Happy Birthday Ben!

The keeper of this blog is a few months behind on posts, but rather than wait until it is fully up to date, here is a report on Ben's big third birthday. Several of Ben's friends have had birthday parties, so Ben was very excited to have one himself. We held it at Auburndale Cove, a park here in Newton, where Liam had his party a few months ago. We had a bit of a scare because there was a good chance that Hurricane Bill was going to bring storms when the party was scheduled, which would have meant fitting 12 kids and at least as many adults into our apartment, but luckily the weather turned out beautifully. Ben's parents were helped out by Andy's Aunt Joanne, who came to visit us for a long weekend, much to Ben's delight, and Sonia, an assistant teacher at his school. As the kids are mostly 3, we kept structured games to a minimum. There is a playground right next to the picnic area, although many kids also thought climbing a rock was even more fun, so we gave everyone who wanted it a fire hat and they all played. We set up socks, totes, fabric paints, and fabric markers so that anyone who wanted to could decorate socks and bags for themselves, and most kids tried it out and had fun. For the meal, we went with the old favorite, PIZZA. The cake, from a local bakery, was decorated with an excellent fire truck, and everyone went home exhausted and with a full belly. A good time was had by all, but especially Ben, who was so excited he couldn't take a nap, although both of his parents managed to sneak in mini-naps since they were pretty tired by the end of the day.