Happy birthday, 8-year-old!
Your mom and I had some debate about how to go about your birthday party this year. In years past, we tied your birthday to Oktoberfest and blended the party between Bavarian and Frozen vibes that naturally attracted parents and children by way of either pretzels, beer, or Elsa.
This was the first year that you wanted your own party theme with just girls, so we split the parties up. We had Oktoberfest first, and some family and friends still took the occasion to bring you presents, which you didn’t mind. We dressed up in our respective costumes. I wore my official lederhosen, Mom wore her Bavarian dress, and Matteo dressed as The Flash, for unknown reasons. Only a few guests dressed up, as is usually the case, but it was again a big party and we had amazing weather for it. To help tame your and Matteo’s friends, we played a movie on the outdoor projector before calling it a night.
For your birthday party a couple of days later, Mom put on an incredible tea party. I didn’t know that your mom had such an affinity for real tea cup sets because she spent several weeks collecting them. You and your friends all wore fancy dresses but that didn’t keep you from a dance party before I heard you drank real tea in addition to fruit juice. I only heard this because my job was to get Matteo out of the house, so we crashed at Round Table for a couple of hours playing video games for tickets and redeeming them for incredibly expensive candy.
From both parties you received a Christmas-level amount of presents, so it feels like we’ve spent the days since clearing out old toys, clothes, and generally preparing for the fall. Your birthday is always the first real holiday of the holiday season, and I’d say it went perfectly.
Love, Dad