When Oskar was born Martin and I had a lengthy
discussion about birthday parties and what we expected for our kids. We decided
to hold off on big parties until they asked for one and we should live by the
rule of one friend invited for each year we were celebrating. So for the past
two years we have celebrated Oskar’s birthday at the Lake with just the family
(including Oma and Opa) and a small gathering for cocktail, appetizers and
dinner on the deck. But this year, after attending a few birthday celebrations,
Oskar informed us he wanted a party and he wanted chocolate cake. This year was
also the first year that Oma and Opa wouldn’t be there (we were to see them two
weeks later in Germany, where we would celebrate a belated birthday). So this
year we officially celebrated Oskar turning three with three separate birthday
parties: at the Lake, in Germany and in SF.
Cocktails and dinner on the deck at the Lake was
rained out on the planned Sunday, postponing the party until Monday, his actual
birthday, for huevos rancheros. As a side note, Germans are super strict about
not celebrating birthdays until the actual day, so the delay of the dinner was
actually a good thing and avoided the awkward “come over for cocktails,
appetizers and dinner but to “not” celebrate Oskar’s birthday”.
The German celebration lasted all of the 20
minutes it took for Oskar to open up his presents.
And between the two family celebrations we went
big with a kids party in San Francisco. With the general rule to invite all of your
classmates to your party, the “one friend per year” rule Martin and I had
previously discussed and agreed on went out the window and with it the flood
gates opened... 20 plus kids and 30 plus adults, a trip to Costco and a large
last minute order from Amazon later, we officially celebrated Oskar with
coffee, croissants, muffins, mimosas and chocolate cake at our local
playground.
It was a blowout and I think Oskar was happy with the results.
This past weekend we had Oskar’s friend Max and
his parents over for a play date. By all accounts it was a huge success: the
four adults got to enjoy a beer and glass of wine in the living room, Oskar and
Max had a ball in Oskar’s bedroom, Alva loved the chaos of it all and Oskar has
already asked to have Max over again.
I mean, if this picture doesn’t represent a good time, then I
don’t know what would:
