We had so much fun on our little getaway for True’s birthday weekend. I love hotel birthdays! It’s a time when we can all really just relax and enjoy being together. We were gone for four days in Carlsbad, and all we did was swim, eat, and relax. I even took a nap one afternoon! I really much prefer this type of celebrating, but if they did ask for a regular party with lots of friends, we would be happy to serve them that way too.

Since True turned 9, and it’s her last year in the single digits, I went crazy with the nines! She had a couple theme requests, one was Buddies (the dog movies), and another was Spurs with black and silver colors. I asked her if I could do a little bit of surprise and she agreed, so I did the number thing with a lot of black to pick up on her San Antonio Spurs request. While Ben and the girls were out swimming, I decorated our hotel room. I pretty much just use one of the beds to set everything up on.

I had painted the 9 backdrop at home, and rolled it up for easy transport, and taped it to the wall for the party. I covered the bed in black checkered fabric, and then I made the paper plate cake stands at the hotel too (I bring an arsenal of glue gun, glue sticks, tape, scissors, and dowels with me). She loves Nothing Bundt Cakes, so we bought a dozen, but only set out 9 for her “party,” and I placed those on the cake stands. I got the little tissue paper honeycombs from IKEA, glued them onto a dowel, and inserted them into the cakes. They provided nice little pops of color.

We gave her one box with 9 little gifts inside, which included her birthday dress, this pony dress she wanted, glitter jelly shoes, mechanical pencils, rubber bands, sunglasses, and other little things that added up to 9. She makes a wish list (the mechanical pencils and rubber bands were on it, along with other things like the dresses), but we always tell them, you don’t get everything you want, so there were some things she had on the list, that she didn’t get. Of course, Brave and Soul made her a million and one handmade gifts too (like the paper puppet above)!

She came into the room after swimming and her face lit up! We were beaming from the smile she had, and then we let her open her presents, and she immediately changed into her birthday outfit. Then the party proceeded with a round of “Happy Birthday” and everyone indulging in 9 bundt cakes! The girls went to town eating those! We relaxed the rest of the afternoon together, enjoying our celebrant, then we went back to the pool to go swimming, and after that, we took her out to dinner at a local place of her choice.

We are so thankful for the Lord blessing us with her for these 9 years thus far, and for the beautiful little lady she is becoming. I tend to be tough on her, and I forget she’s still a kid, but she is always so gracious to forgive. We’ve hit a couple bumps in the road with her as she has started with some major attitudes here and there, but God is good in teaching all of us through it. It really has brought me to my knees, and made me realize how much I lacked grace in the parenting department (probably all departments really). My True is such a special girl with her sweet and reserved personality, but bossy at home, and always abounding in creativity. We love being able to celebrate the treasure that she is in this very special way on her birthday!