The other exciting thing going on last weekend was a visit by his grandparents, Muz and D. We were excited about getting to see them a bunch during the birthday weekend, and Ben had been making plans for an overnight since early in the summer...
We met then at their hotel room at the Golden Arrow in Lake Placid after we were all done with school for the day/week, and had some present opening...Muz brought him some great pajamas...you can see him wearing a birthday crown made for him by his teacher...he wore it all day and all night...
We kept opening presents in the room, with Maggie's help...it got a little crazy, but was lots of fun!
Ben and D and Maggie went out to the room's deck for a while we cleaned up and got ready for dinner...
Ben picked his favorite restaurant in Lake Placid, The Great Adirondack Steak & Seafood Company...it's not just a clever name, it's pretty great...we all had a great meal, everyone in the restaurant sang to Ben, and he got a huge chocolat-astic dessert mounded with brownies and ice-cream and whipped cream and chocolate sauce...
Rather than have any/all of us go insane, we had decided to have Ben's birthday party at the Lake Placid Elementary School Playground, a super playground with a castle motif...we nervously watched the weather forecasts all week, and set up some tarps in case the rain came, but ended up only getting about 5 minutes of light drizzle during the party (although it rained long and hard after we were all packed up and had left for the afternoon...
We brought in decorations and pizza and drinks and such, and mostly left the kids to do what 5-6 year-olds want to do in an awesome playground...run around and engage in imaginative play...
The kids tooted and sang "Happy Birthday to You" and then it was time for the cake...
It was a beautiful "Pirates of the Caribbean" themed cake, complete with Kraken tentacles reaching up and out of the waves...
When it was time to open the presents, which we did under one of the big tarps (hence the blue light), Ben had a distinguished-looking "soul patch" left over from the icing of his cake...he got lots of wonderful presents from all of his friends, and everyone crowded in to take a look...my favorite thing about the picture above, and one of my favorite things about the party was the mystery-kid peering over Ben's shoulder during the gift opening...he was everywhere and participated in every part of the party (I'm pretty sure that I gave him some cake too), but nobody knew who he was, he just rolled himself into the party, and kept playing and having fun with everyone there...
It's a really neat playground, and the tarps set up throughout made natural play and rest break spots for the kids (and parents who stayed to help and hang out during the party)...
Ben and one of his oldest and best friends, Ayla...
When the party was all done, everyone had moved on to their afternoon activities, and we had packed/cleaned up, Ben was filthy and happy and tired and a bit overwhelmed by the fun and noise and presents and long playtime...we headed back over to Muz and D's hotel to continue our afternoon...
THEY HAVE A POOL!!! We were all excited by the prospect of a swim in the pool (although we insisted that Ben shower first, to avoid leaving a ring in their pool)...
We had the pool to ourselves, and had a great time splashing and swimming while we watched it downpour outside and talked about the party at the playground earlier...
Ben likes playing with, and splashing, my camera since he knows it's waterproof...
He took this picture of me swimming underneath him to tickle his toes...if you put your ear really close to the screen of your computer you may be able to hear my eyes sizzling from the obscene amounts of chlorine they use to keep the pool clean...
Ben had a great time in the pool, and recharged his batteries for an overnight stay with Muz and D...he kicked us out shortly after we got back from the pool, and Gail and I went out to an anniversary (our 11th) dinner at Desperadoes, and then a quiet night at home...
The self-timer came built-in with my camera, so I feel like I'm wasting money if I don't try the occasional run-around (or in this case swim-around) picture of all of us together...
Muz and D had a great view of Mirror Lake and the surrounding mountains from their room...
Even on a rainy weekend, it's a beautiful spot...
We came by the next morning, bringing our puppy Penny to visit with Maggie for a while...
They had a great time playing and chewing and leaping around the room (from bed to bed and such) for awhile, and then Penny crashed a bit...
She loves Maggie and sometimes just stares at her...
Muz got in some extra Penny-love before they had to take off...
We went home for a couple of hours to regroup before our next engagement of the weekend, Ayla's Birthday Party...Ben and I explored some of his presents a bit, and Ben built this Lego Star Wars ship all by himself...
We had a great time at Ayla's party, Ben played a lot with Sammie, the only other boy there, although he had an equally good time playing with all of the girls in attendance...
We played some inside and some outside games, and everyone had plenty of fun...
Ben never misses an opportunity to grab and check out a toad, no matter when or where he finds one...
Everyone had fun playing musical chairs...
There was a super jungle-themed cake, and after this weekend Ben has come to the realization that we need to have more cake more often in our everyday lives...
We got home and had one final present to open, a laptop computer...he's been using our laptops for years now, and has shown himself to be responsible and careful and curious and eager to learn and play and explore the resources available through the WWW...
He opened it up and checked his email immediately, then he went on to visit some of his favorite websites from his google-page...he is so excited about having his own computer (and the fact that it is RED. his favorite color), and played around with it for awhile before an early supper and bedtime to close down a busy and fantastic birthday weekend...
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