Ben's Last Field Trip for Kindergarten

I thought this was neat.

I captured this photo at Deana Rose Farmstead on Ben's Kindergarten Field trip....

And this one was taken of ME on MY Kindergarten fieldtrip 30 years ago!

Just had to share that. :)

Kindergarten Performance

In April the Kindergarten classes put on a performance for all the parents at the monthly PTA meeting. They worked on it for several weeks and I heard about it a lot from Ben. I was not quite expecting to be so entertained. I have to say, I was pretty impressed! Ben is on the front row, second from the end on the right (in the red shirt and bandana.)

They ended up singing about 5 songs that all had hand motions to them. It was absolutely adorable! In the above picture, is one of Ben's good friends, Garrett. He is on the end in the black jeans and white shirt. That will prove to be of interest to you if you view the video below... :) hee-hee ...or should I say "Hee-Haw"

Andy, Mom Braden and I went to see the performance. Don and Carleen were in Branson so they couldn't come. Mom went to see Ben's room again tonight (she's seen it several times when she's eaten lunch with Ben at school, but he always wants to show it off again...

After the performance, Braden tried to pick up a blond at the cool fish aquarium (ha-ha!) He really likes to look at the fish everytime I take him to the school with me.

Kindergarten Performance Videos...

This is one of the songs they performed. This video is cute, but if you only have time to view one, view the one below.

The "Leprechan Dance" ...Kindergarten Performance cont...

Ben and his friend Garrett (in the black and white) decided to spice up this particular song of the Kindergarten Performance by doing a little dance they termed the "Leprechan Dance." Some of us adults called it the "River Dance" afterwards. I guess they had the whole crowd laughing. When I was filming this with my camera (not a camcorder, thus the poor quality) I could not see what all the other kids were doing, so I thought those two were the only ones who knew all the dance steps. It turns out, they were the only ones doing it because they weren't supposed to be doing it. It turned out to be pretty hilarious and quite the buzz after the performance. I think it's safe to say that our boy is not shy, what do you think? :-P

Braden's Haircut--April 13th

Right after Braden's birthday party, I cut his hair. I know, I know, I can hear the "FINALLY's" out of all your mouths now. I was getting comments from every direction that his hair was TOO long and he looked like he had a mullet. Well, I really liked it long, but was getting a little tired of it being in his eyes. Since he turned two and all, I decided to give him a new look. Well, it turns out I love it and even think it makes his personality cuter (maybe because, oh, I don't know because I think he's so cute so I treat him differently--I don't know? :P

I have always cut my boys hair (and my own hair) and was pretty proud of myself on this cut until I got a good look at it from a distance. I apparently took several chunks out of the back when he was moving around. Oh, well, in only about a week, you couldn't tell the difference.

Fun with Mommy!

"TEET"--Brushing Teeth

Braden LOVES to brush his teeth! Many times when I tell Ben to go brush his teeth, Braden begs me to brush his too by saying, "TEET" and pointing to the bathroom. He doesn't really do much "brushing" though. He mostly sucks the toothpaste and water off the toothbrush. I really don't understand the big fascination, but oh well! Gotta love some enthusiasm about oral hygeine...especially from boys! (You can see the chunks I took out of Braden's hair from this angle--UGH!)

I can turn the faucet on, give him a toothbrush and it'll keep him busy for up to 20 minutes! It's crazy!

Silly boy!

"Teet!" Woo-hoo!

Geo Trax

Thank goodness for little brother's birthdays--an excuse to play with new toys! Ben has wanted GEO TRAX since he was 4 years old. Since he already had oh, about 5 train sets, and Geo Trax recommended age is 3-5, I told him NO! I said at the time that whenever he had a brother or sister, we would get it for them when they were old enough to enjoy it. Well, when my mom asked what Braden would like for his birthday, I immediately thought of this. So, now both boys are happy! :)

Ben was more than eager to set it up for Braden. He got out all the parts and carefully layed them in groups. That was very uncharacteristically ocd of him, I must say! First Ben made him a track on the train table and Braden was very pleased with it as you can tell by the look on his face! But Ben wasn't happy with that one. He said he didn't have enough room on the train table to make a "cool track" so he made a bigger one on the floor. He tore it apart at least 5 times over the couple following days to make a different track. While Ben was busy creating, Braden and I kept one another entertained. Here is is loving on his Birthday balloon from the previous night.

Fun Pics with Braden

While Braden was waiting on Ben to get his Geo Trax all set up, I kept Braden occupied. We snapped several pics together... He calls the camera "cheese" and says--"I want cheese!" when he wants to either wants to hold the camera or me to take his picture. We began rolling around on the floor giggling and playing... snapping pics all the while... This one is my favorite! It's actually not sideways, WE were sideways.

Braden's Birthday Party--2 Years Old!

Yes, I'm back on the "cake-making bandwagon." I took a break for Ben's birthday last summer, but decided to go ahead and try my hand at it again. I must be getting a little better at least because I actually ENJOYED making this one. Maybe I'm learning how to not be so obsessed with it being perfect, I don't know. As you can probably imagine when my little "choo-choo" obsessed son saw it, he was instantly in love! :P Happy 2nd Birthday little guy! (Lilly is to his right) Our "kids table."

I had printed off some pictures of Thomas the Tank Engine characters and hung them on the wall. That's what he is pointing to. He thought they were the coolest and referred to them several times during the evening. We had a few that couldn't make it to our party, but had fun nonetheless! The kids all enjoyed the slide that I have in our living room. They were creating all sorts of ways to "enjoy it" including trying to "surf" down it standing up (which we quickly put an end to.)

Braden's 2nd Birthday--Party cont...

Presents!!! :) "Bubba" just HAD to help. Although, Braden had the unwrapping down just fine. Grandma and Grandpa H. got him "Geo Trax"--something Ben has wanted since he was 4. He was more excited about it than Braden was. But Braden LOVES it now--along with everyone in the neighborhood! Ben is using his newfound reading skills to read Braden his Birthday card while Braden poses ever so cutely in the background. :) Then Braden decides to try to read his OWN card. He liked this one especially since it had a "choo-choo" on the front! I don't know if you can tell, but that look on Braden's face is just priceless!

Braden's Birthday Party cont...

I think Braden liked his cake...what do you think? :) YUM! A moment with "Pa-pa" D. Great Grandma was showing Braden his new book and they had been reading it together for quite a few minutes--very precious!

Easter 2008

Even though we had not had Braden's birthday party yet, my Grandma wanted to go ahead and give him his card. It was a Thomas card and he LOVED it!

Braden just isn't much into posing for photos right now. It has to be HIS idea!

Ben and my Uncle Mike have always been buddies. Mike has a lot of patience with him and lays down the law when it needs to be done, so for some reason they have always hit it off. Here, they are sharing a "toothpick" moment. Both of them have toothpicks in their mouths. I can't remember exactly what the big joke was, but they were having a ball together.

Hunting for eggs--Easter cont...

My Mom always gets all the eggs ready for Easter and Ben hides them. He enjoys hiding them as much as finding them. Well, this year it was so flippin cold outside that we had our egg hunt indoors. Braden was trying to get the hang of it...

We'd point them out and he'd go to retrieve the eggs.

He was MUCH more interested to see what was inside!

Such a cutie!