An interview

BENJAMIN: OUR 6 year old:

1.What is your favorite color? Blue

2.What is your favorite toy? My new airplane

 3.What is your favorite fruit? Apples

4. What is your favorite tv show?"What?I don't even watch t.v. that much..."

 5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?Peanut Butter and Jelly

 6. What is your favorite outfit? my nike t-shirt

 7. What is your favorite board game? Smatch

 8. What is your favorite snack?mini 

marshmallows

 9. What is your favorite animal?Monkey

 10. What is your favorite song?

"Bicycle Built for TWO"

 11. What is your favorite book? 

"Together"

 12. Who is your best friend?Brody

 13. What is your favorite cereal?Those little tiny circle things {cheerios}

 14. What is your favorite thing to do outside?

Play on our rope swing

 15. What is your favorite drink?

Root beer and chocolate milk

 16. What is your favorite holiday?

My Birthday

 17. What do you like to take to bed with you at 

night?

Monte' the Monkey

and Woggle Ben 

 18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?

Skywalker Smoothies

 19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday?

Lunchable and Cake pop at Target

 20. What do you want to be when you grow up?

A teacher

(I hope I still have time to talk him out of it)

bouncing boys birthday

He wanted batman invitations

we couldn't find anything he liked

so we made them

and I let go and let him make them the way he saw fit

because it is his birthday!

Last year we went to house of bounce for his fifth bday.

This year he wanted to go to Macaroo gym. 

And as much as I really did not care for doing the same (ish) thing two years in a row.

It is what HE wanted, and after all, it is his birthday.

He had a great little group of friends show up. 

He is very blessed.

So many people that love him.

They all bounced for a bit, popped in the birthday room for a drink, cupcakes and gifts.

And in the chaos of it all, my sweet boy got up from his chair at the cupcake table and rather than go to the tall bar stool they beckoned him to for gift opening, he sought out his little sister and whispered to her "hey emme, you want to be my helper?"And they opened his gifts together.

What a moment to witness. I am so proud of my boy, and all that he is.

 My sweet six year old son. 

Thank you to 

Will and Austin

Allie and Brody

Aiden and Abby

Chase and Carter

Kellen

Mimi and Papa

Nonni and Poppy

for coming to witness all the bouncing 

and for letting Benjamin feel as special as he is

Simple Birthday

I am proud of my kids....

everyday....

They say and do things on a daily basis.....

that make my heart feel like it could truly burst right open with pride

One thing that both my little have in common

is their ability to treasure the simple things life has to offer.

...Case in point...

Benjamin was given carte blanche for the evening of his birthday.

And he wanted to go to Target and eat a lunch able, and get a cake pop for dessert.

so that is what we did.

Simple....yet perfect in so many ways

We continued with our yearly traditions of the donut cake, and although he was told he could have six donuts from his donut cake, he just ate two, and was happy as Larry about it. 

He woke to a room full of blue and green balloons, which I truly felt could have been all we did for the morning and he would have been pleased.

Emme could not wait to give him the gift she picked out, and he opened it so quickly and hugged it out with Em so fast that this is the only shot I could get (a bit blurry, but full of heart)

We look through his baby book every year, and what a tear jerker that is becoming. The questions he asks each year, and the farther he gets from the babe in those images is just too much for this mommy. 

Benjamin, you continue to amaze me

happy birthday

Our ONE weak snow day.......

I am pretty sure it was not worthy of a school cancellation

But the little bit of snow we did get allowed us one day off school,

one day to tell out cherubs to go back to bed, they have the day off,

one day to build a snowman, make snow ice cream, watch movies in our pj's, 

one day to bake cookies, have hot cocoa after a short stint in the cold

ONE day

So we made the most of it

A few things from the list..........

A few BIG hits for B

"fort flashlights" green for B (and red for E)

Jacob's ladders and tiddleywinks

traffic jam board game, lonpos 101 pyramid and a gyro wheel

For E

"Lalilopsy" treehouse and dollies

a retro block set and a big girl caboodle just like mommy had (but hers is pink of course!)

Christmas Quickie

Before

During

After

Christmas Eve

Snowball cookies to wish for a White Christmas 

and the must have chocolate chip cookies.

Ben had one day in K that he got on the naughty list and totally freaked out that Santa wouldn't be sure he was on the good list again, so he wanted the Sensational School day note to be visible to the decision maker. (so funny that is was such motivation for him, and not for the girl)

And a copy of Twas the Night Before Christmas read by Dad-O. It gets my eyes heavy every year to hear his smooth voice read the familiar words.

Prep for his entourage

In preparation for the reindeer, it is essential that we do what we need to do to make them want to return.

The way we do this is two fold

Reindeer chow

YUM!

This is just as much for all of us as it is the reindeer of course....

And those sweet reindeer need healthy energy too!

So carrots and oats (with a little seeable glitter do they find their way) are in order.

Blitzen STILL spits those carrots out every year,

we decided this year Blitzen must have sweet tooth like Benjamin.