the benfield's in real life: Gillian Had a Birthday!

Gillian was lucky enough to have a party for her birthday this year. Lucky you ask? Lucky because I must have been crazy to offer in the first place! I am still thrown off by three kids and all of a sudden I was supposed to throw a big party? Well...we did. I had lots of help. Gillian got lots of presents for her birthday but none bigger than having AUNT HILLARY visit! We flew her in for a visit and she was here for the party.( Hillary post soon) Basically she was on baby duty so I could bake and decorate and do all the other things that needed to be done.

Gillian decided on a How to Train Your Dragon theme for her party. I kinda wondered why she would do that...she is totally embracing her girly side...and then I realized at who she invited....ALL boys except one girl. She was Astrid for halloween though so it wasn't that surprising I guess. We had a lot of fun. We gave them swords and had them make shields. Jake put them through training exercises to defend themselves against a dragon attack. It all colmulated with a real dragon (pinata) attack where each kid had to defend themselves! We had so much fun!!!

Decorating the shields and getting ready for battle!

Hillary did a great job entertaining Lucy and being the guest of honor!

Lincoln thought it was silly to be blindfolded to hit the dragon...he also thought it was funny having to use a stick to kill the dragon...all he wanted to use was the force. :)

The dreaded dragon!

The birthday girl takes a swing!

It finally goes down! The kids went crazy (as they always do) trying to grab candy!

I tried my hand at making cupcakes from scratch. I made a batch of Martha Stewert one bowl chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. It was pretty yummy! Gillian also picked out birthday cake ice cream.