Ben's Party and Fourth of July

We celebrated Ben's birthday on July 4th and invited our family and some friends from back home to join us for the day.

I dread making cakes...at least ones that go beyond frosting them while still in the glass baking dish. I decided to attempt Ben's cake this time since I had figured out a way so that most of the decorations didn't have to be made of icing. It's no where near as good as Brandi could do, but at least this one I didn't want to put in the garbage before the guests arrived like I did with the last one I made Rosemary.

He is such a happy boy.

Rosemary really was not too keen on getting this photo.

If you couldn't tell, he likes cake.

A lot.

It was a really nice day out. Jonathan set up the little pool, slide, and sprinkler for the kids. Rosemary, Abby, and Ben splashed and played the afternoon away.

Everyone enjoyed the shade.

Becky and I got a chance to catch up. Thanks for coming all the way to Gainesville!

Jonathan ended the night with our own personal fireworks show.

Some were a bit loud.

Ben's First Birthday

Ben turned a year old on Thursday. Jonathan and I took the day off and we went to get Ben's pictures done then had a picnic at the Alachua splash park. It was great fun and we would have gotten some great photos...if we'd remembered the camera.

Ben seemed to have a good time. We took him for pizza for dinner...his favorite...as far as we can tell. This little guy ate two pieces of pizza and two pieces of garlic bread.

On top of all the pizza, Ben got to enjoy his birthday cupcake that Rosemary and I had made earlier that day.

Happy Birthday, Benjamin!

Here's a glimpse of what Ben will look like with a goatee like his Daddy's.

Check out our boy with his gator.

And he is over the gator photos.

In the past month, Ben's moved up to his knees from his standard army crawl. He's cruising around furniture too. At meals he consistently signs 'more' but we haven't quite mastered 'all done.' Maybe that's because he never is all done?

For now, I'm going to savor the last few weeks I have before toddlerhood sets in. I have a feeling that Ben's going to be ready to get into everything.