We are officially parents of a five year old. Benjamin hit the big number on Sunday and we celebrated with a party on Saturday. It was a crazy birthday weekend.

Ten little friends (+ 2 Aunts, 3 Uncles, a Grandma Chris, a Grandpa Ed, a Dad and a Mom) joined Benjamin at Quarry Hill Nature Center for a robot celebration. We had an ice cream sundae bar and the kids learned all about dinosaurs from a resident naturist. It was a great party. After everyone had their fill of sugar and nature, the family came over to our house for more gifts, some World Cup soccer and a BBQ.

As it goes every year, I had a very fun time preparing for Benjamin's party. He picked a robot theme and I was lucky to find some things online at Birthday Express. I found the clipart online for the invitation, which I used again for the goodie bag tags and personalized candy wrappers. Instead of handing out a goodie bag full of junky cheap toys, I decided to make a s'mores bag with some giant marshmallows, graham crackers and a Hershey's bar that I personalized with a robot wrapper. Benjamin has an egg allergy and the recipes for eggless cakes and cupcakes are not only less then tasty, but cake making also somehow manage to fill me with unwanted stress right before parties. So we instead had the ice cream sundae bar which I labelled with robot-themed topping tags. I also made Benjamin a personalized shirt with the invitation clip art and a big number 5. He was so proud to wear it.

On Sunday we greeted Benjamin with a traditional breakfast in bed of pancakes with cinnamon and sugar on top. After taking him out for his first spin on his new bicycle from Mom and Dad, Grandma Cindy and Grandpa Bert came over to spend a couple of hours with the birthday boy.

I've been neglecting my regular blogging duties to prepare for the party and to begin work on Benjamin's new bedroom (which is going very well), so I haven't had the opportunity to include information on Benjamin's latest track runs. Last week was the All Comers Mile race, which Benjamin and Mike braved 90 degree heat to run together while Grandma Chris, Grandpa Ed and I stayed in the shade to cheer. Even after completing the mile run, Benjamin went on to win first place in his age group for the 50 meter and 100 meter races. Now that he's a full year older, this week he will be running with the five year olds and will have a couple of cousins accompany him on the track. AJ and John will be trying out their first track meet tonight.