Benjamin's birthday balloons

Just as we spread the celebration of Benjamin's birthday over a few days (due to shipping times on some presents), so too have I spread out my blogging of his birthday. But Andrew is tidying up the dining room and wanted to take down the birthday sign because we wouldn't be needing it until "the end of July."

"Uhhhh..." I said. 

"Uhhhh..." he said. "Oh, yeah! Your birthday!"

My birthday is also in June. But that's fine. We can put the birthday sign up again. 

At any rate, I'm ready to transcribe Benjamin's birthday balloons. 

Alexander made a valiant effort and wrote:

BEn THE EXTrEmE GOOd A VbEO GMS LEGO

Really not bad for a four-year-old. "Ben the Extreme" is Benjamin's name on our Switch Sports game. He is good at video games. And he enjoys playing LEGO (often with Alexander). 

Speaking of LEGO, we were driving home from somewhere the other day—where?! Where could we possibly have gone all together?—when Alexander saw a firetruck and said, "Firetruck! Zap that into your brain!"

When we asked him why he'd said that he said it was because they were planning on playing LEGO city when they got home and he needed to build a firetruck for their city. 

Oh! Where we went was to clean the chapel on Saturday morning! That's where.

Let's see, Zoë wrote a lovely little acrostic poem for Benjamin:

Bouncy
Excellent at games
New in "hand & foot"

She also said, "I love Ben because he is good at video games and "Sleeping Queens." I love Ben because he is fun to talk and play with. Happy 10th Birthday, Ben!"

Our children will frequently accuse each other of "recency bias" at the dinner table when we ask them what their favourite part of the day was and they pick the very thing we interrupted in order to call them for dinner. In this case, I think video games may be a case of recency bias. The mention of "Sleeping Queens" definitely is because we've been playing that game quite a bit since Zoë's birthday (when she selected it as her choice of activity). But Benjamin does enjoy his video games. Sometimes this bothers me, but also I have to remember that (a) it's good practice for, like, surgeons and stuff and (b) you can actually get scholarships for playing video games (just saying). I'm sure there are other positive things about video games as well. 

Miriam said, "Ben, you are so creative with everything you do, like your LEGO and zombie games. They are so cool. You're very eager and quick to learn and pick up on new skills! Happy Birthday, Ben!"

She also wrote this lovely acrostic:

Books are your favourite
Eager to be effervescent
Nice and helpful
Jokester!
An awesome piano student
Masterful gamer
Imaginative and creative
National park ranger

Rachel wrote, "I love Ben because he is funny, smart, passionate, and creative. I'm impressed by how helpful, mature, and responsible he's gotten, and I"m excited to watch him grow up even more!"

She also wrote this lovely acrostic:

Boisterous
Energetic
National Park Ranger
Joyful
Animated
Make believe zombies
Intrepid
Nimble

I wrote a Limerick:

Benjamin's now 10 years old!
His heart must be made of pure gold!

He's helpful and kind, 
Of inquisitive mind,
And is dashing and daring and bold!

I also said, "I'm excited to see what's in store for you this coming year! You're growing up great and are getting so mature (and tall)! You're so fun to be around. I love how you're happy to play with your younger siblings but can hang out with older kids, too. So glad you're mine! Love you!"

And Andrew said, "Ben! You're getting to be so grown up and responsible now that you're 10! Thanks for being a great helper all the time! Hopefully this next year will be your best!"

Clearly Benjamin did a lot of growing up this past year, though I hope next year won't be his best. I—jokingly—told Andrew it would be pretty sad if he peaked at age ten. That's not what Andrew meant, of course; he merely meant he hoped this year would be better than the one before (with the idea that he'll keep having better and better years).