oldest child

This oldest child of ours just turned 9 years old last week!! It was a party from the time Ben got up until the time he went to bed, as you can clearly see in the following pictures...

A "Giant" Hershey bar, a Diary of a Wimpy Kid t-shirt, some colored card stock to make his own "books," and the book series 39 Clues...what more could this 9-year old ask for?! (I asked him a few days before his birthday what he wanted, and his reply was, "Surprise me." I loved that answer) Oh, and pancakes for breakfast, at his request--one of them even turned out to look like Greg Hefferly from Ben's new t-shirt.

The party continued at school when I took 2 dozen donuts up to his class and then went to lunch with him. It was so fun to sit with Ben and his friends Reggie and Josh. (Apparently by third grade it's not too cool to sit with the girls anymore at lunchtime.) Ben was cute as he kept making sure I was ok and had everything I needed with my lunch. I caught this picture of Reggie and Ben hanging out at their favorite "grate" after lunch during recess. Dry cannonballs--gotta love 'em!

Ben wanted to go to In-n-Out for dinner (great choice!) so we invited Gma Train (Gpa couldn't make it), Chad, and Danielle to go too. It was the first time I have ever seen empty chairs and tables there!!

What else but a Titanic cake?!

Ben is such a cute, sweet, fun-loving boy. He is so creative and his imagination is one that never EVER stops! He has been challenging in the past, but we are at a real good place right now, and for that I am so grateful. I'm pretty sure I never wrote about this in a blog-post before, but at the end of last summer, he too was diagnosed with ADHD. Knowing what I know now, I could have told you that years ago. We really struggled with him at the beginning of the school year--a new school year with a new teacher (who has been so patient with him and has really helped him out--she's wonderful!) and new friends, plus he played lacrosse again in the fall, and had just started piano lessons a couple months earlier, and then throw ADHD on top of that with trying to figure out the right dosage for his medication, and it was just crazy!! It took some time to figure it all out, but we got the dosage right, and he has had a great school year overall. He has even started to recognize when he is getting off track a bit and can pull himself back onto task, which is huge for him.

I love Ben's enthusiasm for life and for doing what he loves. I have to admit that I thought having three boys was a slam dunk for having three little athletes, which was my life growing up. But life has a funny way of dealing you cards you don't expect, and we might not have three athletes--heck, I don't know if we'll have any!--but, each of them have a passion for life and for what they love to do, and that will take them far. Ben is a huge influence for his brothers, and they look up to him and love him so much, and we do too. Happy Birthday honey--I wouldn't trade you for 1,000,000,000,000,000 Hershey's either!!