Birthdays and Other Occasions

I'll come back and do some pictures later, but it's been too long without an entry.

First off, a week ago Saturday was Benjamin's third birthday. Both his mother and I have absolutely no idea how he has gotten so old so fast. It just doesn't seem possible! Anyway, the morning was spent opening presents. He really enjoyed his digital camera (along with everything else) and I'll try to post a few of his pictures up here as well.

That afternoon, we had his birthday party at the depot. It was a well-attended party, with around 12 kids there. We set up the train table that the depot has as well as a Thomas DVD to watch. And with all of those kids there and all that to do, what does my son do? Spends his time running around the tables that are set up in the middle of the room. He started out along, and I'd keep catching him and telling him to play with his friends. Later on, he had a couple more following him. By the end of it, most everyone was running around the tables. The kid's a leader, apparently.

Everyone also got a kick out of the fact that, close to the end of the party, a train came through, so they were able to go outside on the small back porch and watch the train go by just feet away from them. I was glad that we got to see one. It was a lot of fun.

Highlights of the toys from the party (though he really did like most everything) would be the stuffed dinosaur from his best friend Micah (and Micah's sister Gabi) and the monster truck toys from Daniel. The dinosaur goes just about everywhere with him now and Benjamin has named him Light (for some reason). The monster trucks are the kind you rev up and let go, and he loves to see them go crazy, bounce off a wall, and come careening back toward him.

His party kicked off the birthday season. He had a party to go to this Saturday (Daniel's), this Sunday (Walt's) and has one for a week from Saturday. When the mommy group Meron was in was formed, most of them were pregnant and the kids were all due about the same time. He had fun at both parties this weekend (partly because they both had Bump 'n Jumps, partly because Micah was at both of them, partly because it's kids and a party).

The kids both went in for a checkup on Friday, Benjamin due to being three and Sarah due to being almost 6 months. (Another thing we can't quite grasp!) Benjamin stood 39" tall and weighed 38 pounds. The doctor told us if he keeps this pace up, he'd be 6'4", 220. If he has any athletic ability at all, that could really work for him!

Sarah was 19 lbs, 6 ozs and was 25.5". The doctor said the length is kinda subjective, since with babies, it's hard to get them as straight as they can be. Still, she is in the 75 percentile on height and 90th on weight. Apparently, we grow them big!

Sarah is going to start on baby food (a holiday-appropriate squash) today. The milestones keep happening!

We had Consecration Sunday, also known as our yearly pledge drive, at church this weekend. Due to a lot of hard work from a lot of people, our pledged amount for next year is around 14% increase over this year. Next year is also the year we are scheduled to pay off the debt at the church, so there could be a lot of exciting things happening in the next couple of years.

Looking forward to Thanksgiving on Thursday. My mother's family usually gets together at my parents' house and it's a good day. Not a lot going on besides eating and reading the paper, but there is some good food and that counts for a lot.

Hope you have safe travels if you are going and a great holiday no matter!