Beyoncé and Jay Z have the world at their fingertips and there's no doubt they could have thrown daughter Blue Ivy whatever second birthday bash their hearts desired. I don't know about you, but I was expecting something BIG -- a champagne bash at the Waldorf Astoria, maybe -- since we all know toddler birthday parties are usually more for parents and their friends than for the child of honor. Oh, and let's not forget the entertainers spent $200K on Blue Ivy's first birthday AND gave her a diamond-encrusted Barbie. So you can't blame me for making assumptions.
But the duo did something far more surprising to celebrate their little girl. They held as much of a kid-centric party as you can possibly can (considering how much privacy you'd need if you were these two) and closed down Jungle Island bird sanctuary within the Miami Zoo to give their princess a fairly modest bash she'll never, ever remember.
Officials at the zoo won't reveal how much the party cost, but the price to simply take a VIP tour of the botanical gardens and sanctuary is $240 -- so we can only guess how many thousands of dollars the couple paid for this party. But everything is relative and we know a few thousand is a drop in the bucket for Beyoncé and Jay Z. The impressive thing here is that they chose to hold the party at a venue where Blue Ivy could take in the adorable penguins, lemurs, orangutans, and kangaroos. What toddler wouldn't be delighted by that?!
Another suspicion I had -- that Blue Ivy would receive nothing but bling for her birthday -- was totally off, as well. Close family friend Kanye West reportedly gifted the little girl a lullaby he wrote about how she and Nori would grow up to be powerful friends and how he and Jay Z would provide for their daughters and give them everything they never had growing up. The lullaby will NOT be released to the public, which is what makes this totally sweet instead of annoying.
It's easy for many of us to get caught up in planning lavish birthday parties for our toddlers because we feel the desire to celebrate their amazing little lives. We won't pretend that Blue Ivy's party didn't cost an arm and a leg, but compared to many of the adult-centric kid parties I've attended -- which also look like they cost thousands of dollars -- this one was precious and far more appropriate.
Do you feel Beyoncé and Jay Z's decision to close down part of the Miami Zoo for Blue Ivy's second birthday party was outrageous or sweet?
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