Birthday Celebration #1

Ian will be turning NINE years old on Wednesday. Really?!?!? The years are certainly flying by. The privilege that we give to our kids when they turn nine is that they get to stay up to 9pm (instead of 8:30) but we started letting him stay up until 9pm earlier this year. Currently Oliver goes to bed at 8pm, but he'll be shifting to 8:30 next summer when he turns seven. Nadia got her ears pierced when she turned ten. I'm not sure yet what privilege we'll extend to the boys when they turn ten. Nadia has been going to bed at 9pm since she turned nine, but she'll be shifting to 9:30 in June when she turns eleven, which means we'll be back to having three different bedtimes for the kids. I told Nadia she might have to stay in her room from 9:00-9:30 because Paul usually watches tv starting at 9pm, and the movies he watches are generally not appropriate for children. Speaking of bedtimes, I'm counting down the days until I can shift mine back to a later time. Right now my body is programmed to wake up by 5:30 every morning, which means I am usually in bed at 9pm (earlier sometimes). December

11 is the last day I need to get up early for work this semester. I'm hoping that it won't take too long for my body to shift to a later wake-up time, which will mean I won't need to go to bed so early.

Many times we have celebrated Nadia's birthday by seeing a show at Sight and Sound in Lancaster. The first one was Jonah. This year when she turned 10 we saw "Jesus," which was my favorite show thus far. Next year we won't be going to Sight and Sound for her birthday because they are doing Jesus again next year, but in 2020 we can see "Queen Esther" around her birthday. Since she loves drama so much, I have found another show we can see in June 2019 - Mulan, Jr. at a dinner theater. The kids have never been to a dinner theater before. This one will be a lunch show (much cheaper than a dinner show at the same place). She used to like ALL the Disney princesses, but she's down to three that are still her favorites (she's outgrown the others) - Ariel, Mulan, and Jasmine. So I know she would enjoy seeing Mulan!

We haven't had a tradition for how to celebrate Ian's birthday. Birthdays one through six both of my parents came up here to celebrate his birthday plus my Dad's birthday because their birthdays are only two days apart. My mom passed away before Ian turned seven, but my dad still came up in 2016 so we could celebrate both of their birthdays together. In 2017 we went to Baltimore the weekend before their birthdays and so I brought my Dad's homemade cherry pie and such down to Maryland last year. We didn't plan an overnight in Maryland this year, but we had been planning to spend today in Baltimore again and also see a Christmas show at a church near Harrisburg on the way back home. On Wednesday night I decided to scrap all our plans for Saturday. We had planned to go to the Star Spangled Banner House Museum and the Historic Ships (including a Powder Monkey tour) because both attractions would only cost $1 this weekend (much cheaper than usual). But due to how exhausted I was and how much work I knew I still needed to do this weekend, I deleted those

from the calendar. I contacted a friend and asked her if she'd like to use our tickets to the Christmas show, and she was thrilled to be able to use them. That means I won't drive farther than 15 minutes from our house today!

It hit me last spring that Ian had been gipped because Nadia had invited friends to her birthday parties (at the swimming pool) when she turned eight and nine. She had a surprise sleep over party with two friends (I invited more but that's all who showed up) when she turned ten. Ian has never had any friends attend any of his birthday parties. So I decided we should do something really special for his ninth birthday, and so a few months ago I booked a "Wolf Den" for one night at a Great Wolf Lodge, which is about 90 minutes from our house. I know the kids love water slides and wave pools and such. Paul drove the kids out there on Tuesday morning and they enjoyed the water park all day while I was at work. We met for dinner at a Red Robin at 5:45pm and spent the night in our "den." Ian had the top bunk, Nadia had the

bottom bunk, Oliver had the sofa bed, and Paul and I shared the queen size bed. Then on Wednesday we were at the water park for 6 more hours before we left in time for the kids to go to AWANA. I had planned to go to choir rehearsal, but I ended up staying home because I was utterly and completely exhausted. Because we were celebrating Ian's birthday, he was given special "birthday" wolf ears to wear at GWL and also was allowed to have one bowl of ice cream for free. He picked chocolate chip cookie dough and shared it with Nadia.

We have three total celebrations planned for Ian's birthday this year. On December 4-5 the kids enjoyed the water park at Great Wolf Lodge. They ate breakfast at home on the 4th, ate a packed lunch on the 4th, and ate what we packed for breakfast on the 5th. Dinner on the 4th was at Red Robin, pizza for lunch on the 5th, and Subway for dinner on the 5th. We had never been to GWL before. We (minus Paul) had been to Kalahari in Ohio in 2016, which is very similar. I have to say  the Kalahari trip made this trip a bit hard for me emotionally. I kept recalling how much I was missing my mom and also how very sick I was on that trip in 2016. I tend to miss my mom the most in December. Christmas just isn't the same without her. Ian's second celebration will be on Monday night. I'll be making rigatoni and meatballs, green beans, and garlic bread (Ian picked the menu) and Paul's parents, brother, and sister-in-law will be coming up. He'll open up his presents from them and eat some of Aunt Millie's cake. His third (and final) celebration will be on his actual birthday on Wednesday. He'll get donuts for breakfast and pizza for dinner. We're spending about 4 hours at Tab's house so the kids can play with Isaiah, Micah, and their two dogs (Maggie and Ruby). Tab is providing chicken nuggets for lunch (another of Ian's favorites), and I'm bringing goldfish crackers, apple juice, and a dessert. He'll open up his presents from Paul and I that day. Hopefully our nine year old will feel very loved, appreciated, and celebrated! I am ever so thankful the Lord gave him to us nine years ago!