Girl's Day Out

After watching Ben and Dan leave for preschool on Thursday, Emily was quite insistent that we also "Go Bye-Bye!". I brought the girlies to the near-by mall for some coffee(for me), apple-juice(for them), bagels(for all of us!) and play-time in the kid zone. I, then, forced them to do some shopping with me, much to their dismay. Emily handled it by falling asleep and Hazel just squirmed and whined a lot;) I guess the female-shopping thing is a learned behavior and not something inherent! I'll turn them into shopaholics yet!

Taking a breather to enjoy their juice.

Emily enjoying the virtually empty play area. Lately, when another child is using something she wants, she screams at them until they walk away. Then she says, "Thank-you! My turn!" in a super-sweet voice. It's really quite embarrassing(and secretly hilarious)!

Scoping out the play area

Hazel, loving her un-diluted apple juice=)

Ben's New Backpack

Emily wasn't the only one to get a cool, new backpack! Ben got one, too, and he loves his just as much. The image is a motorcycle, but he calls it his "tricycle backpack"=) He couldn't wait to wear it to school and show his teacher.

Playin' Baseball

Since Ben loved his friend's T-stand so much, we got him one of his own. This kid is a pro! He loves hitting the balls around, and can ever hit them with his eyes closed. He loves to pull his hat down over his eyes and try to hit it. Silly boy=)

"Sicky Ricardo"

This is what I call Ben when he's sick;) Poor guy is feeling miserable lately. He caught a cold a few weeks ago and me thinks it's turned into a sinus infection. He has a terrible cough and a fever now. "Mr. I'm-NOT-Tired" has fallen asleep on the couch several times today and just hung-out there the rest of the time. You'd better not make him mad, either. He will unleash the wrath of a sick preschooler on you and your ears will likely bleed in the aftermath. Emily is ALSO sick, but she has different plans for us. The past two mornings, she's awoken at 5:30 AM and refused to go back to sleep. Last night, she awoke at 12:45 and wouldn't go back to sleep until 2:45. Did she stay asleep? Nooooooo. She woke up again(for the day!!) at 5 AM. I seriously want to die, myself. I am SO sick of my children being sick.

Big Girl

No sooner did I give her this new backpack, did she try to leave home:( Um, sorry, Emily. You're still all MINE for the next 16 years!

The Bottomless Pit(AKA Milly)

Once Milly has finished her meal...

She quickly, and stealthily moves onto Ben's. He doesn't like to share, on principle alone.
But, we ALL know he's not going to eat it.

He's a very picky, light eater. He'd much rather munch on an apple than eat the delish raviolies I made:(
See her little hand? She's even trying to steal that!

What can I tell you? She LOVES to eat! Good thing, because Ben leaves a lot of left-overs.

ANOTHER Birthday party!

Ben and Emily have quite the bustling social calender. It seems like all we do is go to birthday parties, lately! Today was Baby Wednesday's turn and everyone had a great time. The loved playing outside, kicking the balls around, exploring, stepping in dog poop(grrr). I had slightly less fun, as you can imagine. Nothing like standing behind the house, using the garden hose as a pressure-washer to clean off tiny toddler shoes! The food was great and I got cake out of the deal, so don't feel to sorry for me=) Ben made a friend at at the party and it was so cute to watch him try to keep up with his new, older friend Michael. Michael was about 8 years old and so sweet and patient with them both. Ben played with him for over an hour before we left. Emily mostly enjoyed eating and playing with Wednesday's new toys! She also loved all the babies that came to the party. They are only about 8 months younger than her but they seemed so little! What a big difference 3/4 of a year makes when your small.


Here they are exploring the back-yard and stepping in the dog poop. FUN!

Ben seems to be a born athlete and Emmie is pretty good, too! She loved kicking this basket ball around.

My favorite part of the day was watching Ben play with his buddy. He was so excited any time he could do something like Michael did. I think Michael enjoyed having two little kids so impressed with his moves, too=)

Emily, as always, enjoyed all the party foods. She finished her piece of cake, then moved on to Ben's!