Ben's birthday

We were lucky to have more help arrive once Madgie and Patch left...Mama Kay and Papa came to help us out!  Mama Kay was very helpful in keeping Matthew awake during the day (in hopes he would sleep at night!).

Mama Kay and Papa with their 10th grandchild!

Some of you may be worried about Belle...I can assure you she is fine.  She doesn't get a ton of attention, but she has handled the new baby just fine.  It took a little training, but now this is about as close as she comes to Matthew when he is laying on his activity mat.  It's cute actually.  When he lays there she will come lay down next to him.  Good dog (finally!).

Matthew is getting more and more alert and really looking at things.  It's so cute.

Ben turned 8 - I can't believe it!  Wasn't he just as small as Matthew yesterday??  We celebrated with his requested dinner (Spaghetti) and he picked out peanut butter cup ice cream as his birthday dessert, so we put a candle in it and sang to him!

The girls made cards for Ben, but also picked out this awesome card for him from the store.  Ben was really appreciative of the cards they made as well as this card they found for him.

Mama Kay was on Matthew duty while Ben opened up his gifts.

Ben chose to forgo a big party this year.  He desperately wanted to go to Medieval Times with a few friends.  Luckily, we qualified for a group rate and he selected 4 friends to join him (getting down to 4 friends was quite the negotiation!).

He was quite concerned when we agreed upon 4 friends that the number included his sisters and cousin!  I assured him the 4 was in addition to his sisters and cousin, but I thought it was sweet that he would have put them in his 4.

Everyone got to pick one thing to get - most got swords, some got flags, and the girls got light up star wands.  Here is the group!

Caroline and Ben jousting!

The set up was great.  Two rows - so kids all sat in one row and the parents sat behind (us, Mama Kay and Papa, and Uncle Brandon and Aunt Domi).  The kids loved it!

Juliette wanted to sit by me as I think she was a little worried.  The last time we were here she slept through the whole thing.  

We will have to go again at some point when Matthew can better appreciate it too!

The top row!

Love this picture - all the kids are fully enthralled with what is going on!

And they even had a birthday treat for Ben!

The girls were very excited because the knight threw them each a flower!  And luckily for us, he threw one to Caroline too so all the girls got one!

After the show we came back to the house for cake.  I was lucky this year in that Ben wanted an Olympics cake since we have been watching so much Olympics.  I was lucky because it was easy and I was really not up for something difficult right now!  Thanks Ben!! 

Happy Birthday Dear Ben...

Yay!

After all the friends left, Aunt Domi got some Matthew time.  So did Caroline and Hunter, but I sadly don't have pictures of it.  Aunt Domi, if you are reading this, send me some pictures if you took any and I will edit this post to include them!

And this is the creepy sweatshirt that Aunt Domi gave Ben...he loves it!

Hard to believe Big Ben is 8!!!  His doctor's appointment is next week, so I will update on his stats and development then.