This year Ben’s birthday was the same day as his party.

We started the morning with a treat of egg sandwiches and donuts. 

Then Jack gave Ben his present. This is a card with butt jokes in it. Yep, butt jokes never get old around here. 

In the morning we threw him a carnival themed party.

There were eight different games you could play to win tickets. 

And three levels of ticket items you could swap for the tickets you won.

We hired 3 teenagers to help run the games. (Jack’s buddy’s older sister and friends.)

Sam got a whopping 250 tickets. He even studied the teenagers methods in detail, figured out which was most generous. He also calculated which games he could get the most tickets.

As for food, Friday we waited in this huge line for the popcorn Ben wanted for his party.

The popcorn was part of the carnival themed food. We ate hot dogs for lunch, had huge tubs of Garrett’s popcorn, and bags of cotton candy.

Cotton Candy Mouth

Then, Adam did that thing he does with the cake, where he buys a huge extravagant, oversized cake that I’m forced to eat for weeks afterwards.

This one was triple layer, filled with banana cream and raspberry. The picture above does not show the enormity of it. Here are the leftovers, next to my morning cup of coffee so you can see just how much cake I’ll be eating this week.

The party didn’t end, either. That night, Ben had a sleepover with his BFF from school.

The next day, we had a playdate at the Morton Arboretum. She hadn’t been yet and we really wanted to take her there to see it.

Origami craft.

Treehouse.

Natural Playground.

Happy 8th birthday Ben! Wishing you a great year.