Ben's Birthday Weekend (Part 2) - "Ben's first Kegger!"

Ben's big birthday celebration was the day after his birthday.  Ben had friends and family coming from all over to celebrate with him!  Unfortunately since we were so busy preparing for the party we didn't take any pictures that morning and it wasn't until halfway through the party that I realized that we hadn't pulled the camera out yet!  How could we forget to take pictures?!!  Well we made up for it.    Here's a collage of pictures I put together from the party.  (click on the picture to enlarge it)

As you can see, we all had a great time in Ben's Backyard celebrating his birthday.  It was a hot day, but we all enjoyed hanging out with our neighbors, friends and family and we did our best to stay cool.

But wait...  where's Ben in all of these pictures?   

We need to look around and find him...

OK!  I found him!!

That's my boy!   Shaking his maraca's and trying to sneak some beer! 

Although this isn't far from what our day was like.. "Where's Ben?  Who's got him?"  Everyone was enjoying spending time with him and he got passed around so much throughout the whole day.    And for some reason, all the bigger little kids all wanted to hold him.  Ben didn't seem too mind much.  He loved all the attention and just went along with it.

Plus it was pretty cute too.

There was even a rare sighting of Uncle Gil playing with Ben while surrounded by children!

The funny part to me is that Ben just seemed to take all this celebration stuff right in stride.  It was like any other day for him, except with more people to hold him, play with him and feed him.  He enjoyed and took advantage of every second of it.  He's such a happy kid!  We're very lucky.

We did all the fun things that you do at a birthday party... 

We ate lots of food...  Sang Happy Birthday...

Opened some presents....

And then went and played in the Big Jumper!! 

Ben really liked the Jumper...  and his bone.

Here's a good "action shot" of Ben jumping on his butt.

Ben was very curious about the dog people though.  He couldn't quite figure out what was going on with them.  Are they dogs?  Are they people?

A karate chop to the nose revealed what was going on here..

ahh... she IS human!

In the end, we had a total of 61 people at our house celebrating Ben's party.  That's pretty good.  I don't think Jill or I have ever had that many people celebrating our birthdays.  It was great to see every one and we thank you all who came and helped celebrate with us. 

Can you tell that we all had fun?

Absolutely! 

Another way I could tell that everyone had fun is when I walked outside the next morning and found this...

A floating keg and empty juice boxes floating in the melted ice...

Now THAT'S a good party. 

(Since you never know who might actually read this blog, please note that no children consumed alchohol at our party as this picture might imply.  That would be very bad and I would never condone such activities.)

To escape a Part 3 of this series...  here's just a quick synopsis of the following day which consisted of two or three main activities.  Mommy & Daddy cleaned up and rested...  and Ben opened the rest of his presents!

And played with them all day!

What a great way to end the birthday weekend!

Ben's Birthday Weekend (Part 1) - "Breakin' the Law!"

Last weekend Ben had three days of birthday celebrations.  We started the celebration last Friday morning when Jill and I sung "Happy Birthday" to Ben about 10 times.  He was looking at us like we were crazy! ...but still smiling the whole time.

This card was one of those cards that 'sings' when you open it - it would say, "HURRAY!  BENJAMIN!" and then sing a form of Happy Birthday to him.  Ben thought this was the coolest thing and he must have opened and closed that card about 23 times, laughing every time that it called out his name. 

So now you know weren't going to have to get him speaking cards from now on....  

In preparation for Ben's "Puppy Party" we put up a bunch of big vinyl doggie stickers up on our living room wall the night before his birthday.  He loved them!  He spent quite a bit of time when he saw them petting each dog.

Then he gave every one of them a big kiss!

We're going to move them up to his room soon so he can pet them every morning when he wakes up and in the evening when he goes to sleep.  Of course, he can also pet his realy puppy Lybbie too!

That Friday evening we all celebrated Ben's actual birthday with his Grandma Jean & Grandma Eileen & Grandpa Ed.  He had is first cupcake too, and we let him go to town with it.

Then we opened presents...  ahhh..presents.  Ben got lots of nice fun things to play with.  Like a kitchen?!

I think Mommy wants Benjamin to learn how to cook like his Daddy.  Also, maybe if he has his own kitchen cabinets, he'll stay out of ours!  I doubt that very much...

He also got a big blow up ball pit, and he thought that was pretty cool too.

Ben got many presents, but I think his favorite present was the one that I was most excited about giving him...  A new Kawasaki ATV!

Oh Yeah!!

Battery powered, (yes Ben is going Green too) All he needs to do is push the little button on the handle bars and off he goes!  And off he did go, right into the front door!  

So we quickly realized that this was an outside toy.  He figured out how to drive it pretty easily, although he's drives a little like an old lady - he's on and off the throttle and he hits a lot of things.  I'm sure he'll get better in time.  I'll be teaching him how to peel out and do power slides and such.

It also could be because he was driving around with his cell phone... 

He wouldn't let go of that cell phone! 

I don't know if the laws apply to texting while on battery powered ATVs, so we let him break the law and keep the phone.  Our little rebel. 

So Ben had a great birthday... but this was just the start of it.  Tomorrow was his BIG celebration - and he doesn't even know it yet. 

We still can't believe he's one already!  This year has gone by so fast!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

The Big Birthday Boy!

We can't believe that a year went by so fast....  It was exactly one year ago today that Ben was born.  He was a big baby then, and he's even bigger now!  He's only a year old and he's been wearing 2 year old sized clothes already!

Just to remind you how much he's grown over the past year, here's a picture of Ben just minutes after he was born, compared to a picture of him now.

 

There's obviously no doubt that we've enjoyed every second with Ben over the past year.   He constantly surprises us with how quickly he learns, his curiosity, his sense of humor and how much he just enjoys having fun.

We also think that he's way ahead of other kids his age.  In fact Ben is pretty much walking already.  For the past two months he's been walking around with just holding on to us with one hand and occasionally taking a few steps on his own. 

He's getting more and more confident with walking and just this week he's been taking off more on his own taking lots of steps before falling or stopping for a break.  With a little help, he'll walk to where ever he wants...  Like to his slide.

And he'll climb right up the slide and get a good view of the yard before sliding down again.

Ben is definitely a one in a million kid.
Let's all wish Ben a great first birthday!

All Hail King Ben!!  

He is one today!!

And Mommy and Daddy couldn't be more proud.

Slide plus Pool equals FUN!

Ben has a couple toys in the backyard that he really enjoys playing with.   Of course we all know that he has his little pool, but after a while even that can get a little boring just sitting in there.

Then Ben also has his slide.  He likes to climb up the slide, hang out on top and then slide down.  But even after a while even the slide can get a little boring...

Dad... what are we going to do about this?

Well, how about we combine the two for some great water slide fun!!

OH YEAH!!  Here we go!  Now this is fun!

At first we had to help him down the slide a little...

But then before we knew it, he was sliding down on his own and having a great time with it!!

    

Yeah...  Ben is one cool kid.  And he knows it.

King of the water slide!

Afterwards Ben posed for a couple of cute pool shots.

I know I'm a little biased, but I think that Ben is the best kid ever!

The Stair Master

We have gates set up on the top and the bottom of our stairs for good reason.  Maybe its our fault for letting him try to climb them a few weeks ago, but now any chance Ben gets, he's climbing up those stairs.  The trouble isn't so much with him climbing up the stairs - he's actually really good at it!

Here he is at the starting gate... Get ready, get set...

GO!

And he's off...  Up..

Are you guys still watching me??

And right up to the top...

So now the trouble isn't with climbing up the stairs, its with climbing DOWN the stairs.  Ben just doesn't understand that his legs aren't long enough to walk straight down the stairs yet and he often just tries the "Superman" technique to fly down the stairs.

 

Fortunately Mommy was there to guide him along down the stairs and then pick him up so he can take a look at his most favorite picture in the whole house...

Even Ben agrees that he's the cutest baby around!!