Swimming with Friends

Ok, well, I haven't been a very good blogger lately. I keep taking pictures, but not posting them. You know how summer goes though--no time. By the time we wind down, I collapse into bed-- as soon as the kids are asleep, that is (if I don't fall asleep in Ben's bed listening to his tape with him, that is.) A couple days after Ben's McD's birthday party, we went swimming with our very good friends Melissa, Bradon, Kylie and Kaycie.

The kids couldn't touch in the pool, but they definately got to test out their "swimming" skills. Benjamin actually showed me how much he has learned by not having to wear a life jacket the whole time. He did a GREAT job! I was impressed! Here Ben is showing Melissa how he snorkles. Braden just chills in his little water floatie. Bradon and Ben got a little bored, so I challenged them to show us some of their jumping moves. That got them excited! Woo-hoo--gotta love these shots you can catch them in mid-air. Very cool! Ben has a real hard time being out in the sun (swimming) for more than about 2 hours. He gets burned really bad under his eyes and it spoils his fun b/c he can't even stand to be out in the sun any longer. He just puts a towel over his head and sits in the shade until I'm ready to go. Well, the same thing happened today. He was just miserable so Melissa invited us to go hang out at her house for a little while and look at their Disney World pictures from the vacation they took a couple months ago. On the ride to the house, I let the kids ride in the van that I have been driving (my parents have so graciously let me borrow it for a few weeks) and when I turned around to take the picture, Ben put his arm around Kylie. Talk about cute!!! They say they are going to marry each other when they grow up. :) After I took the group shot, Ben said, "Mommy, now take one of just me and Kylie." I thought I would die! How adorable! Now if they really do happen to get married one day, wouldn't that be a cute pic to put in a slide show!!!! :)After we left Melissa's house, we headed straight to church for Wed. night bible study. Needless to say the kids were WIPED out! I just had to snap this photo of them sacked out together. :)

Ben's Birthday Party-McDonald's

And yes, Ben's 3rd and final birthday party was Monday night the 29th at a McDonalds out near where we used to live. His EG friends live so far away that we decided to make it easy on them and have a party out their direction. I took along a few decorations and party favors, and we enjoyed the evening visiting with our EG buddies! It was just as nice a treat for Mom and Dad

as it was for Ben! At first the boys were glued to the video games... Meanwhile on the other side of the playset, the girls (and Braden) played on this little computer.....I finally convinced a few of them to go PLAY because they don't get much time to play together anymore. Braden, Rachael, and Samantha had fun playing in the toddler zone....and Braden got a real thrill out of the plexiglass. Kylie and Kaycie looked absolutely adorable in their matching outfits. Kylie and Ben say they are getting married when they grow up--good choice Ben! :) Ben and Austin are the best of buds! Little Samantha just amazed me time after time with how much she is saying already. She's only one month older than Braden who says like 2 words so far. Here Samantha is saying "Cheese!!!" Make a wish little buddy! Ben loved his cake that we decorated so much that he wanted to show it off at all his parties, but by the 3rd one, I was afraid it wouldn't taste very good, so I made this one for us to eat. The tanks are supposed to be in the shape of a 6. Present time! A gift card----WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!! Ben is at the age that he loves to get money and

gift cards. What a fun evening!!!

Ben's "New Friends" Birthday Party

On Saturday, July 28th, we had a party for Ben's "new" friends (since we've moved). He had way too many people on his list to invite to have all of them over at once, so I made him split up his parties. I know what you're thinking......he's a little bit spoiled isn't he......well, yes he is and that's why I only have 2 kids and their spaced so far apart in age--for that very reason :) I'm enjoying my boys as if their my grandchildren because by the time I have grandchildren, I will be too old to enjoy them! :)

We started off the party by playing games. Ben loves to have games at his party, so I planned for 5 games and he was SOOOOOOOOOOO excited about them! The first one we played was a water balloon tossing game. The boys weren't quite as coordinated at age 5/6 as I thought they might be. But, I think they enjoyed it anyway. Note to self: don't leave water balloons sitting out in 95 degree heat in the sunlight--they will POP! We had filled over 150 water balloons for the party and only about 1/3 of them were left by the time I went out to start the games--UGGGGGGG!!!

Next it was on to the "Shooting down the enemy" game. I had the boys bring a water gun to the party. I had made men out of construction paper and hung them on the fence post. The boys were to see who could completely soak the "enemy" first. Another note to self: Make sure all the kids have the exact same watergun next time. They all had different flow rates and therefore the game wasn't fair--kind of a flop, oh well :(

3rd on the game agenda was a ball shooting game which I didn't get any pictures of. They had to "shoot the bomb (ball) into the enemies territory so it wouldn't destroy their base."

4th on our list was our

MISSION

which I also didn't get any pictures of---uuuuuggggggg! That is the game I spent the most time on. Days before the party Ben and his friends and I painted Easter eggs brown to look like bombs. I drew clues of where the hidden "bombs" were in the yard and they had to go on a treasure-like hunt to uncover the hidden "bombs." The last clue ultimately led them to find the stash of hidden "bombs" (water balloons) which then led them to have a water balloon fight!!!

And my most genius idea of the day (or so I was told) was the 5th and final game. I offered a grand prize (wrapped dollar store prize) to the person who could pick up the most pieces of popped water balloons in the yard. You should have seen how fast those boys cleaned up my yard. It was GREAT! :)

Then it was the long awaited SWIMMING time they had all been waiting and asking and begging for. Note to anyone thinking of planning a bunch of games for a 5/6 year old party: unless your child immensly loves games, it's not really worth all the hassle because all the kids wanted to do was SWIM! I think Ben really enjoyed the games though so it was worth it all. :)

We let the kids swim for over an hour, then it was pinata time (another one of Ben's favorites on his party agenda) He got a good whack at it.

Then the rest of the boys took a turn. Present time!!! Ben with one of his very best friends, Noah. They met at preschool this past year and play so well together! Then came cake time!!! Dig in!

Benjamin's 6th Birthday--Family Party

Happy 6th Birthday

"Little Buddy"!!!

Ben wanted "Army" as his theme this year for his birthday parties. He is so into a computer game called "Command and Conquor" right now which I think spawned the idea and love of the camoflage theme for his 6th birthday party.

As usual, I attempted to make a cake for Ben's birthday. This year, he wanted to help me decorate it which turned out to be much more fun than I thought it would be! He did a great job helping me and we had so much fun doing it together! It was one of the biggest highlights of his birthday I think! He LOVES to help Mommy cook! (I made it look there was sand on and around the cake by blending up Cheerios in a blender) :)

We also made cupcakes b/c he wanted to save his cake to show off at his "friends" birthday party, so we decorated them in camoflage too and ate those instead of the cake at his family party. Braden had on his "camo" attire to go along with the camo theme. He was not in the mood for smiling at this particular moment though.

First, we ate dinner. We don't have much room in our dining room/kitchen for everyone, so the kids got to "picnic" in the living room.Then the kids played in the swimming pool out back for a little while and the came inside just before it began to pour!!! Then they got dried off and we played..... "Pin the headlights on the jeep"--yes, a game made up by yours truly. Ben caught me offguard the night before the party and asked me if we were playing any games at the family party. I had several planned for his "friend" party, but didn't even consider it for the family party. I jokingly said, "What do you want to play...........................Pin the .....(fishing for a game to play that would go along with his theme).......headlights..............on the ......jeep? He smiled real big and said, "YEAH!!!" I thought, "Oh brother, something else to figure out how to fashion before the party tomorrow." I ended up taking a hanging mobile that was a decoration and Mom cut out the lights on it and we played just that....."Pin the headlights on the Jeep." And Ben was thrilled! He just loves to play games. After Ben tried his turn at it, Lilly thought she'd show how it was done.....She said phoey on the blindfold and said, "This" (as she does to everything) and showed us right where they were supposed to go, like 'DUH people, they go right HERE!!!' It was pretty funny!

My Mom had gotten some prizes for the game and after the kids had played, she said, Hey, I have grown-up prizes too, so a bunch of us got in on the action.....

........--even "Great Grandma!!!!!" :) Ben wasn't too amused when the headlight game kept going on and on with all us "old folks" taking our turn at doing it. He was ready to open presents, but I told him we were his guests and we wanted to play the game too, so he waited patiently.

Then it was present time!!! :)

Awana Ceremony-Ben "Graduates" From Cubbies

Wednesady, July 25th was the Awana Ceremony for the 2006-2007 year. Ben has been in "Cubbies" now for three years. At our previous church, he was allowed to go into the program when he was three because they thought he was ready and plus, all his friends were in there and he was in the nursery all alone :) Then, we didn't send him to Kindergarden last year, so he had to stay in "Cubbies" another year while most of the kids his age moved on up. So he is excited to be going into Sparks this fall to be with more of his friends his age. For the ceremony, the "Cubbies" had two songs they had rehersed and had hand motions for. They, of course, had a little stage fright and didn't do nearly as well as they did in practice (I snuck ((is that a word?)) in and watched them practicing a couple weeks earlier and got to see them "in action") but it was very cute! I took a little video of Ben singing and will see if I can get it to post on here. It's pretty funny because it's sooooooo "Ben!" Here in a serious moment, he and Joshua sing the slower of the two songs for the crowd. My camera didn't do very well on these photos (inside and from a distance) but at least I captured the moment. This is Ben getting his Cubbies certificate. :)

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!!!

Before I continue catching up on posting photos, I want to say

Happy Anniversary

to my Mom and Dad! They have been married 39 years today!

They are such a blessing to me!!! I am so very thankful for all they have done for our family and for weathering the hard times when I know they wanted to give up!

I hope you guys have a GREAT day!!! I love you!!!

"Peek-A-Boo"

Braden has finally officially learned the real way of playing peek-a-boo and surprised us one evening with it at dinner. When we caught on to what he was doing, he did it over and over for us~very cute!!!