Bentley's 11th Birthday

Bentley boy is 11!!  This guy is growing and changing a lot right now, and coming to be quite the cool young man.  He holds a pretty special and unique place in our family, and we are so grateful for him.  For his actual birthday, Eden and I were still in Cincinnati, which was a huge bummer.  But we were able to celebrate before and after as a whole group, and dad made his birthday pretty special and fun.  He really got to do it all.

His birthday was on a Monday which was perfect because it is the homeschooling day for all three kids, so they got to play and celebrate his birthday like it was the weekend! Bentley got to start his birthday off with video games, which is always a very special treat.

That afternoon the Murdochs and grandparents came over to open presents and have donuts together.

Karly gave him a whole box of homemade treasures.  He was super kind and sweet as he looked through each one.

Eden and I got to watch all of this going on through FaceTime, so it felt like we were there celebrating too.

The last present he opened was a paper that said he had to go look in the grandparents garage for his last gift.  He took off running so fast and nobody could keep up!

He has been asking for a foosball table for a while now, so this was a fun surprise.  And huge thanks to grandpa for putting it all together for us!

There's was a lot of foosball play that afternoon.

Thank goodness for Face Time technology that let us laugh together with the birthday boy that day!

That evening they went to dinner at Bentley's favorite place - Panda Express.  Orange chicken is his favorite, but only from Panda.

After dinner the family and grandparents went and completed an escape room.  Bentley loves them, and is really good at solving those puzzles!

He got measured on the growth board before bed.  He grew a few inches this year!

I think Bentley would say it was a pretty full, fun, and loving birthday.  It's always fun to have a birthday kid and do all the things they love for the day.

The following week he got to have a birthday party with all his buddies. His first pick was the trampoline park!

All the boys spent a lot of time playing dodgeball together.  I always love observing when Bentley and all his friends get together.  Boys are so funny and interesting to study. :)

Karly and Olive also got to come to the party and had a blast with some of the siblings of Bentley's friends.

Towards the end of the party, we got to go eat pizza.  All the kids cheered loudly when Bentley entered the room and he loved every second of it.  He is so funny and confident with his buddies.

He got some pretty awesome presents from his buddies, including a 3D printer and some Pokemon cards, which they later opened and apparently he got a super rare card worth a couple hundred bucks.  Who knows about that stuff, but the boys seemed to be so sure and super hyped up about it.

Then more donuts for all!  Apparently that's his treat of choice!

As we were cleaning up, the party spontaneously broke out in the conga line.  These guys were so crazy and funny with all their random antics.

Then out the door they danced, back to the trampoline park to work out a little more energy.

When our time was up at Elevate, the begged to take the after party home so we loaded up all the boys and brought the energy home with us.  They played football in the driveway, and soccer in the yard, and screamed and ran around for a few more hours.  So much energy and fun! Bentley was so happy.

Later that week we had to call grandpa over to help us try to set up this 3D printer that he got from Cayden.  This thing is legit, and complicated.  We have yet to get it to work, though the idea of it seems super intriguing!

Happy 11th birthday Bentley.  You got everything you wanted and more for this birthday.  I hope you feel loved, seen, and appreciated as a very important part of our family.  You are one of a kind, and I'm so grateful for your energy, your creativity, your wit, your athleticism, and all the hugs you tolerate from me.  I love you.  Happy birthday my boy.