Guy's day - Saturday Football

Brian took Ben to have a pretty special day watching his godfather play football. Here's some pictures.

Ben with cousin Meg.

He's got a lot of growing to do before he can fill this helmet.

Ben with his godfather Nate.

Ben getting to hear Sto Lat again.

Ben turns 3!

We've been asking Ben for a few days what he would like for his birthday. His response was always 'cake'. So first thing this morning, he comes into the kitchen and says 'cake'. I had to explain we would not be having cake for breakfast. Besides, I didn't decorate it until nap time today.

We opened presents before dinner and cake – so we had more time to play with the new toys. Ben was quite blessed. He received a v-tech game station, a hand-held Wubzy game, a gear game, a trio building set, and a top. And the much appreciated college fund money. Despite all the cool technology and Wow Wow Wubzy's - look what was the big hit.

Ben's First Day of School

Here's Ben getting on the bus for his first day of school. He's been pretty excited about it. We were reassured when he got on the bus, turned around and gave us a thumbs up. (This has always been Brian's sign for calming Ben's nerves.)

We meet Ben's teachers yesterday at orientation and two other families. The other children seem to love the program, plus there's only four other boys enrolled right now. We're excited to see the progress he'll make. The two other boys had pretty good speech from what we could tell so far. Hopefully that's a sign of how much Ben can improve.

Ben returned home happy as a clam. His bus driver said 'it was like he does it everyday'. Ben said he had fun and he played. His only concern was that he thought he lost his picture ID tag, but we ended up finding it in his back pack.

Yes, I exist

Some of Brian's friends are starting to doubt my existence since I'm rarely in any of the photos. So here I am with Ben. Brian also scores extra points for getting a picture of me while camping where I don't look too bad.

Jellystone Chicago

Yogi with our little blond boy and our little brunette boy.

We went camping this weekend and tried a Jellystone that's less than an hour from our house. So the drive was very easy. The boys had fun hiking, playing putt-putt, swimming, playing in the water where they "mine" for rocks. (This is one of those tourist-trap like activities where you have to pay for a bag of dirt covered rocks and your kid gets the pleasure if cleaning them off in the water. Our kids thankfully didn't need the store bought rocks.) The boys also meet Yogi, Boo-Boo and Cindy Bear. Ben started running up to Yogi and hugging his knees whenever he saw him. We went on Hay-less Hay rides where the boys were more interested in the tractor pulling our wagon than the Yogi Bear on the wagon. Ben found a nickle and a dime at separate times and was very possessive of them proclaiming "mine" with each. Ben and Neil also enjoyed the playground. They both went down a curly slide that was so tall it twisted around three times.

On one of the Hay-less Hay rides.

Mining for free.

Getting to Know Your Bus Day

I took the boys over to the bus depot to check out all of the festivities they had planned for the new Early Childhood and Kindergarten students. Ben had his picture taken with Pablo from the Backyardigans (not a cartoon he has watched, but he enjoyed it anyway). We rode a train and a school bus. We received many cool things like balloons, magnets, and cardboard school buses with goodies inside. Plus we spent some time with his bus driver Ms. Kym. Ben will be riding bus 205. He has a school ID with his picture on it and a bus ID with his classroom.

Ben enjoying himself at the bus depot.

How handsome is he in this picture?

Ben with Ms. Kym (Neil is not a good photographer's assistant).

Ben's cool new backpack.

School supplies

Grandma sent some schools supplies for the boys. Here they are enjoying some of them. Ben drew a red balloon, an orange balloon, and a purple ball. Neil just drew a red ball. They seemed pretty happy I could tell what they were drawing. So far I can only take videos of them at the kitchen table, less of a moving target.

Camping with the Wasson's

We camped in Indiana with our friend's the Wasson's this weekend at the Jellystone Campground in Freemont. It was such a good time. All the boys played really well together and we had plenty to do. We played at the splash pool, the swimming pool, took out a paddle boat and a pedal car. We went to the Ranger Station one night for ice cream and laugh at how Neil shared his ice cream with Ben – one finger-full at a time. Ben also enjoyed glow sticks at the campfire with Max and Oliver. Here's some of our pictures.

Ben and Neil enjoying the pedal car.

Ben's having a good time at the splash pool.

Neil's having a better time at the splash pool.

Oliver helping Ben and Brian helping Neil shot water
at the other side of the tetter-totter.

For Busia