Museum Day!

Sadly, our family membership to the Children's Museum is almost expired. We've more than gotten our money's worth and hope to renew it at some point after Callie is born. They just added a Curious George exhibet and we HAD to check it out. Ben is a long-time fan of George. The movie is one of his faves. He loved it so much that we ended up watching it on a near-constant loop during Emily's first weeks home. Although I now detest that movie(after watching it close to 100 times!), George will always hold a special place in our hearts because he gave Ben such a sense of normality during a difficult transition=) That movie was the one constant in his sea of change. Emily, probably from listening to it as a newborn, also loves George. I knew that whatever the exhibit consisted of, it would be a big hit and I was right. It had something for everyone. A mini-golf section that Ben enjoyed for half an hour(he's the next Tiger Woods, y'all). Emily loved exploring everything else, especially a life-sized George statue that you could pose with. We also enjoyed the typical things we love to play with--the ambulance, the water area, the tree-house and the many different ball displays.

I just adore his face in this picture. You can barely see it, but he had the hugest look of surprised delight when he opened the elevator door=)

My future golf-pro perfecting his putting

Emily loved this bridge. She walked over it at least 15 times.

The cutest read-view ever

Ben and Emily, pretending to be EMTs in the ambulance

He looks so cute and thoughtful in these pictures. He loves watching the balls levitate.

Ben is happiest when he's in the water area.
It has everything he likes about the museum in one area: water and balls

Posing for a picture with their favorite simian=)

Lily's Birthday

My children have a very active social-calender. We attended sweet Lily's 2nd Birthday this weekend and enjoyed a b-b-q, outdoor fun, playing in Lily's little kitchen. The activity Ben enjoyed the most was playing Keep-Away with balloons. Lily's uncle was so nice to play with the Bens(my Ben and his own Ben, both 3.5 years old!). Long after Cousin Ben got bored, my Ben was still giddily playing=) Who knew that $.15 worth of latex and a little undivided attention could make two preschoolers so happy? We're adding Balloon Play to our list of cheap-thrills for Ben's next party. So far, it seems that party blowers, latex balloons, a sprinkler and some cupcakes are all one needs to throw a wild party for the 4 and under set. Yay! More money for booze=)


One of their favorite parts of birthday parties is singing Happy Birthday. Probably because everyone sings,
claps at the end, not to mention the promise of cake!

Post-Cupcake Gorge, Ben and his buddy, Cousin Ben had a blast
trying to catch the balloons after they'd been hit up into the air.

Look at that face! Covered in frosting and unadulterated joy=)

Emily was not really in the party-mood. She threw several temper-tantrums, cried anxious tears over the family D-O-G but really enjoyed some quiet, one-on-one time in Baby Maya's bedroom. I took her in to calm down and she happily tested out Maya's carseat, put the stuffed monkey in the baby-swing and sat in my lap for some snuggles in the glider.

Last Day of School!

Much to my shock and amazement, my baby boy has finished his first year of preschool. *Sob* He's practically grown and off to college:( Ok, maybe not; he still wears diapers most of the time, clings to his pacifier like it's a lifeline and will join me for a snuggle whenever I ask. We're still very proud of our Big Ben as he tucks his first year of education under his belt=)

This first year of preschool has been an incredible learning experience for all of us. As I've mentioned in the past, his school is a co-op that requires mucho parent-participation. Not only do we work in the classroom one day a week, but we also have jobs at the school(mine was to assist with the planning and execution of the social events for the school), we're required to attend monthly class-meetings/parenting classes, attend and work(HARD) at one of the various work-parties throughout the year, as well as do odd jobs in the classroom on our required weekend. It's been a bit overwhelming, but worth it once we focus on how much Ben has gotten from the experience. His speech-development has flourished, he's much more confident without us, has better social skills and is learning those all-important(at least in the minds of over-worried parents!) facts like his ABC's and 123's=) Dan and I have really learned a lot about Ben; about how to help facilitate his learning, nurture his emotional growth, respect him as the person he's growing into and how to focus on relationship-building with our children. Not only has it helped Ben speak more easily to us, but we've learned how to speak more effectively to him. It's totally been worth the price of tuition and Ben and I are very excited to come back in the fall!
Below is the only picture I took of him at school that day, plus a few cute snaps from the trip to the park after school.


Ben, in all his diapered-glory, playing with the trains outside. Anything goes at his school--clothes, no clothes, bare-feet, even in winter, jammies or costumes, weird hats...whateves. As long as you keep your diaper/underwear on, they don't mind!

Boys will be boys. He immediately found a cool stick to play with!

Filling up his water bottle

Getting braver on the swings! He asked me to put him in, and stayed in for 10 minutes. Daredevil;)

Party Boy

Ben was my date to an old friend's birthday party in the early part of the afternoon. We didn't stay long because we had a party to go to for his friend, Jonah! The lucky birthday-boy had his bash at Pump It Up(indoor inflatables) and lots of Ben's pals from preschool were there. Emily stayed at home with Mimi so it was just me and my little guy:) Although I am far too pregnant to be bouncing on inflatables, I still enjoyed watching Ben play and hanging out with the other parents I knew. I'm usually wrangling two little ones and don't get a chance to socialize much during birthday parties! After bouncing for about and hour, we had cake and snacks and the party was over=)


Ben is a bouncing machine! He loves this place.

Bouncing is hard work, even when you have the boundless energy of a 3 year old!

He finally worked up the courage to climb up the ladder to this slide. The trip down proved too scary, though:( He's just like his mama...I don't like the feeling of sliding out of control, either! No water-slides, jumbo slides or the like for me!

The most amazing thing about this party: the party blowers. Yes, that's right. The Party Blowers. Those $.10 pieces of plastic and paper. Ben and the other kids thought they were incredible. He barely touched his cake, he was too busy playing with that thing! We forgot to bring one home to Emmie and fights broke out over it once we got back! Next year, his party will consist of cake and party blowers. That's it. I'll spend the extra money on booze for the grown-ups;)

Emmie's Party

We had Emily's party last weekend and it was pretty fun! Despite being insanely hot(mid 90's!), the children all seemed to have fun. We rented a bounce house, set up two little wading pools, passed around the sponge-balls I made and we even had a super-fun sprinkler toy that sprayed water and popped balls into the air. The only bad thing happened while Emily opened her presents. The poor, sweet baby got stung on the face by a bee! She was in a lot of pain and really upset over it, so the party went downhill pretty fast. We were able to sing the Birthday Song and pass out cupcakes, but she was pretty crabby after that:( Lots of pointing and screaming/crying when people looked at or spoke to her. Thankfully, everyone was beyond sympathetic and didn't take it personally! Over all, the party was a success. The kids had a blast, Emily enjoyed herself and we got to spend a few hours with friends and family!

The party was spent devided between the bounce house and the water toys!

The birthday girl and her buddies taking a breather in the bounce-house

Ben and his best friend, Ruby having the time of their lives! They got to play in the bouncey while we set up for the party. Emmie was at home taking a nap, and Ben and Ruby loved having it to themselves for a bit before the party started=)

Apparently, it's more fun to just stand in a kiddie-pool than actually sit and splash? Hazel and Emily loved walking back and forth between the pools, passing sponge-balls between them, etc.

Ben, Ruby and Kai(the older kids!) really loved this sprinkler toy! It came with four balls that you stick in the pink spiral to make them shoot out the top. The got wet AND had an activity to focus on. Best $10 I've spent in awhile!

Two of her favorite gifts were this pink Dora hat and the singing Dora birthday card that accompanied the package! It sings, "Happy Happy Birthday! Happy Happy Birthday!" in Dora's annoying voice. SO not cool. It's currently hiding in a drawer because Dan and I couldn't stand listening to it anymore!

A cute shot of Emily opening her presents with Dan and me! Right before the bee-sting:(

She stopped crying and screaming at people long enough to be serenaded and blow out her candle! Poor Emmie...this has been a bad-luck birthday for her so far. We're hoping it means the rest of the year will be great!

2-Year Check Up

Emily had her 2-year check-up on Tuesday and she's in perfect health! She weighs in at 26.6 lbs(60th percentile) and measures in at 32 1/2 inches(35th percentile...looks like she'll be petite like her mama!). Hazel came with us to the appointment and I'd love to say she provided Emily with some companionship. However, anyone who's seen their relationship first-hand knows that's probably not the case! In true Frenemy fashion, Emily took her frustrations and anxiety out on poor Hazel, pushing, hitting and making her cry several times:( Emily came off as a total bully. The doctor said, "She looks great! My only concern is her meaness, haha." Hrrumph. Yes, she can be fiesty, but she has a super-sweet, snuggly side, too!

My big girl, waiting for her appointment

At first glance, they look like the best of friends. What you didn't see was how Emily pushed her completely unprovoked, making her cry right before this! Poor, poor Hazel. What we do is make Emily focus on Hazel, notice how sad she is and explain how hitting/pushing hurts her body and feelings. Then we tell her to have soft hands to Hazel, which results in Emily and Hazel huggin' it out. If not(sometimes she's just in a mean mood and keeps hitting), she gets a time out in her room!

Jumping on the bench in the examination room!

After getting her clean bill of health, but before the ever-dreaded shot!
She was NOT happy enough to photograph after that;)

Emmie and Hazel at the Park

Before Emily's 2-year well-baby visit, we had some time to kill between dropping Ben off at school and when we were supposed to show up for our appointment. We played at a little park near the doctor's office and the girls had a great time!


The always popular slide!

Hazel loves the swing! You can make her go really fast and high and she just laughs...unlike my two scaredy-cats!

This is what happens when you place two toddlers of equal weight and (too-short)height on a teeter-totter. NADA.

Their very favorite activity at the park was climbing up a short ladder to the top of the structure. They took turns over and over and over again(with me standing right behind them, naturally!). When they'd get to the top, they'd clap and cheer "I did it!" or "Good job Hazel/Emmie!". So cute=)