Friday, August 3, 2012

Happy Birthday, Ben! NUMBER 10!!!






Today, incredibly, Ben is ten years old....we are having a nice day, doing whatever he wants to do.  This year we're lucky--Matt is working from home all month due to office renovations, so both Ben and Emma have Dad home for their big day.  We made a delicious breakfast of bacon and egg muffins--line a muffin tin with turkey bacon and fill with scrambled eggs and cheese, then bake...the cutest little omelet cups come out.  Ben opened his presents and he and Emma are playing with the Lego game he got.  We're grilling steaks for dinner, with a vanilla birthday cake topped with whipped cream and strawberries.  Maybe some swimming in the afternoon, and then this evening, he and Matt will see "The Dark Knight," which has been the much-looked-forward-to plan for weeks now. (It was more important to Ben to see it on his birthday than to see it when it opened...my patient boy!)

The photos are from a gift box Emma made...she used a quart milk jug and drew these pictures for the top.  I love how sweet she is--she made a little pom pom tiger for her brother to go in this box, got him sunflower seeds, the aforementioned Lego game, and a Kit Kat--all with her own money.  Then the box itself just made me smile--"Happy Birthday to a brother who is smart, handsome, tidy...and forgiving!"

He loved all his presents--Julia made him a cool card with a runic code (one of his favorites!) and got him Nerf bullets for "never ending battles" and Reese's peanut butter cups.  Rachel got him a Pokemon set with decks, a battle mat and directions on everything you need to know to play the game, plus Spiderman 3 on DVD.  Matt and I got him Spiderman 1 and 2, new summer pjs (which he loves, for some reason the kid adores new pajamas!), two boxes of fruit leather--all for him!--and another set of Pokemon decks.  He is as happy as a clam, which is just as a boy should be on his birthday.