Bentley's 3rd BOO-THDAY!
And that very first look at the finished product.. Priceless!
This year since Bentley's Birthday, which is actually on Halloween day, fell on a Saturday.. we decided to do a Halloween Birthday Party! We handed out his invitations..
Bentley was a cop, Penny was a dalmatian puppy and Carter was Spiderman.. again this year!
(She is ALWAYS climbing on things these days!!)
The Birthday Party planning didn't seem like so much until you get into the logistics of it. We had 20 kids total and another 25 adults.. so needless to say.. it was insane!
The boys helped me with the treat bags for the kids (and babies!) ..
And helped me make all the (SOOOO YUMMY) Spooky Halloween Chocolate Bark! This was a perfect job for them! And yes, that is chocolate all over Bentley's face.. him and I have a serious addiction to chocolate.. so its rare to see his face without chocolate all over it!
Bentley's big day started off just as it should! The boys ran downstairs and were ready to get this birthday day on the go!
First we let Bentley open our gift.. He was SO SO EXCITED!! Seriously, he shouted "OHHHHHHHHH!!!!" when he opened it.. as you can tell from his facial expression lol
Bentley shared them all with Carter which was so nice of him. We got dressed and headed out to a place called "Tommy K Play" for some fun! It is just a huge area for kids with big slides and a whole climbing jungle gym thing. It really is so much fun. All three of our kids went nuts! We played there until Lunch. We went out to Boston Pizza for lunch and then rushed home to nap them all knowing we would have a busy afternoon and probably a late night. Then Great Grandma Reed and Grandma & Grandpa Reed stopped by to wish Bentley a happy birthday and then his other Grandma stopped in too!
Penny woke up from her nap a little later but when she did she was SOOO happy to cuddle her Grandmas!
The boys worked on opening the fun gifts they brought... well, fun and fighting over them... you know, the usual!
Setting up Bentley's birthday was fun for me! Brian and I spent some time on Thursday night making his cake!
Poor sweet Bentley is literally scared of everything! Just like me! So all week long, we have had to reassure him that his party would just been fun and not scary at all. He was so happy to see his fun eyeball cake!
We set up the rest and the party was ready to go!
Once everyone arrived.. it was pure mayhem! Literally.. it was crazy. So many people, so many kids.. but somehow it all worked out great!
I know going all out for Birthdays isn't everybody "thing" but it is mine! My mom always made our Birthdays special and I LOVE making them super special for my kids too! Even though they are small.. birthdays are big in our family! One special day just for you and this mama bear will take the stress, the hard work, the planning and well.. everything else that comes with a birthday party! Love you Bentley!
All of the kids looked so so cute in their costumes! We are missing a few in this picture but in the moment, it was the best we could do!
Poor Uncle Ty.. He just wants to be a fun uncle to Penny.. but she is not feeling it.. at all! One day she will love this awesome Uncle of hers!
We fed everyone hot dogs and chips and then opened presents. Bentley was ecstatic!!!
Next was time for cake! Everyone sang our boy "Happy Birthday" and I could not stop smiling at the sweet face looking back at me. I cannot believe he is already THREE!
After cake it was time to start clearing up some of the mayhem and get ready to head out Trick-or-treating. By 6pm the boys are I were knocking on doors screaming "Trick-or-Treat!" Brian stayed in with Penny handing out the candy. Also! I must add.. when I got home so much of the birthday mess was cleaned up.. BRIAN YOU ARE AMAZING!!! THANK YOU, LOVE YOU!!!!
I brought a pillow case with me so when their little buckets were full they could dump them into the pillow case and keep going. We went over the "rules" .... 1. I am not carrying you, when your legs get tired.. let me know and we can walk home. 2. Don't forget your manners and 3. HAVE FUN!!!!! I assumed we would be out for 20 MAYBE 30 minutes.. but wanted these two boys to burn all that energy they had from the fun birthday party so I let them take the lead and away we went! These two little boys trick-or-treated for an hour and a half!! I could not believe it! They were having so much fun together, holding hands, running laughing. It was so much fun to watch them! They were in HEAVEN! They even got a couple of big chocolate bars and they would be so excited saying "MOM!!!! MOM!!!!! LOOK!!!!!" before the people even closed their door. Im sure they loved it!
We got home at 7:30 and within 30 seconds of walking through the door, the boys had the candy dumped all over the floor.. sorting it out! I totally remember doing this when I was little. We went through and set aside everything with peanuts and then the boys helped us hand out candy to the bigger kids. They loved this job!
Finally at 8:30 we were able to have them cuddled up in bed. What a fun day! Bentley went to bed tonight with one of his new monster trucks we got him and as I was leaving the room and says "Mommy, I love that you buy'd this for me" which a huge smile. Ahh, I live for those precious moments.
I can't believe my baby boy is three. I can still remember his labour. It still seems fresh in my memory. It was fast and good. He was such a beautiful little baby. 8 pounds 11 ounces. 20 minutes in the hospital and 4 minutes of pushing and Bentley was born. He is our little angle. He changed our family so much and we could not imagine life without him.
Bentley loves cuddles and hugs and kisses. He loves being with me and Brian and we love that! He is developing quite a little attitude (Terrible Threes...?) and has the biggest crocodile tears. He is scared of everything.. seriously! A couple of weeks ago him and I were reading a story while Carter was at school and Penny was napping. It had animals on it and I was asking him what the animal was and what kind of sound that animal makes... we did a few and then got to a cow.. and he says.. "Oh Mommy.. cows are scary!!" I was a little taken back and said "no, they're not.. why do you think they're scary..??" and he says .. because they say "Moooooooooo" <- what you need to know is Bentley cannot say "Spooky".. he pronounces it "Mooky" so cows say "Moooo" like "Mooky"... funny little boy!
Bentley JUST gave up his souther and is doing fantastic! He was potty trained as soon as he turned two so we are a year in and he has only ever had a couple of random accidents. He LOVES the colour orange. He loves any kind of "dip" with any kind of food. He loves, motorcycles, cars, trucks.. basically anything with wheels and he LOVES his family and friends.
He says he is going to marry his little friend Autumn.. even though her heart belongs to Justin Bieber. He loves back rubs and baths he LOVES his little sister Penny and can make her laugh almost instantly. He even tried to get her to take a picture with him.. but she was too busy for that!
He Loves to make silly faces...
Bentley has such a sweet little sensitive soul. He takes things to heart. He loves hard and really is so kind. He is the first one to share with you and really I cannot say enough good things about Bentley.
Bentley sweetheart. You mean everything to Mommy & Daddy. Your sweet little demeanour is amazing. We feel so lucky, so blessed, so honoured and so happy that you are ours and that we belong to you. Happy 3rd birthday my sweet boy.
We are so in love with you!