Happy Birthday, Maddy

Maddy celebrated her twelve birthday a few days ago, but because it fell on the first day of the Shepherds’ Conference, we couldn’t do much on the day.  Tonight, we celebrated her birthday by going out for dinner at a place of her choice – now that we are students, long gone are the days of extravagant birthday celebrations.

So we headed to Wahoo’s for dinner.  Maddy loves this place and when you can buy a kid’s meal for $2.99, I tend to like it as well.  Besides, the  blackened fish burrito is pretty good and the salsa has a real bite to it.

After eating at Wahoo’s, we headed across the road to Menchie’s for dessert.  Menchie’s has been a very regular thing for us since we discovered it in our third week in the United States.  Back in New Zealand, we maintained a Family night every Friday evening and we have continued that tradition here where Menchie’s frozen yogurt has become a regular feature every week since.  It is quite an inexpensive night out, and the girls still look forward to it week after week before we head back home for episodes of ‘Little House on the Prairie’.  The thing that I like about Menchie’s is that they usually have at least one new flavor each week despite the fact that the girls tend to go for the most sickly-sweet toppings in contrast to my very tried and true (and classic) vanilla, nuts and chocolate fudge.

We enjoyed our night out which served as another reminder of how grateful to the Lord we are for the way He has  richly blessed us with Maddy.  She brings us much joy  (as well as a few challenges) and we love what she adds to our family. Happy birthday, Maddy.