Birthday Party - Take 2

Brad sent me pictures of Ben's birthday party. Still no great ones of me and Ben, but at least there are a few of the cake, opening gifts, etc.

Here is his cake -- a giant cupcake. It is hard to tell from the photo, but that is not a blue wrapper, it is frosting. It was delicious too!

Ben is anxious to get his hands on the cake!


And so we let him loose with the smash cake.


He had a good time with it!


Here he looks like he is afraid he is going to be in trouble for the mess.

Here Mama, have a taste...

Here is the only decent picture of me and Ben...and you can't see my face. Some might say this is what makes it decent.


Then it was time for presents. He got a kick out of climbing on all the big boxes.

And playing with the tissue paper.


And here he is taking a break from gift-opening to play with his favorite ride-on truck.

All that excitement left Ben pretty wiped out. When he is ready for bed, he walks to the stairs and shakes the baby gate to let us know it is time to go up. I guess Ben has already figured out not to stay too long at the party!

Laughing and a Quick Hello

Is there any better sound than a baby laughing?

Baby Babble

Ben was "talking" Sunday morning, so I caught a quick video. Maybe the dogs understood what he was saying, because I sure didn't have a clue.


And as usual Ben tried to grab the camera once he noticed it.

Pancakes

Every morning when Ben gets up, I heat him up a few mini pancakes to eat before day care. Day care gives him his fruit and cereal at 8:00 a.m., but I like him to have something in his stomach until then. He LOVES pancakes. When he sees the package he "dances" (which is just sort of bopping up and down at this point) and points at them.

This morning he insisted on having both pancakes at once, and then wandered off with one in each hand.

He likes to stuff the entire pancake in his mouth at once sometimes.

Here he debates the merits of the pacifier v. the pancake.

It was a close race, but the pancake was the winner.

Social Butterfly

Another weekend, another party. Today was Riley's 4th birthday party, and Ben loves a good party! It is hard to believe that the very first birthday party Ben attended was Riley's 3rd birthday. It seems like so long ago. Here he is back then, just a few weeks old.


And here he is this year at Lil Monkey Bizness, a kid's playland. Ben had a great time.

I'm not sure which he liked more: the playing, the pizza, or the cake? It's a toss up.

He was not content to eat the small peices I cut up for him. He wanted to hold the slice for himself.

Same goes for the cupcake. He didn't want me feeding it to him, he wanted to get his hands in there. He does love to share though. Here he is offering up a bite out of his hands. Mmmm.

After the party for the kids at Lil Monkey Bizness, we headed back to Kim's house for more paryting with the family. You can see Ben in the background being held by Hannah (Cheryl's stepdaughter) as they sing happy birthday to Riley.

He wore the hat around stoically for quite a while, but at this point he decided he was done with said hat.

At that point the party was winding down, and it was time to go. It was a long day and Ben was ready for a nap.

Party, Party, Party

Sunday was Ben's friend Sarina's 1st birthday party at Kid City, a kiddie playland place with different themed rooms.

Ben immediately honed in on the little trucks, a favorite of his.

Then he spotted the big cars, and we were both forced to push him around in one for longer than I care to remember.
Next he wandered into the theatre area, and he just loved these little chairs. He kept climbing on and off, on and off...

Next it was the Botique. He really dug this room, much to Mike's dismay. He likes to push chairs around, so this room was a big hit.

He took a quick break from playing to eat some pizza.

And some cake and ice cream, which he loved. I tried to even it out with a little fruit/veggie baby food. (Note to self, it works better when you take the lid off. JK!)

Then it was back to playing. Here Ben and Mike are with our friend Ed and his daughter, Scarlett.

Here he is either trying to high-five Scarlett or hit her in the head. Not sure which.

Scarlett tries to gets her revenge.

A quick minute for a cuddle! (Yep, that's pizza sauce on my shirt. Thanks Ben!)

Here Ben and I are with Meg and Scarlett... You can tell from Scarlett's expression that the party was winding down and it was about time to go.

Here Ben is saying goodbye to Uncle Ed. Such a sweet, loving child, that Ben.

He did get a kiss goodbye from Scarlett though. Aw...

Crazy baby! He was pretty much done at this point.

But a good time was had by all!

Birthday Party - Take 1 (Or, Crappiest Collection of Pictures. Ever.)

I apologize in advance for the crappiest pictures ever. And the fact that it took me 2 weeks to post them. Shamefully, these are the only pictures I got of Ben's birthday party. Sad, but true.

Here are Ben and Dad with Denise (Brad's girlfriend) doing a high-five.

And here they are practicing their coy expressions, for when they want to get out of trouble. I think Ben and Denise have it down. Mike, not so much.

And here Ben is getting a ride on Dad's shoulders, a favorite of his.

Here is Riley giving Ben a pat on the head. He must have been a good boy.

Here is the pile of presents for Ben. Out. Of. Control. There are presents hiding under the table as well. (Side note: How on Earth did I manage to get a picture of the presents, but not one single picture of him actually opening a present. Woe is me.)

Here is a close-up of the birthday boy. Terrible shot, but at least you can see his party day shirt.

Ben and Sarina had fun playing together. She is 2 weeks younger but a few inches taller. Luckily in this one she is sitting, so you can't see how short Ben looks in comparison.

This picture just makes me laugh. Ben's expression closely resembles mine when I realized that I had only these crap pictures of my first and only child's first birthday.

Hey, I might not have taken a single picture of the cake, the presents, or me with Ben. But at least I got this one, showing how Dee spent her evening. And what a mess our kitchen was. Thank god I captured those memories.

Here is one of Ben looking happy with himself. No idea what was happening here. Either I just don't remember, or someone else took the picture with my camera. The entire day is a blur, really.

So that is that. Not one picture of the cake, not one picture of me with Ben, not one picture of Ben opening presents. What the heck? All I can say is there were almost 30 people in our house, and I was busy. And I misplaced my camera for a good deal of the party.

Anyway, Brad got some pictures, which he is going to send me soon. I will share them when I get them. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoyed these crappy pics. :-)