All Sorts of Gifts

Benji received a number of gifts on his birthday morning, some were waiting in the mail when we got back from Florida, and he got another round at his party. He is so excited about all the new swag:

One Last 7th Birthday Celebration

Since we were away over Benji's birthday, we had a small family dinner with Gammy the weekend after. Benji opted to have his leftover cake from the party rather than get cupcakes, which was very practical of him :)

Benji's Minecraft Party

Benji decided he wanted his birthday party to be Minecraft-themed this year. The good news was that there are TONS of ideas for this type of party on the internet. The bad news was it was a crazy busy week to get any of those ideas put together. We ended up setting up for the party Friday afternoon because we knew we would be busy and then we spent Saturday morning on the cake and last minute details:

Cake walk prizes

Crafting station prizes

Goody bags, all ready to go

Brewing station #1

Brewing station #2

Party food

Alex and Sophia drove down from Herndon for the day, which was a special treat for Benji, who was so excited to have Sophia at the party:

We played a little Villager, Villager, Wolf (Duck, Duck, Goose) outside while we waited for the guests to arrive:

And then segued into the planned activities:

Crafting Station scavenger hunt

Cake Walk

Benji, happily picking his prize

Benji and Joey laughing and snacking while waiting for everyone to finish the cake walk

Brewing Station

Brewing Station #2

Pinata!

We had to resort to desperate measures to break it open

Candy free-for-all

Pin the tail on the pig

Cake time

 Whew! We'll need some time to recover from this one.

Girl Scout PJ party

We had a busy first week back from break, much of which was spent getting ready for 2 events last weekend - the girl scout PJ party and Benji's birthday. I somehow forgot to take any pictures of the cool Trivia Crack booth the girls made for the PJ party, but Abby sent me this photo that she and Claire took at another troop's photo booth station:

School Birthday Celebration

It felt like Benji had a full week of birthday celebrations. I'll post his birthday party pictures next week when I have them sorted, but here is his school birthday celebration last Tuesday:

Looking at the birthday book his classmates made him

Strawberry cupcakes with chocolate frosting, as requested. One of his classmates told me they were the best cupcakes ever.

Look what was waiting in the mail when we got home! Birthday poster from Pop-pop

Last Stop: Winston-Salem

We spent the last night of our trip in Charlotte, mostly just to break up the long drive home from Florida. We did have the chance to meet our friends Paul and Mary for brunch the next morning in Winston-Salem, though, which was very nice:

Kevin and Paul

Florida Wildlife

I took a ton of pictures of animals in St. Augustine but did not want to add them to the other post, which was already quite long. So, here they are:

White peacock at the Fountain of Youth

Peacock nesting grounds at the Fountain of Youth

This peacock was showing off for this peahen. It was quite a show!

As soon as the peahen walked away, he started to lower his tail

White peacock on a cannon

Smiling gators

Waiting for mealtime?

This bird was building a nest

Spoonbill