Hamish turns 9
September was an absolute whirl wind and I’m finally getting around to writing about Hamishs 9th birthday.
Each year, his birthday is a carefully curated celebration of small events rather than a birthday party, and this year was no different. 
Nan visits and our car dies
We started the birthday week on Thursday, welcoming Brent’s mom from Johannesburg.
We also had our car engine decide to conk out on the way to fetch her from the airport. Leaving us with no transport for the duration of her stay.
Thankfully my eldest son, Dylan, stays with us and we were able to use his car when needed.
Hamish was super excited to have his Nan visit. He doesn’t see her often and so this was a real treat.
Party preparations
Friday was spent knee high in party preparations and thankfully the last minute Temu decorations that I had ordered arrived just in time.
His big sister, Tammi had gifted him some fun decorations like dinosaur balloons, a dinosaur pinata and a pin the tail on the dinosaur game .
She also thankfully bought his a birthday boy shirt as well.I’d ordered one in black and she ordered a white one and hers arrived before mine . I was so stressed they wouldn’t arrive in time for the party and super greatful hers had arrived.
All party goidies were prepared the Friday night and his brother Shaun took great delight in buying far too many sweets to fill the pinata.
We were expecting our friends and my granddaughter on Saturday afternoon and so had put up the gazebo and tents for each child to be able to camp out.
I was concerned about where everyone would sleep in our small flat, so by the kids camping in the yard we could fit 11 people in comfortably and the kids would have an amazing adventure to remember.
Backyard campsites
After hanging my welcome campers signs early Saturday morning, our back yard camp site was ready for the campers.
Each kid picked a tent, dropped their stuff inside and enjoyed the festivities throughout the day.
The greatest hit was the pinata and watching them hit it was so funny and I even felt a little sorry for the poor dinosaur.
The kids settled down around 9pm and before long our entire house was fast asleep.
Birthday party
It was up bright and early on the Sunday as we loaded the car with party goodies and headed to the party venue – Mikes Kitchen in Milnerton.
I absolutely love their party options. For R99 a child you get a full meal, drink, ice cream, balloon, picture to colour, party box and cupcake . Defenitly value for money
I opted not to do a cake as honestly kids don’t even eat the cake so we used the cupcakes instead.
Hamish was gifted personalised party bags and kitkat wrappers from a friend and I was so happy that she’d used my designs. I use Canva for all my design work and had the best fun designing his invites and the chip /KitKat packets.
We added a personalised chip packet and KitKat to each place setting.
Kids spent their time outside enjoying the sunshine and play space whilst us parents enjoyed a delicious breakfast and chat inside.
It was a great morning as he was surrounded by all of his family and friends.
Calm down time
That afternoon Brent and my 3 sons, Dylan;Shaun and Ronan helped to take down our back yard camp site.
I started washing linen as we’d had 11 people sleeping in our home on Saturday evening and every inch of linen I own was dirty.
Hamish spent the time opening, playing with and enjoying his mountain of gifts. ( The best part of every party)
This year we gifted him mostly dinosaur gifts for his party and some outfits of Dinosaur and Mr Beast themed clothing.
It was my first big order from Temu and I included : 3 sets of dinosaur themed shirts and shorts, a Mr beast tracksuit set, 2 Mr beast shorts and shirts sets, a travel bag , a t-rex chain, cute T-rex arm band, some Dinosaur themed lego imitation builds and a harmonica.
Birthday traditions
The Monday was his actual birthday and we had kept his main gift of a guitar for him to open that morning. Every year since I can remember I’ve left his main birthday gift next to his bed for him to wake up next to.
I’d also woken early to make him a small cake and added his number 9 candle.
Another tradition we started from his first birthday was to get a photo of him with a giant foil balloon representing his age.
After he opened his gift, we took birthday photos before heading out to the V & A Waterfront so he could spend his birthday money at the Lego Certified store ….naturally!
All in all ….it was a great week of celebrations and Hamish was spoilt rotten in gifts; attention and love.
I can’t think of a better way to turn 9.
