Can you believe this girl is going to be 9?

This was the first of many birthday celebrations this week. We invited our friends over and they helped to make Katie's birthday very special.

We did our traditional lantern walk and wrote our birthday wishes on the lantern for Katie. Then we followed her down to the big evergreen tree in the middle of the field and hung our lanterns. It was really cool to see the lanterns hanging there in the dark lighting up the field.

That night when I was tucking Katie into bed, she hugged me and thanked me for making her birthday so special. It brought such joy to my heart to know that even though we are far from family and our old friends, we were able to make her day special in our new life here.

For official birthday is on Wednesday and we will celebrate then too! Actually, I think we are all going to go bowling!