Birthday Festivities

We kept things pretty low key for Benjamin's birthday this year, but I think he had a great time. In the morning, I took the boys to the Magic House.
Benjamin wanted to open all of his presents at breakfast time, but we finally convinced him to save a couple for after dinner. He loved them all, and especially got into his new lego sets. Some of the tinier pieces are hard for him to fit together, but he's really good at following the directions largely on his own.
Benjamin had his heart set on having a "crane cake" this year, so I did what I could. I thought about doing something 3D, but it ended up piping chocolate on waxed paper for the detail work and flipping it onto a flat cake. So it was pretty simple. I think he liked it.
We ended up combining parties with a friend of his, since we had the same group of friends and close birthdays. We set up a treasure hunt, had a water balloon toss and played around outside. Another friend was gracious enough to let us use her backyard, which was awesome. They jumped on the trampoline, played on the swing set, and had a great time just playing together.
I made monster cupcakes.
And Benjamin enjoyed opening a few more presents with his friends.I love kids' birthdays. There's something really magical about that one day of the year and the anticipation and excitement that goes along with it!