Birthday Boy!

Check out this cute boy! Can you believe that he is 3 now??? He is definitely growing up really fast! This is one of his favorite things to do, ride his bike. He LOVES it! Now onto the birthday celebrations. On his actual birthday, we started out with colored pancakes.
Here they are mixing the colors! Then they decided that they wanted crazy colored pancakes....
They love them like this! Since Brady was a work, we let Ben open one present early, and had him wait til Brady got home to open the others. (Now remember, another thing that Ben LOVES is the movie How to Train Your Dragon.) I found on a blog called 'running with scissors' a pattern for dinosaur tails. I decided that I should make Ben his own dinosaur/dragon tail! Here it is....
I ended up having to make Isabel one too, so they could have dragon fights and races, etc.... (I have pictures on my phone I will have to try to get off so you can see hers)
Isn't he a cute dragon! Ben used to be obsessed with the movie Despicable Me. That is what he originally told me he wanted for his cake, was a despicable me cake. I thought I was in luck.... twinkies would make perfect minions! Well, then along came How to Train Your Dragon. We looked at cakes on google, but Ben decided that he wanted the 'Big Wagon coming out of the mountain"......Hahaha knew I couldn't make a cake out of that one :) I consulted with Tracie, and she mentioned that lots of times on the TV shows where they make cakes, they use rice crispy treats to mold shapes..... Rice crispy treats I can do.... so here is how it turned out.
I had him molded out of regular rice crispy treats, then I was really smart and poured hot melted chocolate over the top, to make him brown...... Marshmallows melt with heat, so he quickly lost his shape :( So, I decided to just work the chocolate into the rice crispies and mold him again. So not only did Ben get the 'Big Wagon', he got a big chocolate dragon :) His eyes are made of melted white and chocolate chips, his teeth are marshmallows, his tongue is marshmallow fondant. The covering on the mountain is Brazilian brigadeiros! (basically chocolate caramel that is really yummy). I had to make 6 batches of rice crispy treats to make this bad boy, but it was all worth it when Ben woke up and saw it on Friday. (The day when we had people over for his party). In fact, he ran into the kitchen, saw it on the counter, jumped up and down and said over and over, "my big wagon!!!" (if you hadn't guessed yet, he doesn't say his D's really well yet) He then ate all of the dragons toes off..... and said it was yummy!
I couldn't just have rice crispy treats, so I made egg free (and milk free) cupcakes. (love those little kids with allergies) Then I made some marshmallow fondant, which is way better than regular fondant and way cheaper, and molded shapes for the tops of the cupcakes. Jen came over and helped me sculpt dragon tails, swords, viking hats (Isabel made a few of them...look at the one in the middle right under the red and blue dragon tail...) a viking ship, and fish. The kids loved them. Thanks Jen for coming to play :) I loved how they turned out!
When all the cousins arrived, they all went off to play, but Ben sat right by his cake. He was ready to dig in!
He was even the first one to start singing to himself! He blew out the candles about 1/2 way through the song! He was so excited!
Here I am lighting the candles. (Nice picture, I know) If you look close, you can see how Brady tied up Ben's new dragon toy, Toothless, to the fan. Ben wanted him to fly to kill the Big Wagon! We turned the fan with our hands to make him fly, cause it went way to fast otherwise :)
Just another cute picture of Ben and his cake :)
You can see the flying dragon better in this one. Here are the kids eating cupcakes.
Then it was present time! It was a whirlwind. He actually does love everything he got, even if it didn't seem like it at the time :)
Zoey loved the t-ball. This made Ben jealous, so he had to take it with him everywhere after that. Thanks everyone for the presents! He was spoiled! And yes, he has already played with both water guns :)
The next pictures need some explanation. Ben was being a turkey the other night, and when he turned around, Brady threw a ball that was soft and hit Ben on the bum. Ben thought it was funny and every since has wanted to have Brady play this game with him every night. I was telling my brothers and sisters in law about it, and had Ben show them how to play. All the cousins thought it looked like fun, so they joined in.....Nothing like a good game of Bum Ball :)
First you have to put your bum in the air, and then you wait..... if you get pegged with the ball, you have to fall down, laugh and say "ahhh". Then you get back up and throw the ball back to dad so you can keep playing. (This is a great game to get the kids hyped up before bedtime...)Ben was the one who was hit this time, so he had to fall over. What a fun way to end a birthday party! :) As Adam was leaving, he had to tell me that he was so excited because his dad said that they could play bum ball the next night at their house!! Glad I could help in the starting of traditions! Ben loved his birthday! Thanks to all who came!
I can't believe he is 3. They grow up way too fast....can't imagine my life without him :)