Busy Bee

I realized I never posted pictures from Ben's first Halloween! Well actually....it wasn't his first Halloween but last year he was only a day old and still in the hospital. So here's a picture from last year and a few from this year.

BIRTHDAY

Hi everyone....long time no blog. It's been a crazy crazy last few weeks! So rather than overwhelm you with a really long post, I'll give you a few short highlights with some pictures. It's official.....Ben is 1 year old!! On October 30th he officially turned 1 and celebrate we did!

Birthday fun started with a visit from Grandma and Grandpa Roelofs who were in Greece on his birthday. They came to visit a few weeks before the big day and kicked off the festivities with an awesome fire engine truck that Ben quickly learned how to ride and sound the alarm.

Then over birthday weekend we had several visitors- Grandma and Grandpa Ritsema flew back to Maryland to celebrate and one of my best friends in the whole world and "Aunt" to Ben came up from Florida as well. Ben loves Aunt Jo.

We threw Ben a party on Saturday afternoon and lots of friends came to enjoy the festivities. A few highlights...

The cake....our neighbor should quit her day job and make cakes for a living. She made Ben a duplo birthday cake which was the most amazing thing I've ever seen. For those who don't know, duplos are basically giant legos....made large enough so they aren't a choking hazard. She made the duplos and lego man out of rice crispie treats and covered them in fondant. AMAZING.

We had 7 kids under 3 years old running around our house

People were way too generous and got Ben some amazing gifts- Thanks to everyone who came!

Then Ben and I took off with the Ritsema grandparents for Denver for a few days. The flight there went really well much to my amazement. We had an awesome time in Denver seeing lots of family and friends and having yet another birthday celebration with cousins Makenna and Levi and other family. Thanks to everyone there for a wonderful week! Then Ben and I flew back alone yesterday. Again the flight went well all things considered....travel is just not easy with a one year old no matter the circumstances. But we're home and doing well and looking forward to settling into a normal routine again.

There's just a brief overview of the past few weeks.....crazy busy but tons of fun. Happy Birthday to the coolest kid ever :)