Birthday catch-up: Benny (and Faith)

17 July Benny turned 5! What a great five years it has been. We decided a while back that this would be Benny's first "friend" party. We probably won't do a friend party every year, but we thought 5 was a good year to start. Benny is such a low-maintenance kid. He'll have his ideas for how he wants things, but if it's not something that's going to work, I can usually offer an alternative and he's just as happy with that. Benny is very matter-of-fact and if I explain things to him, he gets it. That definitely works for me!

For his party, Benny really wanted a piñata. Whenever we would go to Target and he would see the Lightning McQueen piñata he would request that for his birthday. I told him I didn't know if that would work out. Then, when we would go to the grocery store and he saw a donkey piñata - or any other kind they had - he would say, "Maybe I could have that one." I told him we'd see. Some months back I had taken Benny to a birthday party and my friend Tara had made a piñata for her son. So, Spencer and I got to work. We paper machéd a balloon and did a simple round piñata with red tissue paper and a picture of Lightning McQueen and his 95 (Benny requested that specifically when talking of piñatas - the one we made was a surprise). I did the first layer of the paper maché and the next couple of nights Spencer took it as his personal challenge. He already had visions going through his head for every successive birthday party we ever host. The birthday piñata will get progressively harder the older the birthday boy/girl gets. I think it's been decided that at age 18 they'll be wielding a 2x4 with nails sticking out. It's going to be intense. I don't think the goodies will get much better, though. I guess we'll see.

Benny had a great time at his party. We started off decorating brown lunch bags (in which to put collected candy from the piñata). All the kids went swimming in our blow-up pool. That didn't last very long, so they played with balloons and had a great time. There was more swimming, pizza for lunch, the balloon popping relay that turned into taking turns putting the balloon on the grass and then sitting on it (our little chairs were too big for most the kids to sit on the balloon on the chair), the piñata, and cake with homemade ice cream. Benny requested mint brownie and Spencer was happy to oblige - again! Spencer found a great combination of vanilla and mint and perfected the soft and chewy, frozen homemade brownie. Delicious!

Everyone had a great time! For our first "friend" party, I think it went off pretty well. Very low-key and we all had fun.

Oh, and I can't forget the cake. Benny wanted a 'Y' cake. Spencer made the cake and did the frosting and I did the decorating - free-hand! Spencer said he wants his birthday cake next year to be the same. I must have done a good job.

A note about Benny:
Benny is such a wonderful boy and a great big brother. He loves his brother and sisters and is always helping them and me. Just tonight he said that at bed time he would do all the work so that I could play. It was very sweet. Benny is so smart. He remembers just about everything I teach him and will bring things up that I haven't mentioned in weeks like he just heard it. I have been using Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons and we just did lesson 49 today. He has picked it all up so well and it takes us very little time to get through each lesson because he knows it all. I love to see him figuring it out. I have always loves that Benny wants to understand things. He never had a "Why?" phase. Benny's question has always been, "What does {you name it} mean?" I love this question because everything has a meaning and I enjoy being able to share that. One thing that I really love about Benny is his love of family. He really loves us all and loves for everybody to have a part in things. He says that we're going to have two more kids in our family. I asked him why and he said because we have two more seats in our car. I told him that we could maybe get a bigger car. He started to think about that. A few weeks ago, when Benny said this, at one point he got up to 9 or 10 kids. He talks about how some day he will get married. After his mission, though. He asked me the other day why missionaries aren't married yet. I have loved so much the time so far that I have had to be Benny's mom. I know he'll do great when he starts Kindergarten in 18 days!!! I can't believe it's that close, but we're all excited. My only regret is that it is full-day. However, I know that God, in his perfect knowledge of how things should be, placed us here and being here means full-day Kindergarten. We'll all survive and I know that Benny will have a wonderful experience. I'm looking forward to it.

Some pictures.

the cake.

the piñata master.

the birthday song.


enjoying cake on his birthday.
He actually didn't want any ice cream that day. I was very surprised. But the cake was very good!




the birthday boy.


I turned 28 on 21 July. It was a Thursday this year, but Spencer and I got to go out to dinner with some good friends and then we went to see Thor at the dollar theater. And this was after Spencer had surprised me Wednesday with a trip out with my friend Lynsie to pick up some things I needed and had put off getting for some time. It was fun to get out. Spencer also surprised me with some great clothes from Kohl's! It was a great surprise and it was fun to get some new things. It's been a long time since I've gotten new clothes. And Spencer did a great job picking things that fit well.
For my birthday dessert on Sunday, Spencer made a strawberry shortcake from scratch. It was delicious! Spencer is great in so many ways and I love that he enjoys cooking and that he's good at it! We plan to some day enjoy a cooking class together.
I enjoyed a wonderful birthday! And, every once-in-a-while, I still enjoy hearing one of the kids burst into a spontaneous "Happy Birthday, Mom!" Sometimes I even get parts of the song sung to me. It's very fun.