Dave's Birthday

We're going on vacation soon, so we did an at-home birthday party this evening for Dave. We made him one of his favorite suppers and cupcakes. Benjamin was really cute all day and would say, "Daddy come home from work for his party, right? He not miss it?" He had a bunch of fun making the cupcakes with me and then decorating with sprinkles!

We had Mexican for supper, which meant that Benjamin ate pretty much nothing and Anna ate like crazy! We let her wield her spoon and fork on her own tonight and she had a ton of fun and made quite the mess! She's saying, "spoon!" here........

Cupcake with chocolate icing on top of an already messy face meant ASAP baths! Right at the end she decided to pick up her plate and put it on her face and head. Icing on the face apparently isn't enough, she needed it on her forehead and through her hair too! All in all it was an awesome family night!

New Software

I got fun new (free) software for editing my pictures. Look at the cool effect I did on this awesome shot! ;)

VBS

***UPDATE: I just got a new (wicked sweet) photo editor. So all the photos in this post have been edited and look much better. It's way easier to see Benjamin during his concert now too! :)

This week we had Vacation Bible School at our church. This was the first year Benjamin got to do it and my second year helping. It was a really amazing week, one that I feel greatly blessed to have shared with my son. Getting to go each night with him and see his excitement and then ride home with him and hear how much of God's word he had soaked in and all the fun he had was awesome! He had a pretty hard time going to sleep each night, he was just overflowing with excitement and things to share with Dave and I. It made for a long and tiring week, but was completely worth it! Here are some pictures of our week..........

The first three days just the leaders have shirts and Benjamin would shrill with delight when I would change into mine in the evening before it was time to go and yell, "It time for Bible School!!!!" He greatly anticipated the arrival of his shirt and was overjoyed when we both had them!

One of the girls from church took pictures all week and posted some of my kids on facebook so I could see them (and steal them!). Here's Benjamin doing a craft..........

Playing a game outside, clearly overjoyed! (And notice neither foot is on the ground!)

Going down a make-shift slip and slide the night we learned about the Israelites crossing the parted sea.

Anna and Dave tried to come the first night and help out in the nursery, but Anna has put herself on a fairly strict and early bedtime and was ready for bed way before VBS was over. So she and Dave stayed home the rest of the week and had Daddy/Daughter time. We made Dave a home-made chocolate cake for Father's Day and they enjoyed having some in the evenings together......

One night I gave Dave some chores to do and he apparently enlisted our daughter to help out.......

Look how tall she's getting! She's becoming quite the big girl! We started time outs this week and she is so stinkin' smart! Whenever I tell her not to do something and she doesn't listen, I ask "Do you want to go in timeout?" To which she always replies w/ a very pitiful "no". At first when I would say this, she would say no and then still go put herself in timeout. She'd sit down and do this sad/fake cry and then stand up and say "Sorry." Then go on her way. It was hard not to burst out laughing b/c she was completely mimicking Benjamin! She doesn't really pretend to do it anymore though now that we do them for real and they work really well b/c she understands so much and is so verbal. However, I told Dave I was kind of grieving her babyhood by starting this! :(

I think they managed to have a lot of fun too! :)

The last night of the week, everyone came and we had a dessert buffet (mmmmm) and then the kids sang the songs they learned. Benjamin did an awesome job and I was beaming with pride watching him! :)

Here's almost all the kids. We were pretty close to the front, so it was hard to get a full shot......

I'm sure you (like me) just care about seeing Benjamin anyway! ;)

They had some extra shirts and gave Anna one. Benjamin and Anna looked pretty cute running around church together in them!

Swingers and Other Fun

I had the flu last week and Dave ended up staying home the last two days (which I am incredibly grateful he has a job where he's able to do that). I'm sure the kids were happy to have him there too, as I wasn't providing the most fun of days for them. One afternoon while I was napping, Dave took these pictures of the kids. They have a magna-doodle that you trace Dora and Boot's onto with these sheets....but they decided to use them in a more creative way. Benjamin was Dora and Anna was Boots. The funny thing is Dave didn't tell me they did this and so after I got up, Anna was putting her "Boots face" on. Boots is a monkey and Anna knows what a monkey is and what they say. It was kind of frightening watching her put this "mask" to her face and just start ahhing at me through it!

After supper that day we went out for a few minutes to play on the swings and the kids were so happy to be outside! They had so much fun swinging (which is extremely unusual for Benjamin) and Anna actually cried when it was time to come back in! Here's the usual swing reaction we get these days.......Anna's uninhibited joy v. Benjamin's happiness through trepidation!

"Too high!"


Much nicer smile when the swing isn't moving! ;)

He really enjoyed me doing this. That way he got to go up high, without having to swing fast back and forth. I would just push him up and then walk him back down........

One of the few smiles I can remember ever getting out of him mid-swing........

*I don't know that you can fully appreciate her outfit in the pictures above, but the "Boiler Up" t-shirt combined with hot pink leggings is I'm pretty sure one of my favorite things Anna has ever worn! It made me feel better just watching her toddle around in it!

Please excuse my appearance and the tissues in these next shots, I was really fairly miserable.....but I'm better now! Yea! Anyway, after another nap I took, I came out and offered to read some books to Benjamin so Dave could get some work done. We've read this Dr. Seuss ABC book many times and he has never reacted this way. He was beyond tickled with how I would use different inflections with my voice to display the silliness that is this book! Dave couldn't resist grabbing the camera to document his squeals of enjoyment!

Running to tell Daddy what silly thing the book said this time (which he did with several letters)!

Later that night we grabbed the cameras again b/c Benjamin and Anna sat down together on the couch and Benjamin read a book to her for the first time. Btw, Anna is shirtless b/c Dave was doing the cooking and when Dave cooks he almost always makes spaghetti and in our house, spaghetti eating is a no shirt kind of activity (for the kids anyway)!

I had the movie camera and the book reading ended quickly as the kids are always fascinated to see themselves on the movie camera screen. Anna kept coming over and pointing to it and saying, "baby!" So I'd turn the screen around for her and she'd wave to herself.

Naked cupcake!

I can't tell you how often this girl smirks!

We were supposed to go to a birthday party on Saturday, but I wasn't feeling quite up to it yet......so we got out the kiddie pool, toys, and sprinkler and had some fun sun/wet time that included Daddy! I think we may need a bigger pool though.......... ;)

Benjamin has been extremely timid about getting wet this year. Not b/c he seems scared or anything, just annoyed to be wet. After much coaxing, I got him to get in the kiddie pool for the first time (as seen above). I would have never imagined though how much fun he would have when we got the sprinkler out for the first time this year. The kid went wild!

He usually had an expression on his face that he's miserable when the sprinkler is getting him wet, but he was actually having so much fun!

It was fairly difficult to catch him for a picture, he was running around so much!


As always, Anna was a champ and had absolutely no problems getting wet!

As you know, Father's Day was Sunday. So we made Dave a home-made chocolate cake with chocolate icing for the first time. It's super yummy and I'm not sure who enjoyed it more....Dave or Benjamin. I caught Dave licking the extra icing! :)

God sure did bless me with an amazing husband to father our children!

Lazy Sunday

I snuck in Friday night to check on Benjamin sleeping in his new bed. He was sleeping soundly and has every time since then!

We had quite a stressful church morning, between Anna crying the whole time we were in Sunday school to Benjamin wetting his pants. So we decided to hang out at home afterwards and have a lazy Sunday. I worked on painting the bed while the kids napped and then we got a visit from Uncle Mike.....always a hit with the kids! Here's my sweet little Sunday beauty!

Anna and Mike texting Aunt Kelly.........

While Anna was getting her texting lesson, Benjamin came over and posed for some GREAT pictures for me! Check out those dimples and big blues...........

She always seems to have this little smirk.........

I can't even begin to tell you how much Anna loves her Daddy!

Working hard on growing some hair!

Benjamin and Mike were playing a guessing game!

I found a toy garage at a yard sale recently and the kids LOVE it!

Skyping Aunt Kelly and Uncle Buh!

We had a great lazy Sunday and a fun visit with Mike!