Ben's 1st Day of "Summer Adventure" [School]-June 11th

All excited and ready to go!

Ben got up pretty easily at 6:30 to get ready for his first day of "Summer Adventure" that our school district offers free to all school-age residents. He has been very excited about going so it wasn't too hard to get him up Monday. Yesterday and today have been a different story. He has never been one to get up all that early so this should be a fun four weeks for both of us--Ha!

I was too depressed on Monday to post this blog, but wanted to get it on here today before it's completely old news. It is getting a little easier to send him off to school each morning, but I am not liking it anymore than I thought I would :(

Ben's friends across the street came over to get Ben to walk him to the bus stop. I took some pictures from our driveway, and tried to stay there so I wouldn't embarrass him, but then couldn't stand it any longer. One of the other Mom's went to the bus stop so I went up to stand with him too.

There are probably 11-12 kids that get on and off at Ben's bus stop but most of their parents drove them to school the first day. Ben really wanted to ride the bus with Zach, so I didn't argue. He has talked about riding a bus to school since he was 3 yrs old, so I knew I would be spoiling his fun if I insisted on taking him the first day.

I told Ben to stay with Zach when he got to school so he could show him how to get to the gymnasium where all the kids were supposed to meet. Well, he interpreted it as stay with Zach all day and when the teacher came over to him and told him that he was supposed to go with her, Ben told her that his Mommy told him to stay with Zach. After some argument and tears shed, he finally went with her. What a way to start off the day. :(

A friend of mine (Kandice) lives so close to the school, that she has to take her little guy to school (or he has to walk.) So she was there with them on the first day and took these photos and sent them to me:

I was so touched when I opened my e-mail and saw these photos from her, because I had wished all day that I would have been able to go to the school and be with him and see his classroom and meet his teacher. I still don't know why this is so stinking difficult for me, but I guess it's just part of being a Mom (and a little bit of a perfectionist i'm afraid)

After a long first day, Ben made it home. He seemed so much more grown up than he was when I put him on the bus that morning. I guess that's what a little independence will do to you. He did see a few people he met in preschool and actually has Joshua (Kandice's little boy) in his class which made me feel a lot better. He says he loves it, so I guess all is well. I'm happy for him and I hope he enjoys every day of it.

Summer Fun Continued--World's Of Fun

Since we have World's of Fun passes from our trip to Cedar Point, I decided to take Benjamin out to World's of Fun for the day on Thursday. He is at the age where it's tons more fun to have a friend along to share the fun with so we took one of his neighbor buddies Zach with us.

On the way out, we dropped Braden off at his Grandpa and Grandma D.'s so I could take the boys on some of the "big rides" in the park. We then stopped to get some lunch at McDonalds on Front St. to save some money in the park. Well, I didn't know they would check my backpack or that taking food into the park was forbidden so the lunch that we tried to save money on got thrown in the trash prior to entering the park. (We were all too excited to get inside the park and didn't think about sitting down outside the front gate and eating it~frustrating!) Nonetheless, we had eaten enough to get us through a few hours.

The first place we headed to was.......where else?...... Camp Snoopy where the boys first rode the airplanes then Zach rode the kiddie roller coaster. Benjamin will NOT ride World's of Fun's kiddie roller coaster because he says it makes a weird sound when you go through the apple and it scares him. Go figure--he'll ride rides 10 times bigger and faster, but will NOT ride that one. After that we headed to the Peanuts Playground that Ben and I call the "ball pit." We spent like an hour in there. I got in on all the fun and Ben acted like he was in hog heaven having Mommy all to himself without Braden around. Load 'em up, shoot 'em out The boys then went and did several other rides in Camp Snoopy. There was NOBODY in the park because the weather was supposed to get bad in the afternoon. So it was nice that they could just jump on any ride they wanted over and over. I just had to get a pic of the Mamba even though I didn't get to ride it Taking in the view

The giant tree slide-Ben has finally gotten over his fear of tunnels I hope! Wheeeeeeeeeeeee! This train is really S L O W Mommy! Yeah! Bumper Cars! And now for a REAL ride--the Spinning Dragons! The boys wanted to wait until later in the day to ride "Spinning Dragons" so I made sure we had fairly empty stomachs and we got on. This photo was as we just loaded.... ...this one is on the ride.....wheeeeeeeee! The boys wanted to ride it again and again! We ended up riding it 3 times and I actually took a video of them riding it, but am having trouble getting it to load on my blog. (I haven't figured that out yet) If I can, I'll put it on here later. The "weather" that was supposed to come in, began to show it's ugly head so I told the boys that we'd better ride anything they wanted to ride before going home because I knew they'd shut all the rides down when it started raining. So, we rode the Viking Voyager three times (which they absolutely LOVED) and then decided we were all famished so we went to get something to eat. Pizza and a funnel cake--what a nutritious lunch/dinner--ha! ~good while it lasted though! Usually I don't sink money into the arcades or games at World's of Fun, but our day got cut short by the weather, so I told the boys we could go in and have some fun. You'd have thought they'd died and gone to kid heaven! When we ran out of money, and Ben had to use the restroom, we left the Arcade only to find that it had indeed started pouring. We dashed for the bathroom and when we came out, I asked them if they wanted to take off their socks and shoes and play in the rain a little. What do you think they said?????? :)

SURE!!!! YEAH!!!!! YAHOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! YIPEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!! WOO--HOO!!!!!! Then they saw some "big boys" with their shirts off and asked if they could take theirs off too.

They had soooo much fun playing in the rain. I think every kid needs to have a day like this one where it's warm and you just let loose. I videoed them playing in the rain and will share it if I can get it to load on here. It was cute! I took this photo before I asked them if they'd like to take off their shoes. I just wanted to get a shot of the weather behind them. So we'll call this the "BEFORE" photo........ .....and these are the "AFTER" photos. Fun day!

Summer Fun

Since Ben starts Summer [school] Adventure on Monday, so we tried to squeeze as much fun into this week as possible. Since we moved, we don't have a neighborhood pool, so we have to make our own fun. So, Monday I got out our pool and we filled up. Ben was so excited as you can tell by his face. :)

Yahoo!!!! It's SUMMER!!! The next day, a few of the neighborhood kids came over to play. (I didn't forget the sunscreen this time thankfully) And we picked up a cheap slip-n-slide for them to play on. I think Ben looks just like Bradon Smith in this pic because I've seen him do the same pose =) Wednesday, I cleaned out a little sandbox that the previous owners of our house left for us and turned it into a little pool for Braden (I hated the mess of the sand anyway.) I also have a blow up one that I may set up later, but this one was a little easier for this week at least. He loved it, and Becca had fun entertaining him while the boys went wild in the other pool. When the big kids went to eat lunch, Braden and I jumped into the "big pool." He seemed to like it because he could touch the ground and walk around in his little floatie.

Catching Up

I haven't posted any pictures for quite a while so here is a brief post about the highlights of last week (May 27-June 2): On Sunday, the 27th we held our Sunday morning church service on our new property. We haven't sold our building yet, or broke ground on the new property, but we are trying to hold more services on the property this summer to keep people mindful of where we are headed--the future of our church. Although the weather called for storms that day, the rain held off until we had everything cleaned up and were heading home. Some of the men cooked up hamburgers and hot-dogs for everyone and we had a pot luck lunch after the service. There were also inflatables for the kids after lunch, and many played sandvolleyball on the two courts that are now set up on one section of the property. It was a very nice day and we had a great turn-out especially in spite of the looming clouds and threat of storms. On Monday, Ben and I broke out a 500 piece puzzle that we got as a souvenir at Cedar Point. It may take us a month to put it together, but it is a fun "quality time" project. On Tuesday, Andy turned 41. I've told him he's 41 going on 80. If you know how his health has been the past year, you know what I mean. Hopefully 41 will be a better year than 40 was!!! Since he completely ruined his diet over the trip to Cedar Point, I didn't feel guilty making him his favorite cake for his birthday--"Cowboy Sheet Cake." Ben bought him a Top Thrill Dragster keychain from Cedar Point and I got him a "Millenium Force" T-shirt--hey, money's tight. As Ben's preschool teacher taught the kids, "You get what you get and you don't throw a fit!" =) The decorations on his cake were Ben's idea and he enjoyed putting them on for his Daddy. Also on Andy's birthday I pronounced Braden an "OFFICIAL WALKER" which [to me] means that he now walks more than he crawls. He is LOVING his newfound means of getting around and is SOOOOOOOOOO proud of himself. Most of the time he will giggle the whole time he is walking just thinking he is the coolest cat in town. Here he is clapping (another new thing for him) while walking. I'm not sure he's all male though if he can do two things at once. :) Braden's 1st time in a BIG pool this summer!

One of our friends invited us to come over and swim in her neighborhood pool with her and the kids on Thursday. Since Braden doesn't remember being in a pool last summer, he thought the big pool was super exciting! He loved watching his big brother run and jump into the pool and also loved watching the other kids play. He wanted to run around too, and would have probably jumped in himself if i'd have let him. Everytime we'd get out of the pool, he'd walk straight for the edge...nearly scared me to death. I may have to get a leash for this kid when I take him to the pool next time. He doesn't seem scared of anything.

Poor Ben though, I was so concerned about Braden, and keeping an eye on him every second that I completely forgot to put sunscreen on him the whole time we were there. That night he had such a bad sunburn that he woke up at least once an hour crying and we'd have to reapply Aloe Vera to sooth his shoulders and back. :(

Sad Mommy~Ben's growing up way too fast!

Well, I tried to go to bed early tonight because I only got 3 hrs of sleep last night and thought I was exhausted, but, of course, I got into a conversation with Andy about the boys....and we got on the subject of the Summer Adventure. Summer adventure is a summer school program that Ben's elementary school offers that is supposed to be tons of fun and he really wanted to go to it because all his friends who have gone to it were raving about it. All of a sudden I can't sleep now. I just start tearing up every time the thought of it comes back into my head. Thinking about sending him off to school all day every day during what is supposed to be his summer break. It just makes me very sad :( He is just growning up way too fast!!! He is very excited about it so I sure don't want to say anything negative about it, but he's just barely gotten out of preschool and now he's having to start this program just as his summer break starts....(I am just venting as you may have noticed)....I'm just feeling a little overprotective I guess....I don't want to send him off all day to someone I don't even know..... :( I don't even get to meet his teacher beforehand....maybe not even at all.... :( I don't think I'm ready for this. Is this why so many mother's home-school??? I know he's gonna have a GREAT time and he will be able to be in the school he will be going to this fall (well AUGUST 15th!!!--again--middle of the summer!!!) and he will probably meet some people that may be in his kindergarden class.....it still makes me sad though:( Signing off for tonight. I've gotta get my mind off this some other way so I can get some sleep tonight. Let me know how you girls who have been through this got through it.

Trip to Cedar Point-May 20-23rd

Ok, so I have to warn you in advance, I took well over 100 pictures on the trip so you can imagine I posted quite a few. I tried to capture the highlights for you. If you're like me--I like to look at my friends vacation photos so I can have a "virtual" vacation myself-- then you'll like today's post. If you have a slow computer, you'll be a little irritated at me, so, sorry in advance. But, here's our vacation:

We left to head to Ohio at approx. 2:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon. Between stopping for dinner and potty breaks, we didn't arrive at the hotel until 5:00 a.m. Monday morning--UGGGGG!!!!

After three....count them with me........one,.... two,.... three.....hours of sleep, we got up and got ready to hit the park. This is the "gang" that went with us this year (minus Andy who took the picture) J.D., Kandice and their boys Luke and Joshua, Sam and Darnell. We were all pretty wiped out most of the day today from lack of sleep, but the boys (the little ones) did remarkably well! They were all so excited to see all that Cedar Point had to offer! Ben was in awe when we walked into the park. Andy kept asking him questions and Ben was so busy looking around and taking it all in, that he didn't even hear Andy talking to him. It was pretty cute. When Andy and I first went to Cedar Point on our honeymoon we talked about bringing our "future children" to this amusement park. It was really neat to see him so excited about all of it! Darnell and Sam took off to ride some rides of their own while J.D. Kandice, Andy and I took the kids to the kiddie area. We hung out with them and took photos of them for a while. Here Ben gets to "drive" Mommy in his favorite colored jeep (Mommy's dream vehicle (not green though.) Then the kids rode the motorcycles... and the hummers (?).....

....the bumper cars...and the "boat ride" (not sure the name of that one)........then finally we got to Camp Snoopy. All morning long, it didn't matter what we did, Ben kept saying he wanted to go to "Camp Snoopy." I finally had to threaten him that we weren't going to go at all unless he quit asking before he finally stopped. All that was on his mind was "Camp Snoopy" so he was pretty excited when we finally made our way to that part of the park. At this point in the day, I told J.D., Kandice and Andy that I would watch the kids for a while and they could go ride some rides. I was really getting a kick out of seeing the excitement on all their faces when they'd discover something else that they could ride and then would love it even more than the previous ride...one after another. It was at that moment that I knew I had officially crossed into Mommydom ( I just made that up) --where it is actually more fun to see my child have fun than to have my own fun. I didn't think I'd ever feel that way, but I truly discovered it on this trip.

A hug for Snoopy!

These speedway cars were one of the boys all time favorites. Other than the roller coaster (Jr. Gemani) they rode these the most. They were really cute and when they flipped you around the corner it was quite a ride!

The bumper boats was another of the boys very favorites!

After the boys rode a ton of rides, I took them over to see the petting farm. We got over there after most of the animals had been put inside, but they got to see the chickens and the ducks. It was hilarious to see the littlest of the three (Luke) showing the bigger boys how to syphen chicken food out of the food dispenser (by turning the handle back and fourth to make some drop into the tray) because I didn't have any quarters on me for them to use to actually buy the food.

I put this photo in here to make Travis and Paula drool! There was barely a wait for the Millennium Force on this year's trip. I can't remember if you guys got to ride that one last year or not, I didn't get the chance this year, but Andy and the rest of the gang rode it at least 3 times I think.

I took this photo at the end of day one. The sunset looked really cool through the middle of Raptor, but it didn't turn out very good in this photo.

I thought this picture was pretty funny. Andy, Sam, Darnell, Ben, and Josh look like they are a gang going in for a beat-down on someone or something.

Needless to say, day two of our trip was a MUCH better day as far as the weather and the way we felt after getting a full 8 hrs sleep. Ahhhhhhh! The weather was absolutely wonderful for us this year! 65 degrees Monday, 75 degrees Tuesday, and nearly 90 degrees Wednesday at King's Island--and no rain at all! WOW-it doesn't get much better than that!

This is the new ride that they had anticipated having open at the beginning of the season--"The Maverick"--but had to do some reconstruction on it after finding it to be too rough after they had it finished. It is now scheduled to open later this season.

Ben, Josh and Luke took turns 'driving' the "Antique Cars." Then they found some adorable baby ducks......geese....what are those things anyway? I'm not an animal expert. All I know is that anything in the form of a baby is adorable. :) The kids syphened more food out of a dispenser (until I finally went over and we got some change) and the little waddlers would peck the food right out of their hands. Soooo cute!Aren't they adorable!!!!Since there was virtually no lines for any of the kids rides, they were able to get their fill of all the rides in the kids areas. When they were done with the rides, I took them over to the park/sand/play area where they could just roam around and play 'til their hearts content. They ended up finishing the day out there. J.D. came to sit with the boys for a little while so Kandice, Andy and I could go ride Wicked Twister and MaxAir and he kept suggesting rides that he would take them to so they could ride them again. They must have either had complete overload, or were all completely exhausted (or both) because everything he would suggest they would say, "We've already ridden that one."

I forgot to say earlier that Andy came to stay with the kids for a little while in the early afternoon so that I could ride the Dragster. We had been having a LOT of trouble with it breaking down while we were there. Darnell and Sam waited in line for it, even got ON the ride and up to the launch pad when it broke down and they had to be cranked back into the station. Then they waited another hour and a half for it to be fixed (in line) before giving up and going to ride something else. I went to wait in line with Darnell, Sam, J.D. and Kandice and it broke down AGAIN. Darnell, Sam and I waited it out while J.D. and Kandice went to ride some other rides and we ended up being the last train to get to ride it before it broke down again. But, then later in the evening we got to "cut" in line and not have to wait because they have a new "parent pass" that you give at the exit that allows one parent to ride while the other waits with the kids, and then they switch. The kicker though is that the pass allows the other parent to take someone on with them, which turned out to let J.D., Kandice, Andy and I ride at the same time. (I probably just confused you, but you get the gist) Wednesday, we got up early and drove to Cincinati to go to another theme park--"Kings Island"--one of Andy's favorites. It is a very pretty park, but the rides there pale in comparison to Cedar Point. It put us 4 hrs closer to home though and made for a nice "rest stop." :) And because our World's of Fun "Max pass" got us in for free, it was well worth the time. The fountains that line the walkway into the park are so neat to sit and watch while you're eating. Ben took about 10 pictures of them with my camera. Don't you wish I'd posted them all! HA!I had to include a picture of this "clock." This was on the side of a hill inside the park. The entire clock is made out of plants and flowers. If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you can see it. It was amazing!This is a picture of some of the kids area at King's Island. The theme there is Nickelodeon so they had rides themed from Blues Clues, Diego, Dora the Explorer, The Farily Odd Parents, Little Bill, The Backyardigans, Lazy Town, etc. The helicopter ride (below) gave us a good view (above) of some of the kids area. I only included one photo though. The "Giggle Coaster" was a neat little roller coaster for the kids! This ride really intrigued me because I've wanted to ride a "flying roller coaster" for quite sometime now. This is not a roller coaster, but it does simulate flying, and was quite fun! Ben even enjoyed it! Andy was VERY nervous about getting on it simply because they lock the cage down on you and he is very closterphobic, but he managed because Ben wanted to ride it with him instead of me--go figure? (they are on the far left in the photo above)I took this photo on top of one of the hills on THE BEAST--one of Andy's all-time favorite rides--and rightfully so I might add! It is an INCREDIBLE ride!!! I was hesitant to ride it at first simply because it has given me such a headache in the past, but it wasn't nearly as head-rattling as I remembered it being. This is a picture of King's Islands' new ride this year--"The Firehawk" which was scheduled to open 3 days after we were there---huge bummer because this is a roller coaster that I've been waiting for--you "sit" in a flying position looking towards the ground.....maybe next year. :)

Well the troops were all tuckered out when we left Kings Island. I don't think Joshua or Luke even made it out of the parking lot before they were asleep. We got some lunch for Ben at McDonalds right in front of Kings Island, and after he ate a little of it, he found the only spot left to stretch out and fell asleep--on the wheel well. Not exactly the safest choice, but when you've had a 4 day trip like we took, you pretty much just take what you can get.

I have vowed that next year we will either leave K.C. earlier, stay gone longer, or go to a park closer to home. That was just too much for 4 days. That drive is awful!!! However, I do have to say though that the kids did REMARKABLY well on the trip especially since the laptop/movies that we took for them didn't work. They entertained themselves very well! They all get stars in my book!