La Bella Vita: Ben has another Birthday Party

Ben had another birthday party with St. Louis friends and family on August 12^th. We ordered him a “How to train your Dragon” cake, and it came with a matching mini cake for Ben. It was about 6-7” diameter, two layers, and heaped with icing; certainly more than one person should eat in one sitting....

Tim's parents and my mom comparing baby albums.

Nick and Trish, Kevin and Tiffany, Dave and Carolyn

Monica and Stephanie with Ben

Laura and Cecilia

Nathan, Greg, and Lorraine

We had appetizers and margaritas (still trying to enjoy them as much as possible while in the US). Ben got a lot of fun toys and cute clothes.

Ben's favorite card, with a pop-up and music, from Greg and Lorraine.

I love this face!

Clarabel and Ben

The dump truck from Uncle Brandon

Then we had cake. Ben went first, in his high chair, wearing his Birthday Boy onesie. He knew exactly what to do with his cake, and took a quick taste, then dug right in with two hands.

This was me on my first birthday. Same highchair, same crossed ankles.

You could see the indentations in the cake where his hands were pulling out fistfuls. He just kept going!

Finally it got to the point that we were worrying about him getting sick, so we took it away. He had eaten more than half of it! After we took the cake he proceeded to pick up pieces off his tray and his belly that he had dropped.

He wasn’t super messy at this point, other than his hands and mouth, because he was so focused on eating. He is quite skilled in this department. But then we realized that we forgot his birthday hat. So we put it on him, and that’s when the mess went to his ears and hair.

Afterwards, we put him in the sink. He loves to play with water, so this worked out well. It took three of us, but we got him all clean, though his tongue was still blue. And his diaper the next day was a rainbow of colors.