Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Benjamin turned the big #5 this year. He has been very excited about and anticipating this big mile stone in his life for a while now. Birthday # 5 has been looked forward to as a magical time for him. I’m not sure why. If anyone has insight into the 4 year old psyche and actually understands it, please, share your wisdom!

For the last year, I have continually heard “when I am 5 (fill in the blank)” and “Not until I’m 5.” But my favorite has been, “I can’t wait until I’m big and finally turn 5.” So when it came to planning a party for this momentous coming of age, I was really at a loss. We don’t do huge friend parties every year, but decided this would be a good year to do one for Ben. But when we talked to him about doing a party he said he didn’t want to do that. When asked what he did want to do, he told me he wanted a party with his cousins. Sounds easy enough, right? Not when you have about 50 +/- cousins, between mine and Richard’s families. Since my brother, who lives in Idaho and has 2 boys that my boys idolize, were going to be at my parent’s home this weekend we decided to go to West Point and do something with them.

The planning was coming together! I could start checking things off my list.

Who? Check.

Where? Check.

Now the big WHAT to do. Shouldn’t be too hard….

That’s what I thought.

Remember this activity has to be grand to measure up to magical number 5. All Mr. Ben wanted to do was go swimming.

Easy.

Especially since Ashton’s Orthodontist, Dr. Thompson, was having a party for all of his patients
at the Lindon Aquatic Center Friday night which just happened to be Ben’s birthday!

SCORE!!!

FREE SWIMMING!
The only hang up was that we still had to plan the cousin party he wanted. And all that Mr. Ben could think of doing with his cousins was going swimming!

Now I love to swim, or at least, I used to before I had to shave from head to toe before donning my swimsuit and then worrying about what might be jiggling or waving in the wind that wasn’t supposed to. Not to mention the stress of watching my kids so they don’t drown and the responsibility of keeping an eye on my nieces & nephews so they didn’t either. One night of free swimming (in the dark) I can handle, 2 days in a row…..No Thank You. So we tried to divert his attention with bowling, miniature golf, arcades, and even Lagoon (with Bounceback passes).

Nope.

Didn’t work.

He still wanted to go “swim with the waves.”

After 2 weeks of limbo and 1 day left to the party, I finally told him that since we were already swimming on his birthday that he should pick something else and then he would get to do 2 fun things for his birthday!

IT WORKED!

You can really reason with a 4 year old!

But he couldn’t decide on what to do. So I chose miniature golf. It is something my kids have never done and I thought they would have fun.

What? FINALLY, check, check!

Today, the day of the party, we met Grandma Jeanne & Pop Marlin, 2 of my brother’s wives (Shaleece & Vicki) and their kids at Sparetime Family Entertainment center in Syracuse. I paid for all of the miniature golf and started to distribute the clubs and balls.

The birthday boy wouldn’t take his club.

Or his ball.

In fact, he wouldn’t even touch them. It was NOT what he wanted to do.

Grand Party to Celebrate BIG #5 and make birthday boy happy- a big, fat NEGATIVE!

Thanks to the persuasion of my good husband, Benjamin did golf. And, I believe, he DID like it. But on the way back home to Provo when asked if he had a happy birthday, he replied, “I guess. But I only liked the swimming.”

I guess the best things in life ARE free.

Happy Birthday Benjamin, know that mommy loves you and is so glad Heavenly Father sent you to be my boy.

Enjoy some pics from his special day, minus the swimming ones of course. :-)

Not wanting to be in the spotlight, Ben (in between cousins, Landon & Aubrie) closed his eyes the whole time we sang "Happy Birthday".

The cake. Boring, I know, but it is what he wanted. Yellow cake, chocolate frosting & a Pokemon on top!

Ben enjoyed playing this game at the arcade after golfing. You hit a button with a mallet and try to get as many balls in the dog's mouth as possible.

(I wish had one to take frustrations out on when I feel like beating my kids :)

The decor on the course was awesome! Can't say much for the course itself, but this bright & glow in the dark goblin warrior was a fav.

Richard and Ben trying to get the ball past the Ogre.

Many gifts of Pokemon paraphernalia made Ben a very happy boy.

A surprise and gag gift of pickle relish from his dad, kicked off the gift giving. You have to have some sense of humor to make it in this family.

A birthday lunch at Wendy's and a patient father who lets you decorate him with the toys from the kids meal, honestly, what more could you want?!?!

A gift of a PVC pipe and duct tape gun from our big neighborhood friend, Taylor.