ROARRR He's 4

Since it's almost time to celebrate Cole's birthday party, I thought it would be a good idea to get Bennett's done and documented.

Somewhere along the line of last year he developed a love of dinosaurs. He's been asking for a dinosaur party for as long as he realized he could actually put in a request for the type of party he wanted.

I actually loved the idea, and knew we would be able to use a lot of his dinosaurs for decoration. I've also had to let go of the fact that things are going to get reorganized and redecorated despite my best efforts. I'm learning to loosen up and embrace the "help".

Sure, it may not look "perfect" in some eyes, but it does in mine. Because I know that there were some cute little hands that worked very hard to make their display look party worthy.

All the dino's lined up and ready for the party to start!

 Grandma Bonnie helped make us the volcano while the boy's cousins were visiting from Germany. And then the boys got to finish it up and help paint it. Which turned into a huuuuuge mess that I won't even go into details about. But it was a mess and they nearly lost having their volcano at all.

I had some nests around that we threw up there as dino nests filled with cupcakes and rock candy.

In my heart of hearts I wanted to have "herbivore" and "carnivore" snacks....but when it came right down to it, I just didn't have the energy or time. And decided it wasn't worth the stress, so we kept it simple and stuck to oreo "dirt" cupcakes and "swamp juice".

The boys just love all their cousins, so we decided to have some fun with them. I got everyone dinosaur masks. They looked so cute, and the littlest dino didn't seem to be very enthused about the mask idea.

P.S. You know your cousin is completely comfortable and right at home when she packs up her slippers to wear at the party. :) 

 We had a dino egg scavenger hunt. Which was brought to my attention that no, they were not actual dinosaur eggs, but plastic Easter eggs. Duh. We all raised a bunch of literals. Once they moved past that little fact, they hunted and found eggs stuffed with dinosaur tattoos, hatching dino eggs, and something else...I can't really remember now.

The best part happened when Cole announced that I needed to pass out goodie bags. And I looked at him completely confused and told him that I didn't have goodie bags....he went running inside and came out with ziplocs full of "stuff". He had made everyone their own goodie bag! In case you forgot, he breathes for parties and picks the ball up when I apparently drop it. We all got a good laugh and thoroughly enjoyed seeing the things that he randomly put in each bag. This one included a game piece (thank you Na for giving it back), a bracelet that he had made, one solo purple crayon and a sucker. He needs to be my party coordinator from now on....

We did all the normal party stuff like opening presents, playing, story time for my littlest bookworm, and of course cupcakes.

Mmmm....cupcakes. Easiest recipe ever! Yes, usually I'm all about cupcakes from scratch, but I was in the mood for a white based batter, and I just needed easy. Plus, I could have eaten a bowl full of that oreo frosting by itself.

Davis thought so too....he would have gladly gone for a few more cupcakes. I'm pretty sure he sat there saying "pease?" in his sweetest voice. Let's just say he gets lots of extra cookies and sweets that I never would have allowed his brothers....perks of being third child I suppose.

It was such a fun day celebrating my big boy! I'm so thankful for all who showed up to make him feel dinosauriffic (too much?)

We love you sweet Bennett boy, happy (very late) 4th birthday dude!