Party of Four

i realize that there have been several days of kind-hearted, rainbows and cupcake posts regarding benny's birthday. 

and a heavy dose of photos. 

but, here is one last day of that for the fam on the west coast, and then it's back to the usual mockery and jest. 

promise. 

Grandma and Grandpa Welch and Great Grandpa and Grandpa Savarese will be coming out the weekend after next from California and Eastern Ohio, respectively. 

we will be filling a weekend with celebrations for our little guys' birthdays and bern's graduation.

(graduation!!! the light at the end of the tunnel is burning my cornea!) 

so, ben's big day was an all day celebration for just our little family unit. 

here is the pictorial review of our little Party of Four yesterday. 

we started the day with daddy's famous pancakes...with the requisite candle.

clearly, an exciting start.

then we moved on to a little balloon party.
a balloon party, you ask?
this involved bern blowing up lots of balloons while the boys both attempted to blow up one, and an extended game of keep-it-in-the-air.
and benny discovered how to pop balloons. 
this gave mom several small heart attacks. 
which, of course, made it all the more funny to benjamin.

anth was wiped out by the festival of balloons.

he took a minute to plunk down on the floor for a breather.

yes, in this exact pose. 

he also took a moment to remind us that he has NOT, in fact, had a birthday.
or presents. 
or cake.
as a result, he is still 5.

daddy caught a rare moment of mom on the other side of the camera with ben.

and anth.
and my glasses.

a little brotherly love. :) 

i adore the look of consternation on ben's face regarding the original size of the flame on his cake candle.
no worries, it finally achieved a healthy state.

benny chose to have a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting.
it seems to have been a hit.

bern asked the boys to cover their eyes while he brought the presents into the room.
not quite sure why anth had to as he was not getting gifts. 
that was probably just the law-abiding-citizen in him.
(but check out his pursed lips. he seems to be concentrating really hard on this effort.)

check out the look of surprise on bern's face when he noticed them peeking.
genius.

ben was sure to remove every piece of paper and tape from each gift.
seriously.
each of them.
fully.
some might say...painstakingly.

and, of course, it was then time to give the new toys a test drive!

anth was more than pleased that ben is finally old enough to get "cool gifts."

and, in the general spirit of the day, ben was actually willing to share.