David is 9!!! How is he nine?!?! I feel like a broken record on repeat! I simply cannot help but wonder how nine years have come and gone. When I look back on all the memories we have and see how he is growing up, it makes me want to treasure the years to come even more because I know they will go just as quick.

David wanted a birthday party with friends and family. He wanted a destination party, and he wanted Harry Potter for the theme. I had never planned a destination party before, we have always had them at home or at grandparents. I did some research on places around here to have birthday parties. I discovered that it is expensive at some places to have a party! I couldn’t believe that places like DEFY and Chuck E Cheese wanted around twenty-three dollars per child with a minimum of ten, and that was the basic packages. I’ll let you do the math, and maybe we are just cheap when it comes to spending, but that seemed really expensive to me. We don’t even spend that much on gifts per child at Christmas! I’m not judging people who choose to have parties at these places, or how much they choose to spend on their kids by any means! I totally get wanting to give your kid the birthday party they want. All I’m saying is I wish places would make it more economical for parents. I had to simply explain to David how much money these places wanted, and that it was more than we wanted to pay. I am proud to say he was very grown up about it. I continued searching for a more economical place to host his party. I am glad to say that I finally found a black light mini golf place that he was excited about and that was more in our budget. I did not want to have his birthday party at a park with the one hundred degree weather we’ve been having!

The black-light mini golf and laser maze/ Harry Potter themed birthday party was a success! 🙂 David said it was his best birthday party yet. 😊 The Harry Potter theme was fun! All the kids had goodie bags with some party favors that included a wand and HP glasses. 🙂

I did not make the cake this year. I ordered it from the commissary, and I was really pleased with how they did! It looked exactly like I requested and it tasted so good! David loved his cake! When we sang happy birthday to him he had to conduct us with his wand. He was such a hoot! He was so excited about everything I think he barely ate a slice of pizza and couldn’t eat all his cake though. He was to into playing all the games to take time to enjoy his food.

We have only been here for one school year, and I am glad to see that David has made friends both at school and in our neighbor hood. He was so thrilled to have some friends at his party! We were also happy that both sets of grandparents were able to make it too, along with Auntie Leah and Uncle B, and his cousin Robbie! David and his G-pa share the same birthday! It worked out that we were able to induced labor and David was born on Jim’s birthday. I love the picture of them standing back to back. 🥰 David was also super excited that his cousin Robbie was able to come to his party and spend the night with him. They don’t get to see each other very often since we moved and so they had fun catching up.

The summer is going by quickly! I can’t believe July is almost here. Andrew’s birthday and our beach trip is coming up this weekend! We are so excited!

The picture below is of the kids enjoying some downtime after the busy weekend. Emma and Samuel had been playing dress up.

Emma started her piano lessons last week! I am excited for her as she begins this journey. I hope she loves it too!

Love,

PK