Fantastic Fourteen!

On Monday, July 13, Benjamin celebrated his 14th birthday!  Well, it was actually the fourth, straight day of celebrations... all carefully orchestrated by him.  He spent much of the day at a theater camp-- where the children went through temperature checks and health screenings, were spaced six feet apart, and wore face shields; NO sharing of birthday treats-- so there wasn't a huge party on Ben's birthday.  As if this mom would ever host a huge party, even without a pandemic...

On Friday, Ben invited one friend and Dad took the two of them go kart racing, and out to lunch and ice cream.  This particular adventure was one Todd and Ben had been discussing for several years, and I guess Ben was finally deemed old enough, physically big enough, rational enough, and brave enough to drive.  They had a very good time.

On Saturday, Grandma Rosendahl and Aunt Lisa hosted a birthday dinner for Ben at their home.  There was a feast with all his requested favorites and a bounty of gifts.  Grandma gifted Benjamin a kitten, in a way.  She has been helping the local animal shelter by fostering a feline family, and wrapped up a note that she was keeping one of the kittens to be Ben's cat.  It will live at her house, of course, because I am highly allergic to cats.  I took photos of the kitten-- very cute-- but am not posting any here because they are all of sisters holding the cat and not Ben.

On Sunday, Grandma and Grandpa Paukert held their family birthday party.  Again, Ben chose the menu, complete with Neapolitan and Golden Oreo "Oldstone" cake.  We are still doing our best to maintain health and safety rules, hanging outside.  It's a good thing G & G have the best place for that!

Sunday evening, Ben was invited on a sunset cruise with the neighbors, complete with another gift and banana cream pie.  He is the neighborhood social butterfly and has cultivated unique friendships with all the adults who live around us.  I imagine he provides some form of entertainment-- can't imagine what all he tells them about us-- but I am so grateful for the village, as they say.

On Monday, we did our best to celebrate Ben in small ways all day long.  He was born at 6:30 a.m., so was "officially" 14 by the time he woke up.  After theater camp, Ben had a couple friends over to swim and ride the Jet Ski.  Gifts were pretty limited... when you're a teenager you just want cash, apparently... but we ordered a new kind of pizza for supper (BBQ chicken, highly recommend) and Ben chose a red velvet cake.

Todd had some photos come up in his memories for this day.  I'm not sure where he stores them... and I'm not sure I'd ever seen these before... but it sure was fun to share and to remember.

This boy captured our hearts.  He enthralls us, surprises us, annoys us, and exhausts us every, single day.  Ben has a huge heart, a passion for adventure-- wherever he can find it-- and a need to be with people.  His main goal in life, at this point, is to get a television in his bedroom.  Happy, happy birthday, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful, beautiful boy!