{He Finally Lost His First Tooth}

Ben felt like he'd been waiting FOREVER to loose his first tooth. Even though his dentist dad says he's an average age for loosing a first tooth, it seemed a little late to me : ) When it came to getting that tooth out, he was a lot less patient and a lot more brave than Hannah. She'll work those things until they're barely holding on, and she'll never let anyone touch them. Ben on the other hand wanted it pulled out as soon as it was barely loose. Despite his constant nagging, we made him wait until it was a little more ready. Jake finally agreed to give it try with some good ole' dental floss, but told him it might not come out on the first pull. Ben still didn't back down, so Jake gave it good yank and it was out.

Unfortunately the tooth fairy was a little busy the first night and he had to wait an extra day for her to visit. The second night he left her a sweet little note that read "I love you tooth fairy. This is my first tooth." Despite the delay, Ben was excited to get his four quarters and find that she had let him keep his first lost tooth. Lucky for him, his new tooth was already half way in so he wasn't too toothless : )

{The Big Mile}

About 3 weeks ago, the kids came home with a flier about a mile fun run. Ben decided he wanted to participate so he and Jake mapped a path around our neighborhood, 3 laps equaled a mile. After work and on Saturdays they would "train." Often Hannah would join them, but we couldn't talk her into running the race. Emma got in on the fun once in awhile by following them around on her scooter. They kept track of their times, trying to improve a little each time they ran. His best training time was 9:24.

Well, last Saturday was the big day. On the way to the race we were talking about the course and we were trying to explain to Ben that he would only have to run the loop once because it was one big loop, not 3 small loops like their training path. The was somehow translated into a big mile, and if you ask Ben he ran "a big mile" : )

After a short warm up and a some last words of advice from dad, it was on your mark, get set, and GO! We quickly moved from the start line to the finish area. We weren't able to see him for most of the course. When they finally got onto the track we were excited to see Ben holding his own not too far behind the front runners. He finished with a smile and  his best time yet, 8:18. He finished 10th out of 30 for the 6-8 year old group. We focused on his time and how much he had improved and he was pretty pleased with himself. I'm so proud of him for his hard work.

{Seven}

It seems that overnight my baby boy turned 7, but I guess to be accurate, over the weekend my 6 year old boy turned 7.
Ben is such a great kid! He's the funny one at our house. He loves his sisters and plays so well one on one with each of them.
He is his daddy's buddy and while I'd like to say he's a mama's boy, he thinks he's getting a little big for that : ) But hey, you will still catch him cuddled up with me on the couch quite often and I'll take all I can get.

Ben had a mostly lazy, chore free morning followed by a trip to the golf store with his dad. After lunch his friend, Jason,
came to spend the afternoon. When given his choice of desserts Ben chose chocolate fondue with dippers over the traditional
cake and ice cream (yeah, no cake decorating for me : ) After all the chocolate yumminess, he opened lots of boy toy fun.
Next it was off to Golden Skate World for rollerblading, soccer & gymnastics fun all rolled into one. Is if that wasn't enough, we topped the night off with homemade pizza and the new Karate Kid movie. If you ask Ben, it was the best day ever!!

{Talent Show}

Hannah and Ben both auditioned and made into the school talent show. Last Monday was the big day and they both did such a great
job. I'm so proud of them! It takes a lot of courage to perform in front of your peers, but they rose to the challenge and had a fun time.

{It's a Tradition}

My mom did it for many years, I'm sure many of you do or did it every year, it's the traditional back to school photos.
We mark time and change in our children as they head off for a new adventure.

I'm not sure who is more stressed for back to school, me or my children. I always feel anxious as I'm inundated with information
about homework and expectations for the new year. How will they get all the homework done, keep up with activities, have time
to play with friends, do chores and more importantly still have time to spend with mom and dad as we try to teach them to be
amazing little people. It's overwhelming and I'm already longing for the easier pace of summer when they are all mine.

Just for fun, here are a couple of back to school photos when I was the ages of Hannah and Ben : )

{Silhouettes at Sunset}

I've been wanting to take some silhouette pictures of my kids for a couple of years. Unfortunately, trying to find a location where the trees weren't blocking the sunset proved to be quite the challenge. Then of course we had to be available when there was a beautiful sky and at this time of year that means keeping the kids up well past their bedtime. Thankfully, last month I found the perfect location and earlier this week we finally made it happen. And if that wasn't miracle enough, Ben asked me to take a some of just him. Of course I was more than happy to get a couple extras of my boy.

{six}

The Science Party!

I didn't number these so follow along left to right and top to bottom : )

1. The invite
2. & 3. The volcano cake. . . I used used two cake mixes, one in a bunt pan the other
in a glass mixing bowl. I stacked them and made a hole in the bowl cake. I placed a votive
in the hole with dry ice and water to get a steamy effect. We tried to put sparklers on it
too, BAD idea (luckily we had tried this before Ben's friends came : )
4. Our scientist performing the egg in a bottle trick
5. Blobs in a bottle (lava lamps)
6. Foamy fountains
7. Soap souffle
8. Slimey polymers
9. I took macro pictures of a few of Ben's favorite things (toys & clothing items)
and the kids had to guess what they were.
10. Super-hoop gliders, the boys had fun with these while we waited for everyone to arrive
11. Fun boy toys
12. I loved how intent they were on checking out the toys
13. Enjoying the cake

Each boy went home with a bag of supplies and instructions to repeat some of the experiments at home,
as well as a magnifying glass and some magnets. We also did film canister rockets, but I didn't get pics. This
party was a lot of fun and the boys had a great time, but it was also a lot of work.

Below you can see some of the fun from Ben's family birthday event the night before the party.
1. Woohoo, this car is AWESOME.
2. Could hardly wait to get building with his new Lego's
3. Not sure who was more excited about this car, Ben or Jake : )
4. Thanks for the pogo stick Gma Ginny & Gpa Doug, he's up to 26 consecutive bounces
5. Cool Lego's with thanks to Gma & Gpa Reynolds
6. A challenging 3D dragon puzzle from Hannah
7. A cool card from sweet Miss Joy
8. Plenty of six year old fun, including a new watch so Ben can practice telling time (analog of course : )
9. Bakugon's, yes between us and his friends, he's gotten quite the collection

Ben was soooo excited for his birthday, almost as excited as I was to have him join our
family 6 years ago : ) He is a delight and he is mine. Love this boy!!

Mr. January

I posted a link for my calendar file back in September, but I've been getting a few requests so I thought I would post it again in case you missed it : ) What you see below is what you will be downloading. It's a photoshop file and each month and the two frames are separate layers that you may use any way you wish. You can get more information by reading my calendar posts from 2008 and 2009.

2010 Calendar File

And now for the rest of Mr. January . . .

This next one reminds me of a picture of my dad when he was a little boy . . .

Oh how I LOVE this boy!!

Summer Faves

When we moved, I needed something for the walls in our office, so I found three pretty cute subjects and a lovely field and now I have these three portraits hanging were I can see them all the time. I probably should have shared these earlier, but they were taken during the summer when I was on a break from the blog. Anyway, we've had a lot of dark and dreary days lately (we haven't even gotten into winter and I'm already complaining about the weather : ) and looking at these pictures reminds me of summer. My only regret is that I don't have a matching one of Sarah. Hopefully I can get something similar of her in the spring when things are green again and she's sitting.

What 5 Years Looks Like . . .

Today we're celebrating 5 years with Ben! The day started very early with a call for mom at 5:30. Is it time to wake up yet? When I said no, he got up anyway and crawled in bed with me. But it's hard to complain about some nice Ben cuddles. So I thought I would give a little run down of a few of Ben's favorite's...

Favorite Breakfast :: Hot Chocolate and Toast
Favorite Lunch :: Ramen Noodles
Favorite Dinner :: Korean Chicken & Rice
Favorite Colors :: Black & Blue
Favorite TV Show :: Curious George
Favorite Movies :: Mulan & Kung Foo Panda
Favorite Treat :: CHOCOLATE
Favorite Day of the Week :: Saturday, because his dad stays home
Favorite Friend :: Clark
Favorite Sport :: Baseball
Favorite Book :: The Foot Book by Dr. Seuss
Favorite Outdoor Activities :: Roller Skating, Riding Bikes & Scooters
Favorite Game :: Sleeping Queens
Favorite Toys :: Cars & Trains
Favorite Song :: The Sweet Escape (Gwen Stafani)

I love my little Ben and I am so grateful he is mine. He brings so much joy into our family. He is a friend to all. He gives the best cuddles and I can't imagine life without him. Happy Birthday Buddy!

Looking Back...
{4 years}

{3 years}

{2 years}

{1 year}

{1 day}

Silly Boy!

Ben traded me quiet time for some picture time. Personally I think I got the better end of the deal, but I'll never let him know ; ) I'm generally not much for studio style backgrounds, but I'd seen a some images lately that I liked so I thought I'd try a few. These were still all natural light. What do you think?

The Track

You might remember this post from about a year and a half ago. Well, the trains are still a big hit around here, but the tracks have gone EXTREME!

Creatures

Several little creatures have found homes in our bug keepers this summer. The toads and the skink (lizard) have been our favorites. There's a little pond close to our home were the kids have found most of the toads although a few came from our yard. The largest toad we saw this season actually hopped in the house one rainy night when Jake came in. The skink was also found in the house. Some of you might be horrified at the thought of reptiles in your home, but I'll take these friends over the roaches we had in South Carolina any day!

And He's Off...

Ben was back to preschool yesterday. Often over the summer he talked about missing his teachers and his friends and he was really excited to go back. Unfortunately, he was disappointed to find that two of his teachers were different, and most of his friends were no longer in his class. I had tried to explain this beforehand, but I think he kept hoping that his mom didn't know what she was talking about :) Despite his initial disappointment, he had a great day and is just as excited to go back today.

A few of Ben's favorites from his first day...

Favorite Teacher :: Miss Kim {she was there last year}
Favorite Toy :: Lego's {he made a cool ship}
Favorite Activity :: Gym {typical boy}
Favorite Friend :: Emma C {our carpool friend}

Today's Fun

We went on a little photo field trip today to the botanical gardens. With a promise of ice cream for dessert, I had pretty good cooperation. Honestly, I was really hoping for one of all 3 together, but little miss Emma was having nothing to do with that. Bribes aren't very effective with the under 2 crowd : )

I'm usually more of a close up photographer, but these needed a little distance to really capture the scene. It was fun to try a something a different.

And what could be more perfect than a little boy and a big rock!!

Eyelashes

A little over a week ago, Carin posted a challenge to photograph wet lashes. I'm a little behind in getting this done, and they're not wet, but I'm glad for a reason to capture those lovely, luscious lashes. I think they mostly came from Jake, but mine aren't too bad either : )

t-ball

This summer we signed Ben up for a little t-ball class. It was an hour on Saturday's for 4 weeks. He had a great time learning to throw, catch, bat, and run the bases. The last day they played a "game" and received a trophy. Ben's pretty proud of his trophy, it currently resides on shelf that everyone sees when they come in the front door : ) When he showed me were he wanted to keep it and I told him could keep it there for a few days. He said "no mom, this is a great place to keep it."
Currently Ben has two hats. One says Old Navy the other GAP. I've been told, by Jake, that Ben needs a different hat to play sports so I cut off the GAP part of the hat in the picture with his trophy : )