Happy FOURTH birthday to our sweet Benedict Raphael! You came into the world in your spectacularly quirky way and you haven't stopped being your silly sweet sensitive goofy self since. How grateful we are for our little Horton! Just a few quick shots from our little celebration:

One of his favorite books is Horton Hears a Who and when he realized this elephant costume fit him (given to us free from I can't remember where!), he firmly decided that he absolutely had to wear it on his birthday and be Horton.

Realizing the morning of that it was FINALLY his birthday!

Not a bad rendition if I do say so myself!

He opened up two gifts on his actual birthday but the rest we saved for when we could have his little party. Grandma got him these trains and track set since our 14 year old ones are pretty shot by now!

Super fancy decor. The tracing was a gift from Luke :)

I was really happy with how this turned out even though I didn't get the frosting perfectly smooth! The head is half of a ball cake pan. The ears and trunk are made with about 10 or 11 cupcakes pieced together. I cut some to fit in where needed and to shape things the way I wanted. It's naturally dyed using a mix of McCormick's natural blue powder and bit of cocoa powder to make the gray. The pink is their straight pink color. Piping is melted chocolate.

This kid is such a character.

There wasn't much he needed in the way of gifts so I asked for some simple things I knew he would be excited about. Four year olds are so easy to please, I love it. This cute bucket and watering can (we've broken so many plastic ones over the years!) are in the pic.

A new Dr. Seuss book that *fingers crossed* will encourage good sleeping (I know. Harharhar.) and a few other books.

Bubbles from one brother!

And chalk from another.

That face was for a new ball...

See, four year olds are so beautifully simple!

We love you sweet kiddo and we are so grateful to have you in our family.

{Amazon links are affiliate links.}