Ben's Fifth Birthday

Today was Ben's 5th birthday. I can't believe he's five years old already! And if that isn't bad enough, Anna turns 3 in two weeks. Ai-yi-yi...it's no wonder I don't like March :)

Originally we had planned to take Ben to a fun place called Stonefire Pizza, an upscale version of Chuck E. Cheese. After Rob was laid off, we thought about cancelling since it is rather expensive. But we had already promised the trip and I am opposed to ruining birthdays, so we decided to proceed with the original plans. We were forced to come up with an alternative, however, when all three of the kids came down with a bad cough! Matthew started it on Thursday and by Sunday all three of them were sick. It's not too surprising that they all get sick together since they share a room.

We did have a fun time on Saturday with Rob's parents. They came up here for a brief visit and surprised the kids. We told the kids we were meeting "Harvey" at Applebees for lunch and they were rather shocked to see their grandparents waiting instead! They brought presents for both Ben and Anna. Ben received a Tonka truck and Anna got a baby swing/glider/high chair and a diaper bag full of things to play with her babies. Uncle Andy and Aunt Melissa sent Ben a fun game as well (and Anna something, but she has to wait on that gift!) We had Ben's cake on Saturday since there were more people here to eat it. I ordered a Batman cake for him, complete with action figure.

The birthday boy chose the menu for today. For breakfast we had chocolate muffins and eggs with Mommy's special hot chocolate, pb & j's for lunch with bbq chips (the adults had leftovers), and Happy Meals for supper. We also had some leftover cake after supper and Rob and I sang every version of every Happy Birthday song we could think of. We had Ben laughing pretty good. :)

Since the kids couldn't go anywhere, I ran to Family Video and checked out two video games. They have several that are rent one get one free, so I picked up two of those along with two free kids' videos. The boys had a grand time playing Wii all afternoon, and Ben got to use his brand new Wii remote that Rob and I bought him along with his Nunchuck from Grandpa and Grandma Fulkerson. I'm so glad I had bought his gift back in January! (Same with Anna's.) Oh, and our next door neighbor came over with a gift for Ben as well! She's so sweet :)

Other than being sick, Ben had a special day. Happy Birthday to my Ben-a-buddy!