Ara’s 11th

Can you guess what time it is?

It’s time for the birthday girl!

Arabella turned eleven this year. In a short while she will be a teenager, any beyond.

It has been quite a year.

This year she wanted to have a Harry Potter Themed birthday. This may have been slightly attributed to visiting Universal Studios for New Years.

My parents (as previously mentioned) were already in the area for the event. At the beginning of the month Ara invited JJ to come as well. Since my talk with Louis I extended the invite for them to come to her birthday, and they took us up on it.

First up: some birthday prework. I had to generate some Hogwarts inspired images for Ara and her decorations, thank you AI. I also had to take a quiz (on harrypotter.com) to see which house I’d be in. Hufflepuff. Bonus content! I added my Hogwarts universe photo for all to see. I’ve also included some details on each ‘house’ that one could be placed in- these are all the houses from the Harry Potter Universe.

Then came the dinner and birthday cake.

To be fair, she had another birthday party the day after her birthday- with her friends from the neighborhood and a few from church. For that one the boys were told to leave, as it was an all girls event, so I can’t speak to what happened at that event. Her birthday ‘proper’ was just for family.

All in all, it seems like she enjoyed it.

I’m sure it won’t go down as one of the best birthday parties she has ever had. Prior to this she had to do some cleaning up (yes on her birthday, I know we are terrible parents). We have been doing a cleaning of the house for a good 2 weeks and every day since Grammy and Grampy have been here. It hasn’t been the most fun of all visits as they haven’t had ‘play time’ with them at all and they leave on Monday morning. Weekend is taken up at Church.. so not much time left. That is fine.

Why? Well, we pleaded with the kids to get the cleaning done before my parents arrived. They called our bluff – by us insisting on getting it done before they play with them. Unfortunately it took the entire week, and just got clean the day of her birthday.

So yes, there was name calling, and yelling and screaming by both Ara and Lijah. That’s to be expected I suppose. But at the end of the day, she said she enjoyed her get togethers.

Maryia has put in a ton of work for this birthday. My dad helped out quite a bit with the decorating as well. I don’t think kids always (or maybe ever?) appreciate how much effort goes into something like this. For example, Maryia spent preparing weeks ahead of time getting everything ready for the two days of Arabella. From Harry Potter Goldfish – to butterbeer. From creating wands (by hand), picking up party decorations from neighbors who gave some away, to the decorating of the house (after getting it picked up).

Alas, it was a good meetup. JJ was the first to arrive and the last to leave. Angel and company stayed for about 90 minutes before heading off.

I must say, I’ve felt exhausted as of late. Life, man. Its been tiring.

But can you believe it?

Eleven years.

How is that even possible?

Where has my little girl gone?