Ben's 4th birthday!

Ben's birthday... two weeks ago now. I even blogged right after that, trying to catch up to his birthday. And here we are.... better late than never right?

About a month or so before his birthday, we got a birthday party supply catalog in the mail, which Ben LOVED to look at. He would sit and look through it forever, choosing his birthday party (and everyone else's). The party idea changed a few times, and after procrastinating long enough, we finally went to Party City the week of the party to avoid having to overnight paper supplies ;) We walked through and admired all of the fun party themes, and Ben decided on a Pirate party. I had fun getting things together for this, but true to form, I ended up on the day of the party still trying to rush around and get everything ready and a lot of things didn't happen (most of the decorations). Ah well, the food was good... homemade mac and cheese, rolls, and salad. Mmmm....  can't beat homemade mac and cheese. If you never tried your hand at REAL mac and cheese, try this recipe. You will die happy.

So we had the family over, which essentially creates a kid party. When they arrived, we decked all the little pirates out with do-rags and eye patches. I wasn't sure if the girls would like it, but they were all totally into it (more than Ben at first, for some reason he got grumpy about it right before). Even Oliver let us put one on him. And how cute is Caleb in his little suit?

These two pirates always have so much fun together...

I wish I had stopped to get a good picture of all the kids together. They were so cute. 

Jon slept late and when I brought him downstairs, the party was in full-swing. He wasn't sure what to think and wouldn't let us out of his sight the whole night. That was fun...

After dinner, Ben had fun opening his gifts...

(Oliver wasn't that interested, but loves my camera. He always stops and says "Cheese" for me even when I'm pointing the camera at someone else.)

Back to the presents... Caleb was so excited for Ben to open his gift that he chose himself...

The other onlookers, while they were still sitting.. don't you love Jenny's 'do?

Nicole was really excited to give Ben her gift when she walked in. It almost got opened that second....

Now Ben started getting lots of help. Jenny wanted Ben to see everything on the card she made him...

And Chris wanted to see everything. It was pretty much chaos, but we're used to it!

After the gifts, the kids played "Pin the patch on the pirate", so much fun...

 

Then, OH BOY it was time for cake and ice cream! Ben's favorite part of any party! He chose chocolate cake (big suprise) and chocolate chip ice cream.

Here is my cake attempt. I'm not patient enough for these sorts of things (not to mention a horrible procrastinator who doesn't leave enough time for these things) but I thought it turned out cute. I bought wayyyy too much candy and cookies for this cake. If you want two little Hershey's nuggets to make a pirate chest, you have to buy a whole bag... so yeah, we still have a bunch. Bad for the healthy resolutions... but cute for the cake :) I wish I would have taken a minute more on the sails. I know it should have been two sails or whatever to make it more piratey looking, but oh well, Ben didn't know the difference... it was a surprise and he loved it!

Oh, and the chocolate coins were Ben's other favorite part, I think.

Oh how we love our four year old! What a little character. He's got this awesome imagination- he loves adventures and being silly. He wants to read so badly and is learning more every day, although his patience for sounding out words is is short. He always wants to just guess what it's going to say because he already knows ;) He loves to practice writing, writes his name really well, and draws awesome pictures for us. He loves to read stories together, his favorite books right now are the "Stink" series. He loves Primary, and lately I've found them playing Primary sometimes in the playroom. Ben will be playing the piano and teaching Chris Primary songs line-by-line like he's the chorister. Then he'll teach lessons about Jesus Christ, or fish. Love it. He's the best big brother, he's always helping the little guys. They love him. He continues to LOVE anything with music. He can switch to the iPod on my iPhone and flip through to find any song he feels like listening to. He sings all day long and wants to play ALL instruments, including the piano, guitars, trumpet, and harmonicas that we have.  He's so fun, he cracks us up daily. I think my favorite funny lately was when I came up the stairs with Chris for bedtime to find Ben going potty with the light off. I asked why he didn't turn it on, and he said something like "well, my (glow-in-the-dark) jammies glow remember?" Well, there ya go. 

We love you Ben!