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!