The Big 0-4

On Monday Ben celebrated his fourth birthday. We had a really fun day and it capped off a weekend of celebration with Andy's family when we were in Florida. Here's how things went:

I woke Ben up with breakfast in bed, which he's been very excited about ever since Andy talked about doing it for Mother's Day. We sat together on the top bunk while he ate.

We took the leftover Lightning McQueen birthday gear from our Disney party (see pics below) and celebrated again with Ben's playgroup. The whole cake thing doesn't really work with wheat allergies, so I made some oatmeal cookies, which I'm not sure went over very well either.

Ben's present from me and Andy: A scooter and helmet. Gotta love Play-it-Again Sports. He spent a while in the morning trying to ride the scooter and I think it will be a summer project.

In my family the tradition was that the special person got to pick dinner on their birthday. So per Ben's request we ate outside and had hot dogs, watermelon, corn, and chocolate ice cream. Yummy! Can't wait until the patio is done so we can have a real place to sit.

Now, the party with Andy's family at our condo in Florida:

Annette, a.k.a. Grandma, was kind enough to bring all the Cars birthday things. We had blowers, funny glasses, cups, plates, napkins, and a tablecloth. Ben loved it.

I brought a wheat-free cake mix with me, but it proceeded to fall apart so Andy jerryrigged pieces of it and frosted them. Not very pretty and Ben didn't really like it anyway. The rest of us didn't think it tasted too bad, but we had brownies and ice cream as a backup.

Ben and Uncle Pete.

Auntie Charlotte and her friend Jesse, who's trying to figure out how to make Ben's pirate figurines stand up.

Ben with his "Good Guy" and "Bad Guy" toys. After we went on the Pirates of the Caribbean ride, he immediately decided he needed a good guy and a bad guy.

Grandpa Charlie helping unwrap presents.

Another view of the sad little cake. From now on we're just sticking with ice cream.