so maybe it was just lively, but I’m certain I was meant to have a little girl.

We booked entertainment – a couple that brings percussion instruments and guides the whole party in rhythm. I’ve been to many a drum circle and had a hippy-dippy picture in my head of the whole party in a zen moment (with kid-friendly songs), celebrating the life of my daughter and sending good vibes to the universe.

Instead, we had a super sweet, slightly dorky (I’m being nice) couple who could have passed for middle school band leaders – and who led our party to hits you may recognize like “Grand Old Flag”, “We Will Rock You” and some classical not-to-miss tunes – yes, classical.

Now, I have pretty diverse musical taste, but Grand Old Flag?! How about Old McDonald??? We had also told them in advance that we had a luau theme, and they said they’d work in some Hawaiian tunes. Not so much. But they did a heck of a birthday song:

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Anyway, the kids enjoyed banging on things, and the band leaders were super nice – I was just expecting something else. Part way through they brought a few volunteer adults up to guide some rhythm by having the group follow our head, hip or knee movements to determine the beat. That’s when Zoe lost it a little (why wasn’t SHE picked?!), and we had a moment that looked like this:

We moved past that after she got to go “on stage” with Mommy (lucky me), and honestly, her favorite parts of the party were probably the ones where she was chasing little boys around, pretending to be a monster. The free entertainment.

So after preparing for a party on Saturday, hosting it on Sunday, and cleaning up on Labor Day Monday, we were pooped. But we both agreed that our new little 3-year-old was totally worth it. And a day surrounded by people we love was a lot like a drum circle, sending good vibes into the universe ;)

Happy Birthday, Sweet Zoe.
Your parents love you very very much.

If you’re ever in doubt, you need only look back at the beautiful cakes your Daddy has made for every single one of your birthdays, including this one: