Birthday celebrations

Norsk flag hung in honor of her
birthday at the Barnehage

Barnehage celebration

We had big days at our house this weekend: Erik's birthday on Saturday, and Greta's 3rd birthday on Sunday.

The celebrations began, however, on Friday when Greta and I brought 36 pink frosted cupcakes to the barnehage to share with her friends.

She was feted with the Norwegian birthday song, had an enormous pink crown placed on her head, wore a purple cape, and sat on a throne. The Norwegian flag was even hung up in her honor (Erik and I had discussed loaning the barnehage our American flag for the occasion, but forgot).

On Saturday, Greta felt it was important to make Pappa a crown, too. I thought this was a sweet gesture, especially as I was a little concerned about her understanding that Pappa's birthday must happen first before her birthday. This didn't seem to be an issue, although she was a little concerned that we weren't baking Pappa a cake, too.

Making a crown for Pappa's birthday

Greta and her Pappa on his birthday

For her actual birthday on Sunday, we had invited the 3 other 2-nearly-3 year olds from the barnehage to come for a little party, along with their older siblings (3 more kids) and parents, plus one infant. I was a little worried about how to entertain all of these kids, but letting them run wild through the house, explore new toys and rooms, and top it all off with crown decorating seemed to be enough. We served the kids homemade mac&cheese, the adults got Minnesota wild rice soup, and we wrapped up the afternoon with homemade chocolate cake, Grandma's special recipe.

It was utterly exhausting, and I have since decided that the perfect number of guests at a 3-year olds birthday party should be 3 kids and 3 moms. The additional siblings and parents made for fun socialization, but a little stressful for me and a bit chaotic for Greta. I've since realized that I was probably the only one who perceived it as chaotic, as all of the other parents have more than one child, and have likely been to at least one child's birthday party before. Having just one rather calm child, and never witnessing a birthday party (as an adult), it seemed a bit out of control. Also, having a house full of Norwegian speakers wasn't nearly as disorienting this time around as it was back in December, but it did help that one of the fathers is British, so there was a fair amount of English being spoken as well.

Stress of the day breaks through

Småtroll (2 year olds) at Greta's party

Happy girl on her new tryhjulssykkel