Birthday boy

Big Ben turned 5 last Thursday! I really can't believe how fast these years have gone. He took chocolate chip cookies to his classmates. As a teacher who has sliced one gooey cake after another, when no paper plates were sent, when sparklers were put on the cake and I'm wondering if the school smoke detectors are going to go off, I decided to send simple cookies that he could hand out himself.

When we appeared at his classroom door, he was so wound up, he promptly got on all 4's and crawled to the bathroom like a wolf. I am certain the fact that he remained on "sunny day" classroom behavior was pure grace.

Here he is sharing a cookie with Nuray, our receptionist. She used to get kisses out of him when he was little.

She stole a kiss out of the deal. 

Our family birthday dinner was simple. He wanted pizza and Sprite. I served him a cookie with a candle, as his party with cake would be over the weekend.

I see a theme here.

He received so many fun gifts from relatives, the sisters, and us. I chose two shots which I thought captured the night best...Spidey gettin' his swag on....

...and Papa proud of the gifts he bought Big Ben. (He's always left the gift shopping up to me, until we had a boy. He had quite the time shopping for cap guns, Nerf guns, and Legos this summer.)