Bennett's Eighth Birthday!

I am determined to get this blog caught up before the baby gets here! Bennett's birthday was a little over a month ago. I can't believe how fast November went! It seems like we just barely celebrated it! At eight years old, he is very mature for his age. He absolutely loves playing the piano, reads like crazy, and enjoys sports as well. He is a great older brother and just a good, well-rounded kid. All he really wanted for his birthday this year was the Harry Potter book set. He had read 1-4 before his birthday and was currently on number 5. He is still working on that one since he often reads other books in between. I don't know how he keeps them all straight. I let him open one gift really quick before school. Of course it was the one he wanted the most! Bennett's favorite animal right now is a panda. He really wanted a Harry Potter cake, but I wasn't sure how to make one of those, so I was glad when he changed to a Panda instead. He even wanted everyone to wear black and white and green that day :) A little note on the Panda balloon. We have this tradition of piling up balloons outside of Bennett's door on his birthday so he wakes up to a bunch of balloons when he comes out of his room. Russ did it once when he was 2 and now he expects it every birthday and reminds us. We accidentally grabbed small black balloons instead of normal sized ones, so when we were blowing them up late the night before, I joked that I should make them into a panda balloon. I actually did it and the kids thought it was the greatest thing ever. It was 100% my creation; no pinterest or google involved :) Last minute, we decided to invite over a couple of Bennett's friends from school. We had originally just planned on family, but so many people couldn't come, including his best friend-cousins. So we had some wild fun with some of his friends so it would be a little more fun celebrating. They were being pretty nutty. The kids with Dad: Opening presents. Bennett was so excited to get a John Williams Piano book. It was pretty fun to see his friends excited about that, too. Not the typical thing for an eight-year old to ask for, but he had previously workd very hard and learned a difficult version of Harry Potter on the Piano, and wanted to learn some more Johny Williams music. It was also cute to see how excited these boys got over new scriptures, ties, and a Panda Beanie Boo. Bennett was also so glad to get a new, real football. We also got him a betta fish and a little African frog for his birthday, but I failed to get a picture of that. And last, but not least, the Birthday boy with his cake. Funny thing is Bennett doesn't even like cake, but I think he did actually eat a little piece of it to humor me. He is more of an ice cream person, and we had cookies and cream which is not only his favorite, but conveniently black and white in color!