Three

Three years old.

I am daily astounded by this intelligent, funny, creative, strong-willed boy. He's a chatterbox, loves imagination play and has extremely particular preferences.

One day when Joe brought home an Amazon package, Luca asked what was in the little rectangle boxes.

"It's cake mix," I said. "For your birthday. Remember your birthday party last year?"

"Yeah!" Luca said.

"Remember your cake was a construction site?"

"I don't want a construction cake this time," he said. "I want a camping cake."

And thus began my brainstorm.

These days, I am creative a total of two times per year: Christmas and Luca's birthday (Hopefully Damien's arrival will generate enough creative juices to last for his birthday as well). So thank you, Internet, for all the fun ideas that made this party cute.

Did I mention Luca's particular preferences? Well, whenever we talked about his birthday, he decided there was just one person he wanted to attend: Austin.

Campsite cake, complete with campfire, tent and pond

As in, our adult friend in D.C.

Luca enjoys his friends (sometimes), but isn't much for big groups, so we invited as few friends as possible to still make for a fun party. We roped Austin in to FaceTime Luca on his birthday, and we told him Austin asked Mommy to invite some Hong Kong friends to take his place. Thankfully, it worked, and Luca wasn't upset when the other kids walked in.

Attendees needed a compass, flashlight and carabiner to "navigate" the party.

Like any good camping trip, there was fishing (magnet toy inside a felt fish)...

Biggest catch of the day!

...and "digging for bugs" (homemade chocolate playdough with toy insects).

The kids played in the ball pit tent and the real tent...

...and I "told stories" around the campfire (Camping Spree with Mr. Magee).

There were yummy snacks...

...and of course no party is complete without cake and s'mores ice cream! 

Luca's favorite gift was a set of real walkie talkies--he spent the rest of the party running around giggling, saying "Hello Appa!" and grinning from ear to ear when Joe would respond: "Happy birthday, Luca!"