Ben turns 5, and Auntie Delan celebrates 80

This past weekend, there were back-to-back celebrations in our family. The first was Ben's merienda birthday celebration on Saturday (his birthday was actually last Friday), and the following day, the Tan family got together for Auntie Delan's (Papa's eldest sister) 80th birthday (which actually was on Monday, July 9).

Ben's really grown. He's quite big for his age, and although he isn't the biggest kid in his class, he's one of the bigger ones. He's now 117 cm and weighs a little over 24 kg. I just feel that time is passing by so fast. I really try to hold on because I know time will come soon enough when he'd like to do things on his own. For now, while he still asks for me to keep with him, I do. Here's a picture of him taken on his birthday, just before he went to school (he's in kindergarten now, I think I mentioned that in an earlier post).

Funny expression, I know. Unlike before when I could get him to smile naturally when I take his pictures, these days, he likes to make funny faces.

On his birthday, he also took part in a contest in school. He was one of the finalists. The winner would represent Claret School CSC in a quiz show in one of the local cable channels. He had a good chance of winning, but he didn't because he wasn't paying real attention to the quiz master. Still he managed to come in third (which means after he was eliminated there were only two contestants left). Anyway, we didn't have a birthday celebration in school because I think Claret actually discourages school parties. So rather than celebrate in school, we decided to have a merienda celebration the following day. I tried to work out a dinosaur theme into the "party" because Ben has morphed into a dinosaur addict over the last few months. Since our house is quite small, it was kind of cramped what with about 30 people together at once, but it was fun. I wasn't able to take a lot of pictures because I was busy trying to get things to work right.

In line with his current dinosaur fetish, I tried a dinosaur-themed merienda party.

Blowing the candles took a bit of an effort. A couple of stubborn candles took some time to blow out, thus the laughter.

All in all, it was a good celebration. Ben was quite happy with it, more so with the gifts he received.

Then the following day, it was off to Club Filipino for lunch to celebrate Auntie Delan's 80th birthday. Quite a milestone, and it's nice to see her looking quite well. Here's hoping we'll be sharing and celebrating quite a few more birthdays with her. Here are the pics from that get-together. I need to have these pictures printed for her too.

The birthday celebrant...

...and her cake!!!

Miguel, Daniel, Jovin, Ben, Josella, and Janina

With Kuya Tony this time

Ben and Jaden

Janina, Ben, Jaden, and Josella

Janna, Janina, Josella, Ben, Jovin, Jaden, Daniel, and Miguel

Ben and Jaden playing jack-en-poy

Daniel and Ben doing their WWE imitation

Piggy back ride with Jovin

A kiss for the celebrant

Papa, Auntie Tik, Auntie Jovit, Auntie Delan and Auntie Iring

With the "apos"

With kids and other relatives

With more "apos"

With kids, nieces and nephew, and an apo, I believe

It's nice to see that Auntie Delan enjoys these get-togethers, and I think they give actually give her a boost. I should add that I enjoy these too. It's nice to get the family together, although somehow we never really manage to get everyone in most of these gatherings. Still, it was a fun time and I'm looking forward to the next one.