It’s hard to believe, but true, my little baby is already 3 years old! She has been an absolute joy to have in the family, and we are so glad we decided to let her join. 🙂 Just in the past 2 months or so, she has really turned a corner in her development. The most obvious being that she can finally talk! It is so fun to hear all the thoughts she has been storing up in her head all these months! Of course, the kids love teaching her silly phrases to parrot back as they laugh hysterically. Everything does sound funnier and cuter in that little baby voice of hers.
I wasn’t planning on having an actual birthday party for Alexandra. She is only 3 after all, and a family party was all I was mentally prepared to do, after all the other partying this weekend. But she announced to me, while I was putting the finishing touches on Sophie’s party, that she wanted a party as well. “A tea party, Mama. With all my friends; Kahri, Jasper, Alemie (Amelie) and Chloe.” Oh boy. Okay, I will see what I can do. Thankfully, all of her friends’ mommies are flexible enough to accommodate last minute invitations!
Rather than making one large birthday cake, I opted for easier to manage cupcakes. 
Small kids love them, I think because the ratio of frosting to cake is so much better! A few years ago, Sophie and Sarah had wanted tea parties for their birthdays as well, so I still had the fancy (but cheap from the Swiss Goodwill) tea cups, saucers and teapot. 
The kids loved drinking out of the pretty cups, and plopping the sugar cubes into the tea, then stirring it around with the little spoons. 
It was better than any party game I could have come up with, I think.
Since we had asked the guests to come with so little notice, I had told them all to not worry about bringing presents.
Every single one of them didn’t listen to me. Which, naturally, thrilled Alexandra to no end. Thank you everyone!
That evening we let Alexandra open even more presents when Papa got home from work. 
I just love how excited my kids get for the birthday child. 
There used to be instances of jealousy and pouting, but the last couple of years have been gloriously free of that. That has been so nice. I hope it lasts…
She had blown out candles with her friends, but we grabbed a leftover cupcake, stuck 3 more candles in it, and let her blow them out again.
Happy birthday, Alexandra. You are the perfect exclamation point to our family!