Ben's Birthday

Ben turned 3 on Saturday. What a special day we had! Phone calls from all over the place! He enjoyed the special attention, I think!

Presents!!! A new tow truck. He got a new play tent with a sleeping bag too but somehow I didn't get a pic of it.

And a new tricycle! (The bike he got for Christmas is just too big for him! Luckilly he'll grow into it! :) But in the meantime...he needed this!

He couldn't wait to get it outside!

We let the kids decide where the want to go for dinner on their birthday. Ben decided he wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese. "Are you sure?" I kept asking. Oh yeah, that's where we went alright. I was able to talk him out of eating there though, thank goodness. Their food is nasty!!! So we took Grandma with us and they had a really good time. Then we went to Red Robin for dinner. They LOVE how loud and obnoxious their birthday songs are. Me, not so much. Afterwards, Jon said, "it's just so loud." And it is!

It was Talon's 1st real visit to CEC. He was tiny last time. He LOVED it! But really, what kid wouldn't?

Jon & Ben on some ride/game. I dont' even know what it was. But they enjoyed it!

Simon and Grandma on the virtual roller coaster! I guess my mom was so loud on the thing a guy said to her afterward, "Sounds like you had fun!" :)

Another great celebration! I can't believe it's been 3 years! I remember having him, like it was yesterday! We love you Ben - so much!

Ben the Bully.

I am so behind in posting. So I'll skip some things and move on to the important ones...

Last week was VBS - it stands for Vacation Bible School but in my house it meant Vacation from Boys being Silly. We went on Monday to drop Simon off and found out that because Ben was potty-trained he was able to go too. I actually said to the registration lady, "Are you serious?" I was so excited. 2 1/2 hours with Talon - no other boys!!?!!!! Nice!

So the boys had a fabulous time - learning new songs, meeting new friends, getting reacquainted with old ones (our old neighbor was there - Simon was so excited!), making crafts. And Talon and I had a wonderful time too. It was just so relaxing to have only 1 child - especially if you really have 3 boys!

Okay, so they had the VBS program on Friday night. We didn't have a babysitter so Jon went with Si & Ben because I had already heard all the songs. Man, did I miss out on some fun. The pictures don't do it justice, I'm sure. And I'll try to explain it my best.....

The program is getting ready to start.
Simon is all ready. Bennett is not so sure.












It looks as though this boy next to Ben is saying "Hey Ben, let's be naughty!"












Ben's reply..."Okay!" (with his hand down his pants. Helllloooo, Peter! Oh man, I am scared!)












Jon assures me that they were having a blast and cracking up the whole time. These pictures does not make me believe that statement. It looks like this kid is about to beat Ben up.









But Ben wasn't having it!












Not knowing what is going on, Simon sings his little heart out.









While Ben has as much fun as he can....not singing the songs.
Here they are jumping off the steps and laying on them.












Apparently the whole church thought this was hilarious. Someone sitting in front of Jon was laughing so hard. She must have seen him taking pictures so she turned around and asked if he knew those kids. He said, "Yeah...one of them is my son." She thought it was so funny. She also thought they were brothers - or at least cousins - the way there were messing around.

I was putting Ben to get after they got home and told me what happened and I said, "Let's go, Bruiser!" He said, "Bwewser. I not Bwewser, I Ben." Oh Benny James, I love you - even if you are a little bruiser and ruin the VBS program. I'm sure it's the first of many.....

Oh yes...another one!

Okay, I won't do another contest for a while. But I really want one of these that IShould BeFoldingLaundry.com is giving away.

Aimee Has Some Competition

I'm entering the contest found on adventuresinbabywearing's blog...well, I saw it on Aimee's 1st to be honest. But I want one of those Kone's so bad! I've wanted one for ages and my current dustbuster is not really busting dust anymore - well for about 4 seconds! So, I hope I win!!!

Anyway, my yucky story is as follows:

I found my son Talon digging through the arts and crafts bin one day. I thought, well, that's keeping him busy - nothing dangerous in there. I guess I should go load the dishwasher or something. After a while I realized that he was quiet for too long. I went to find him. There he was still near the bin only he was holding a container of floam. Not only was he digging his fingers into the stuff, he was eating it by the handfull! He whole mouth was full of those little styrofoam balls. I kept wiping more out of his mouth...it just wouldn't end.

>>Fast-forward to the next day.

Talon woke up with a poopy diaper. I opened it up and it was FULL of floam. All different color styrofoam balls covered in poop! So not only did I have to get them all out of his mouth the day before, I had to get them all off of his butt the next day! Nasty!

NOT Dressed & Ready to Go!

Hey Talon, where are you going?

Did You Know???

Hey, did you know that Spider-Man likes Spaghetti-o's?

Yeah, well...he does. :)


































He usually eats them before he gets into costume. I'm surprised you didn't know that!

I Love a Parade!

A 4th of July post already??? How great is this? I can't help it. I got so many great pictures of our great day! We went to the Munster parade for the 1st time since we've lived here - it was hot but definitely fun!

It was fun to be at a parade with some different fire trucks. The boys loved that!









My all-american boys! I love this one. I'm actually quite surprised I got the shot since Talon wanted to be in the parade most of the time! Right after I snapped it he was off and running again!









Uncle Paulie & Talon









Talon sharing his sucker with Auntie.









Better than the last attempt...









I'll admit, the air force fly-over made me a little nervous but it was really very cool!









Near the end Uncle Paul started dumping water on the kids. They all had such red cheeks and you could feel the heat coming of of them so I know it felt good. They loved it! Ben doesn't like when his clothes are wet though so he stripped down to his diaper in about 15 seconds without me knowing. I don't have a picture of that because I was frantically trying to put his clothes back on. He refused the shirt because it was too wet and cried all the way to the car in his slightly damp shorts. :)












After the parade we had an all-american barbecue. Susie's friend Arvid is from Belgium and he's never been the the US for 4th of July. Yeah, that was all I needed to hear. THEME BBQ coming right up! We had all the american picnic food...hamburgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, pasta salad. Stars, stripes, red, white & blue. I loved it! And I think Arvid enjoyed it too.

Talon and his 1st Stella! Just kidding! He was so mad when I took it away from him. He kept sucking on the top and saying "num". British boy!












Arvid & Ben.












Jonnie & Paul - my brother Paul just told us his hilarious truck stop story. We were all cracking up!









When it finally got dark enough Jon & Paul started the fireworks.

Simon before he started the garbage bag on fire.









Ben has never really seen fireworks. He was a little freaked out at first but he just snuggled with Auntie Sue and he was fine - until his glow necklace leaked into his mouth. Oh the fun never stops does it!? :)






Happy 4th of July!

Crazy Days of Summer

Simon and Ben with their friend and our neighbor Wylie.















Another one of the cute boys...















My boys before the Lansing Cruise Night. Something they all look forward to all winter long. Ben IS happy about going. He just has to make his "mad pace" for most pictures. :)




















I think this is hilarious. I should know something crazy will happen when I put him in this shirt. It says "I tried to be good but I got bored." (Thanks Auntie Katie!) Anyway, he comes walking down the hall looking all proud, holding the plunger. Nice Tal!