Jacob turns 3

Jake turned 3 last week! We celebrated under quarantined conditions but despite the restrictions I think he still had a wonderful day.

This year was fun. For the first time he was aware of what having a birthday meant and had adorable expectations for it. These included presents, decorations and a cake. Thankfully, I love birthdays and had purchased his presents and decorations super early, so we already had everything on hand, except the cake. Jamie darted to Hannaford at 7 AM and was able to find an ice cream cake. Despite the circumstances we were still able to check the boxes on all his birthday wishes.

Jake had requested a Star Wars themed birthday party. Although the party with friends is on delay, the night before his birthday I put up a few decorations while Jamie blew up some balloons.

The morning of his birthday Jacob came downstairs and was so delighted with the decorations. He loved it all and the look on his face was pure joy.

I started making breakfast and my mom called to wish him a happy birthday. She sang to him and so did her dog and cat. Lots of entertainment there.

The kids ate breakfast and not long after my dad called to also wish him a happy birthday. My dad is usually with us to celebrate birthdays so that was a little different this year. Jacob and I talked about how we would celebrate in person with all of these people as soon as we could. He seemed to understand.

After this the kids got to open their joint birthday gift (Anika’s birthday is in two weeks) from my mom and step dad. It was a set of kid size drums and a kid size guitar. They loved them both. But you know what else they loved? The boxes and packing materials that came with the present. The kids are still playing with those things.

The rest of the day we did some school work, played, Jake got to watch two episodes of Berenstain Bears before his nap because it was his birthday, nap, play outside and then once Jamie was done with work he got to open his presents from us.

He received a kids bow and arrow set and a pirate costume that I had snagged from the Target post Christmas clearance section for four dollars! Anika drew him an amazing picture of her, Jake, Darth Vader and Storm Troopers. He loved all his gifts and it was very sweet how appreciative he was of everything.

While I was cooking dinner our neighbors and good friends texted me to see if it was ok if they dropped off a gift at our front door and said happy birthday from six feet away. When the doorbell rang and I told Jacob someone might be here to celebrate his birthday he yelled out “Is Coronavirus over?!” It was so nice of them to drop off the gift and say happy birthday even at a distance. It had been Coronavirus wrapped, which meant simply put in gift bag, no tissue paper. Jake took it out immediately and saw that it was a trumpet and a lollipop hand drum. It fit perfectly with the other musical gifts that the kids had received earlier. We are becoming quite the Partridge family over here.

After we said goodbye it was time for dinner, followed by cake. I’m particularly happy with what we were able to come up with for Jake’s cake. It was a Friendly’s ice cream cake with Chocolate Crunch on top that resembled dirt/sand. Jake had requested a Star Wars cake with the characters on it and he wanted a candle that had a three on it, thankfully already purchased. I took some of his little Star Wars figurines, washed them and arranged them in a fight scene on top of the cake. It looked like they were battling it out on Tatooine. He was pleased with the results and the cake was also delicious.

I hope Jacob loved his birthday. His big smile throughout the day made me think he did.