Benjamin is 12!

Five years ago we moved to Georgia and then Rachel turned 12, and Miriam was still only 9, and Benjamin was barely 7, and Zoë was newly 4.

...and Alexander was a blurry nearly-two-year-old.

And now here we are—Benjamin is somehow 12 (because that's how time works). And Rachel is nearly 17 and Miriam is 14, and Zoë just turned 9, and Alexander is 6, and Phoebe is already 2...and a half.

Time flies! 

This morning Benjamin went to swim practice and had a fun time. Zoë's practice was even earlier in the morning. And then Alexander had his first "Future Barracudas" practice. And then Benjamin had his practice slot. 

He wanted to open presents as soon as he got home.

He smartly picked out both the Lego sets we got for him and opened those first. They weren't the grand hundreds-of-dollars sets that he wanted, but he was excited about them nonetheless. 

Zoë and Phoebe helped me wrap his presents. Because Benjamin is studying Greek on Duolingo, Zoë wrote him a message in Greek on his present (with the help of Google Translate).

She doesn't know Greek, but she wrote clearly enough that her message was able to be re-translated into English. She was delighted that her name was translated as "life" (which, I mean, that's what it means, so...)

Here's Benjamin with the dad joke book Auntie K sent. We all found the jokes delightful!

Here he is opening his new towel:

It's custom-made with a picture of the Grand Canyon that we took while we were out west last summer, and emblazoned with his name so that he has a lower chance of losing it at swim meets. 

He also got a little potato clock kit and a national parks blanket (that my friend Amanda texted me about months ago, telling me that she saw them on sale at Home Goods and that if we had one near us we should go and pick one up for Benjamin, so we did, and he loves it).

The rest of the day was pretty low key. Benjamin played Minecraft and Lego. He wanted Panda Express for dinner and though Andrew was planning on making some copycat recipes, he ultimately decided to just go pick up some food from the actual restaurant because we're busy recovering from beach week. Benjamin was thrilled!

Rachel spent the day making Benjamin a little cake so we could sing to him over it. He would like a friend-party this year and Rachel is planning on making him a more elaborate cake for that. But in the meantime, this little cake did the job just fine. 

We're so grateful for this kid and the great things he's doing—the things he's done, the things he will do, the things he's taught us. He's come a long away and is destined for great things, I'm sure!