Happy Birthday Mimi!

Today is Mimi's birthday!! Ben helped make the cake and helped pick out her birthday present(a lovely, black and white swiss-dot blouse). He has been crazily excited to celebrate Mimi's birthday, especially since helping to make the cake last night. When telling him today was the day, he excitedly asked, "It's Mimi's birthday? We get to eat her cake?!". Ah...and the truth comes out;)

Benny The Baker

We decided to make Mimi a cake for her birthday, this year! Ben has turned into a great helper, so naturally he was my go-to guy for this project. We bought the mix and frosting a few days before, and Ben talked non-stop about making a birthday cake for Mimi.

He was super excited to help me...until he saw the giant KitchenAid mixer. Ben has a healthy fear of loud appliances. The vacuum has been his #1 nemesis since he was 6 months old. He despises the blender and won't go near the hair-dryer. One look at the mixer, and he quickly changed his mind. It took A LOT of coaxing to finally enlist his help. What did the trick was offering to let him crack the eggs. I handed him the first egg, and he cracked it with so much gusto that it ended up all over the counter. Oops! We tried again(more gently!) and he finally understood. We cracked them into a bowl first(so I could easily fish out the shells), then we poured it into the mixing bowl. He was very brave when I turned the mixer on, and surprisingly, he wasn't scared!

He helped pour the batter into the pans and set the timer on the microwave. Once the cakes were finished and cooled, he even helped frost his own cupcake. His very favorite job of the day? Helping to eat the cupcakes once they were finished=) He couldn't wait to tell Mimi all about her birthday cake, asking me to let him talk to her on the phone. He excitedly told her we made her a cake, then ran into the kitchen, held up the phone and said, "Look Mimi! There's your cake! I helped make it!!!". Mimi did a good job pretending she could see it.

Favorite pictures of the day

These are some of my favorite pictures of the day=)


Monkeying around on the monkey bars.

Looking so big for her 22 short months. I can't believe she's almost two!

My handsome guy

My pretty girl-girl

Silly Ben, enjoying life from a new perspective(P.S. I don't know why this picture is ginormous compared to the others. Oops!)

Weeeeee!

This little park near our apartment doesn't offer much in the way of out-door equipment. But, it has a few slides and sometimes that's good enough! These two "baby slides" offered them over 40 minutes of entertainment this morning!

More fun than it looks?

I guess showering your head in tanbark is really, really fun. Emily decided to get in on the action today, prompting an encore from Ben and inspiring Hazel to join in, too. I'm just going to take thier word for it, as I prefer my hair to be wood-chip free;)

Benny at the park

My mom and I took the kids to the park this morning! Ben loves going to the park, not only for the playground, but because he usually meets new friends, too. We didn't end up playing with any other children today, as Ben was enjoying the one-on-one attention my mom and I were able to give him while he played. He was in rare form today, hamming it up for the camera and being his usual happy, silly self. Here's some shots from our playtime!


Always the daredevil, Ben quickly learned that it's MUCH more fun to go down the slide in creative, yet dangerous ways. My only issue is when other kids(like Emily!) watch and emulate. Sometimes we're not the most popular people on the playground once Evil Knievel starts showing off. He's always very proud of himself, as you can see!

I have NO clue why he started doing this, or why it was so much fun! He had himself a grand 'ol time showering himself in tanbark. Yes, I let him do it for as long as it took me to get the photo-op;)

Just before this picture was taken, Ben yelled at me for trying to take a video of him. He told me, "No pictures!". Finally, he consented to having his photo taken again, and even have me a smile. Isn't he handsome?

Mr. Laid-Back decided to kick his feet up and enjoy his snack in style. I seriously adore this little boy=) Every day he does something new to make me laugh/

Emmie at the park

It's so much more fun now that Emily is big enough to really play at the park with Ben. She loves to try to copy Ben, which often leads to minor heat-attacks on my part. She doesn't understand that some things are OK for bigger kids to do, but not her. Since my mom was with us today, we were able to each take a kid and focus on their playtime until they decided they wanted us to switch. Here are some pictures from my time with Emmie=)

Emily has a new-found love of steering wheels. When she sees them, she yells, "I drive, mommy!" and then she makes the funniest growling noise to simulate the engine sounds. Who says women drivers are bad? Emily is an exemplary driver.

This girl has very healthy self-esteem=) Whenever she accomplishes a task, she says, "I did it!" and gives herself a round of applause. Here she is patting herself on the back for "sliding down" the pole behind her=)

She will also be an accomplished horsewoman. She loves to ride these springy horses and already has great balance.

"Swing, mommy!" The swing has been a long-time enemy of both Ben and Emily. I think I have the only two kids in the world who hate the swings at the park. Emily has recently branched out and given the swings a shot. We have to go REALLY slow and I have to stay in front of her, otherwise she yells, "Get up! Get up!" right away. She stayed in the swing for almost 5 minutes today, which is a new record=)