Birthday Party!

The birthday party was a success. There were only three minor injuries, a kid who was kicked in the leg, a head bump for one of the girls, and another kid who freaked me out with "so-and-so kicked me in the face and now my tooth is loose!"... everyone was fine though, thankfully.

The kids all seemed to have a blast and it was neat to see most of Ben's class all together. I don't get to volunteer at all this year because of Jonathan, so I am only now just figuring out who they all are. Nice class though, for the most part... although the kid who is from Ben's preschool class who I found unsavory when he was four, is still a troublemaker. He was responsible for two of three injuries and they were not accidents. Note to self: he does NOT get invited to any future parties.

Also to be noted -- the crowd ate an entire 22 oz. barrel of cheeseballs...

I found out rather recently that Ben has a little thing for one of the girls in his class. I knew her name, but not which child she was until I visited his class during library a couple weeks ago. Here's the amusing part... she kind of looks like she could be his fraternal twin sister. I got lots of pictures yesterday... I actually wanted to see if he asks me for a copy when he sees them. ;) Evil mommy, I am. (also, from the videos below... it appears the feeling is mutual)

He left with the most giant trashbag haul of presents ever... downside for me of having invited so many kids... major upside for Ben! He has been very systematically choosing one thing at a time, writing a thank you note for it and then playing with it. It's mostly Lego sets, so lots of quiet building has been going on around here since yesterday afternoon. ;) YAY! The most interesting and unusual present came from his classmate Nivi, who gave him a beginning Harmonica set. There was a duplicate Lego building set that he gave to Simon without hesitation, and he was thrilled with this, of course!

Here are a few pics and some video from the big day! :)