Benjamin’s 9th Birthday

This guy is NINE YEARS OLD! We love our Benji and this was definitely a birthday to remember!

Santa Claus Party

When I was talking to Benjamin about a theme for a party, we came to this idea and it was PERFECT and probably one of my favorite birthday themes we’ve ever had! It was so much fun to just go into full party mode for Christmas! Plus, this theme was extra fun because Ben’s birthday is actually on St. Nicholas Day, the feast day to honor Saint Nicholas – so it truly was meant to be.

Ben’s birthday breakfast request was double chocolate waffles with all the extras, bacon, and chocolate milk. We had such a lovely morning just relaxing, spending time together, and talking with family on the phone. Then Mark took the bigs to go ice skating. Lydie was feeling pretty tired and so I stayed back home with her.

By the time evening came along, we went to Olive Garden for dinner and Ben perhaps ate his entire body weight in breadsticks. He loved them! Then we came home and had Hot Cocoa Cake with marshmallow buttercream. It was delicious and everyone agreed it was maybe one of our favorite cakes ever!

We ended the night with cards and presents and we hope our guy felt so loved!

Our Nine Year Old Boy

• What is your favorite thing to do? Spend time with my family
• Do you have any nicknames? Ben-JAM-in
• What do you want to be when you grow up? A diver and inventor
• What is your favorite thing to do with family? Play games and go on walks
• What makes you happy? My family
• What do you like to learn about? My family and ocean animals
• What do you do really well? Fixing things
• If you had a million dollars, what would you buy? A farm and a garden
• What is your favorite thing to do outside? Baseball
• If you could go anywhere, where would you go? New Zealand
• If you could have one wish, what would it be? To stay a child forever
• What was your favorite birthday present? Drums

Favorites

• Food: Catfish
• Holiday: Christmas
• Book: Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The B.F.G. by Roald Dahl
• Toy: Hot wheels and action figures
• Treat: Vanilla ice cream
• Song: The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings, and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban Soundtracks
• Animal: Tiger
• Subject in School: Math
• Movie: The Lord of the Rings
• Color: Orange

Benjamin is a BIG personality. You always know where he is and he loves to be in on everything!

He is passionate. Ben feels all his feelings deeply. He loves those around him fiercely.  He cares about things and thinks deeply on just about every subject. 

Ben continues to amaze us with his creativity.  He has such an engineering brain and truly amazes us with what he comes up with.  We are still not fully supportive of his slight hoarding habit which he then uses to make his inventions, but I am really excited to see what he does with this in the future. 

He continues to be our sensitive guy.  He does not do well with teasing and we are working to help him with that. 

Something that I felt like has really exploded with Ben is his artistic abilities.  His drawings are incredible.  His attention to detail is really amazing and I Iove to see what he designs.  His favorite designs continue to be for his farm someday. 

Benjamin, we love you so very much. Thank you for being exactly who you are. You bring joy and laughter into our home in such a unique way. Happy Birthday, buddy.