Ben's 3rd Birthday

Phew! What a fun few days it's been. Let me just start off by writing a conversation Ben and Ryan just had, because I'm still laughing about it. I told Ben to go get his jammies from his room (not really meaning it because I knew I'd have to get them). Ben was too busy playing with the totally awesome tractor Uncle Clint gave him tonight for his birthday, so Ryan said again "Benny, go get your jammies!" (but in a nice encouraging voice) to which Ben replied "I can't..." and then continued to play. Then he said "my leg is broken" hahahahaha! Where does this kid come up with this stuff? He's so hilarious, and getting funnier and funnier everyday. The other day we were out in the yard and out of the blue he yelled "OH MY GOSH!" and has been telling us "oh! good job [Mommy] or [Daddy]" when we do something either for him or really any time. He also really needs to know where he has gotten everything he has. Like where did his shoes come from, meaning did someone give them to him or did we just get them at the store... "who gaved this to me mommy?" is what he usually says. Yesterday I took the day off and we had A LOT to do, starting with his 3 year check up. Well folks... He grew a whole 2 inches in 6 months! This is BIG! He had only grown 1/2 an inch from his 2 year check up to his 2 1/2 year check up. So I guess he made up for it the last 6 months. However, he's only gained 2lbs in one year... but... he's proportionate. And the doc doesn't seem to think there's a problem. And well, he doesn't have tall genes... that's all there is to it. His parents and grandparents are not what we call "tall" people. :) Anyway, he's healthy and doing everything the way he supposed to. Except for maybe eating veggies, but at least he'll still let me give him baby food veggies. Better than none at all... right?

Okay, so anyway- back to the birthday festivities. I swore I wouldn't do a huge party until he was like 5... but it kind of turned into one unintentionally- but I'm not saying this was a bad thing. We have lots of people we love and who love our dude and we're SO grateful for that. Thursday was his actual birthday so I took a half day and took cupcakes to he and his classmates at the daycare. He was pretty excited about that. I think so excited that he didn't sleep very well the night before. When I got there he was pretty darn excited to see me, not sure if it was the cupcakes he was excited to eat or if it was me. :) Here he is in his cute hat they made him with his buddies at the daycare eating cupcakes.

And here we are with his friend Cooper who jumped in on the picture. I thought it was pretty cute. Ben doesn't look too thrilled, but he also looks like Coop's got a good handle on his throat, so maybe it was just that!After we left we went to the store to pick some things up. My brother and his girls sent a card with some money in it, so I told him he could buy something with it. We also decided he could pick one thing out for mommy to buy also. Ryan was buying him a tricycle on the way home from work, so we wanted to get him something else small. My brother Greg and his family send Ben a birthday card with some $$ in it, so I put half in his piggy bank and let him have the other half to buy something with. We found a fun puzzle for him to buy and a fire truck that lights up and makes lots of noise. (yay...) And then headed home. Ryan came home the tri-cycle or "bike" and then we headed to Chick-fil-a for dinner because that's where he wanted to eat. And wouldn't ya know it, he FELL ASLEEP in the car! We ate then spent some time together and went to bed.

Saturday was the party, we got ready for it during the day, including the executing of the Pirate Cake for Ben since that was our "theme". We asked him what kind of cake he wanted and that was the answer we got! We got the recipe, or idea from Betty Crocker and it was pretty easy! Ryan did most of the work! (He's cute huh?) I also I tried to pick up all things pirate related. And this was the first year that "goodie bags" were required... I guess not required but I thought it would be fun. (We had the bucket left over from Halloween so I served chips in that, Ryan had that random treasure chest I put the "booty bags" in, and I got 5 free invitations from Shutterfly.com! Before the party started we went to grab a couple of things from Home Depot. We realized that they were doing their free kids workshops so we stopped for Ben and he and Ryan made a Home Depot race car! I love those little workshops, and so does Ben! I don't want to bore you with party details, other than Ben had 3 girlfriends come; Aubrey, Ella, and Zoe! He was the only boy, again! Lucky guy. He had fun and I think he thought it was awesome to have friends over to sit at his table with him and to be crazy! In fact, at one point he came to me while the girls were playing and screaming and laughing and he said "mommy... those girls are screaming..." then later when I was holding Savannah he came up to her and said "her cute". I just can't believe my guy is a big boy 3 year old! Look at him! So handsome! Geoff gave him the pirate shirt for his birthday present, it was PERFECT!
We sang, opened presents and ate cake. It was a lot of fun, and we were grateful for the friends that came and presents and for making his birthday special! BEN! YOU ARE LOVED!