Around The World At School

Ben's class has a routine that everyone does when it's their birthday. During circle time the birthday boy or girl puts a sun in the middle of the circle. Then the person goes around the circle holding a small earth. The teacher says "this was Ben's first year" or "this was Ben's second year" and so on. After each lap he tells the class what he was doing at that age. Anyway...I was invited to hang out at class and help celebrate Ben's birthday. We brought cookies for the class as well...so everyone got to have a treat. They also read the class a book about Dads (in my honor they said.) At the end of class everyone got to go outside and play...including Megan. She held her own pretty well.

Birthday at Chuck E. Cheese's

Last night we took Ben to Chuck E. Cheese's for his birthday dinner. We don't usually go there...but it's a fun place to go when you're celebrating a birthday or special occasion. Besides...it was Ben's choice and that was the first place he suggested. Anyway, the kids had a good time. Megan got up close and personal with Chuck E....and Ben had fun playing the games. I guess this was officially Megan's first visit to Chuck E. Cheese's...since we've never gone there when she could walk around and interact with everything. She was blown away of course. She had this look on her face that said, "What is this magical place? And why haven't you brought me here before?"

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Today as most of you know...Ben is 5. Wow! 5 already? How did that happen?
Last night I spent a lot of time thinking about our past 5 years. I guess this was the first time I had that talk with myself about "where did all that time go?" Seems like just yesterday he and I were tromping around the French Quarter and eating beignets.
I went back to Ben's old blog (the yahoo one) and I grabbed some old photos of him as a little boy and toddler. Boy...he sure was tan back then. We've all gotten real pale up here in the north. HA!
Love you Ben! Have a great day!

Bell Ringer

This morning at church Ben was the "bell ringer." He got to go up at the front with the pastor and ring the bell, which signals the start of the service. He did a great job, and he was very proud of himself.

Space Party

Yesterday was Ben's birthday party. This year he wanted to have a "space party" here at the house. We invited about 10 kids over, and we had lots of NASA space stuff around. The kids all played downstairs in the playroom, we had "taste testing" of space food, read space books, and did some space-related crafts. Afterwards everybody ate two great cakes that Jenny made. One was a rocket ship, and the other was a moon cake. Both were great. Ben had a great time as you might expect. Everybody got a shuttle goodie-bag and a balloon for the drive home.