Fabulous

Now that Emmie is a school girl, she has become quite fabulous. She loves picking out her school outfit and even lets me style her hair each morning. With bows! And she almost keeps them in the whole time!!! Her new favorite shoes are a pair of silver, glittery ballet flats and she wears them constantly. Simply put, she's become even more of a dive than she already was. Heaven helps u;)

Little Professor

Doesn't she look distinguished?

First Bike Ride!

Ben and Emily were gracious enough to pose before their first bike ride to school=)

Ben Turns FIVE!

As you can see, he's thrilled about it;)

Once more with feeling! Even if the feeling is "annoyed".

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Ben's morning started off with presents, naturally. If the presents(a bag of mini Airheads, a toy robot arm and a water bottle/snack bowl combo) look random, it's because I frantically scoured Target for some cheapy crap to wrap for him once it dawned on me that he'd be disappointed to not have anything to tear open when he woke up. See, we bought him a new bike and planned to let him pick out his own helmet and a toy later in the evening. It didn't occur to us that Ben might not like that idea until it was almost too late! Thankfully, I found some things he'd like and he was mega-excited to find gifts waiting for him.

We like to carry on a fun tradition my old friend Katie's family has and buy the other kids a little "Un-Birthday" present to open once their sibling has gotten their gifts. The first time Katie's family gave me an "Un-Birthday" gift, it totally delighted me and I promised my future children I'd do the same for them=) You can see that Emily likes this idea, too!

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While Emily and I were at preschool, Mimi brought Ben some doughnuts and his birthday presents. My quirky little guy. His most desired presents this year were SO funny. He desperately wanted a Touch 'N Brush automatic tooth-paste dispenser, the Lysol Hands-Free Soap system and a temperature gauge. So, that's what Mimi gave him. I guess personal hygiene becomes very important once you're five?

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The cake I made Ben turned out misshapen so I decided to let him decorate it himself. He's also of the "More is More" school of thought and doused that baby in every sprinkle and colored sugar available.

Ladies and gentlemen....I present you with Diabetes On A Platter

It was delicious, never the less!

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After we finished sugar-coating his cake, we set out for Benny's Day Of Fun! It involved miniature golf, visiting my grandparents(where Ben was very Verruca Salt about getting clothes instead of toys. Oy.), a trip to Toys R Us and dinner at Chili's. It was an exhausting Day of Fun! but he loved it=)

Callie, not so much.

Here is Emmie standing in front of her dream house;)

The most handsome 5 year old on the planet!

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Dinner was early, fast and blessedly uneventful! We learned the hard way that Ben does NOT like to be sung to, so we didn't even risk it this time. We just enjoyed a delicious dinner as a family and went home for his final surprise and cake.

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Ben LOVES his new bike! He picked it out himself a few weeks ago but forgot about it until his birthday. He was so excited to finally get it and we've been having tons of fun going for bike rides=) He even lets Emily have a turn sometimes.

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We sang Happy Birthday and my once-tiny baby blew out all his candles in one shot:( I can't believe how fast these last 5 years have gone. He is such a special little person and I feel so lucky to be his mother. He has completely redefined the way I experience everything. Love, happiness, hopefulness, fear, worry. Becoming his mommy redefined me as a person and I'll always be thankful for that=) I wish I could do it all over again. If the end result was always Ben, I'd do it in a heartbeat.

He ALWAYS makes a goofy face now when I ask to take his picture=) I guess after 5 years with the camera in his mug, he's getting bored.

I just get better at catching the candid shots;)Bigger and bigger every day:(

Pre-Birthday Excursion With Nina

Nina took us to spend the day together for Ben's birthday! We first had lunch at McDonald's, then headed over to Bounce-A-Rama for some fun. We topped the day off with a seemingly year-long trek around The Great Mall looking for ice cream. When she promises to tire your kids out for you, she doesn't mess around;) We had a blast and it was really cool to spend some special time for Ben's 5th birthday instead of just giving him something. He really loved it=)


Happy Faces!

Silly Faces!

Emily was so pleased to be included in this excursion that she was EXTRA nice to Ben;)
This is not normal for her, but Ben really appreciated it. The played together so nicely the entire time.

As you can tell by Ben's super-sweaty hair, they bounced their little bum-bum's off!

Halloween Sneak-Peek!

Here's a little preview of our Halloween costumes! Ben has been certain about his costume since last year. He had to be a fireman. Just had to!


Ben has been certain about his costume since last year. He had to be a fireman. Just had to! We was pretty adamant that Callie be his fire dog=) Aren't they cute!

Callie's costume isn't complete. I plan to add a few finishing touches.

In a stunning act of randomness, Emily ended up picking Batgirl as her costume after seeing it in the costume store. She and Dan went there to find Ballerina Snow White and once she laid eyes on this hot pink, shimmery costume, it was a done-deal! I actually love that she picked a super-hero costume over the princess costume. This is SO her;)

14 Months!

The last month has been HUGE for Callie! She got her 1st two teeth and she learned to walk! She is still crawling 75% of the time, but each day she walks a little more, crawls a little less and delights us with her sunny disposition. She's been babbling a lot more over the past two weeks, so I'm betting a word-explosion is on the horizon. She currently says Mama, Dada, Hi, No, Yeah!, Cat, and something that sounds like "Bot-Bah" said with a distinctly Vietnamese accent. She says it over and over again, and at seemingly random times so who knows what it means in Callinese=) She continues to be ultra affectionate, kissing and hugging me all day long. Much to Dan's delight, she's begun to show him some love, too. She has become a lot more independent of me, which sort of makes me sad! It's all part of that pesky growing up they insist on doing, I guess:(



This is the first month Callie climbed up in the chair all by herself!
She sat and posed for me like she knew exactly what she was doing:) The Kate Moss of Babies never disappoints;)

She's a honey, that's for sure. Her hair is insane.

This what you get when you say, "Where's Callie?" She covers her eyes!

Then she raises them up over her head and smiles while you say, "Peek-a-boo! There she is!"
It never gets old=)

School Daze

Here we go again! The school-year has officially begun. This year, I will be double-participating, meaning I will be working in both Ben's class AND Emmie's! Ben will go in the afternoons now, on M/T/TH/FR. Emily will be in the class Ben just graduated from, so she'll be there M/W/F mornings. That's right, people. I will be at that damn school every day of the week. It's SO worth it, though=) It's been AMAZING seeing Ben and his classmates bloom over the past three years. He has just turned into this, this...kid. He owns that school now. Big fish in a small pond;) By this point, we all know the in's and out's and school is just another thing he does. He's been excited for school to start, anxious about the change in his schedule but mainly ready to get back into the swing of things. Here are his pictures from the first day!

He's so big now that he does his own buckles in the car:( Next, he'll be driving it.

When he first started in 2-day, you couldn't get this kid to join group-time for love nor money. He just wasn't havin' it. He even got a special grown-up to take him outside to play so he wouldn't disturb the kids who did want to do it! Now? He sits(most of the time), he listens, he joins in, he takes things from the stories and songs. It's amazing!

I just love how he does everything with glee=) You can see his mirth all over his body.

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I'm so excited for Emily to finally get her turn to blossom. She's loved this school from the very first time she set foot in it and has been anxiously awaiting the day that she was big enough to go too. Today was that day! We woke up early, picked out her outfit, decided which of her MANY backpacks was THE backpack and ate our breakfast. Then, we did something she's waited for for two+ years. We went to the drive-thru coffee shop and got her the ritual hot cocoa Ben always gets before school on my work-day=) This is truly a rite of passage for her and she relished it.

Emily had a smashing first day. She's so familiar with the teacher and the flow of the class that I knew she'd do great. She even made a new friend! A little boy named...wait for it...wait for it...Ben! They really hit it off=) I can't wait for next Monday to watch her in action again!

Requisite 1st Day of School picture with mommy

Super-stylin' with her Dora glasses and hot-cocoa. She was delighted by the smiley face the barista drew on her cup=)

Walking up to school

How can she look so little AND so big at the same time?

Greeting her teacher and meeting a new friend!

Finally! Her own cubby! Never again will she have to use Ben's!

Snack-time! She bee-lined it to the dress-up area first, as you can see!

Her very first group-time as a Sunnymont-er!

We think we'll rename this the Never-Tire Swing. She swung on this baby for at least 30 minutes.

It was so cute seeing her get involved in group-time. She called out suggestions to the teacher and you could tell she was super-pleased when the teacher did it=)

She was not pleased with ME joining in at group-time, though! Every time I tried, she'd tell me to stop because, "Only kids can do this". Um...whateves.