a visit to the zoo

we went to the zoo this morning. what a workout with all those hills! i am so out of shape. it's pretty embarrassing. since we have a season pass, i am planning to join the zoo walk on wednesday mornings & hopefully get back in some sort of shape. it's killer though.

ben checking things out.
there's a wobbly bridge, as ben calls it, that you can cross. he is a bit leary of it.


gracie, no fear. hurry up bubby

just hanging around at the zoo.


gracie loooves the goats!
one of my least favorite parts in the zoo, the slithery snakes...

tie dye fun

the kiddos tie dyed shirts yesterday. they had fun squirting the bottles & watching the colors mix together. today, our hands are still stained up. we always forget those darn gloves.






the finished products:

ben worked so hard on 1 shirt, making it his favorite colors green & purple. when we opened it up & suprise it was a dress for gracie. he was a bit bummed, but we decided that it was so nice of him to make such a pretty dress for sissy!

one of those days

i'm feeling like a bad mommy. my kiddos are watching a movie & eating lollipops right now. i need some me time.

they are watching the marvelous musical mansion, ben's favorite show right now. we borrowed several older vhs tapes from my cousin & this one has become his favorite show. he talks about this day & night! his favorite song is "my hat it has 3 corners" & gracie's is "she'll be coming round the mountain." gracie likes to do the sound effects.

however, they are eating yummy earth organic lollipops , so it's not that bad. they don't contain corn syrup, artificial colors or flavor. strawberry smash is ben's favorite so far. (the other flavors we have are googly grape, tooberry blueberry, very very cherry, sour apple tart, pomegranate pucker, wet-face watermelon and mango tango). right now, there's a good deal on amazon for your sweet tooth. 45% off when you buy 2 or more products.

i asked ben to smile for me this weekend - here's the look i got.what a mess!


me times over - the kiddos' lollipops are eaten. have a good one!

float like a butterfly

sting like a bee...



namaw & poppy came down this weekend & we tried out the wii sports games. after ben watched daddy & poppy box, he had to try. i can't believe my 3 year old was boxing...what are we thinking??? we really aren't raising a heathen, don't worry my fellow playgroupies. his favorite game he decided was tennis (thank goodness!) he is definitely all boy, but a sweet one.

the wii has become the ultimate reward in our home. it is only played when daddio's home in the evening (weekends are an exception)& if we've had a successful potty day & if he's been a good boy all day. any suggestions on wii games that are good for the 3 year old age????

stomping through the flowers

deb took such beautiful pictures of her kids outside with the daffodils. it inspired me to try & do the same..
gracie was definitely not tiptoeing through the flowers. she marched right through them.

sharing a flower with papaw..

big brother loves his little sissy

picking out the perfect flower

bless you!

hope everyone is having a great week!

well, bowl me over!

we went bowling for the first time today. i am exhausted. it was a great lesson in taking turns & patience for us all.
all of my pictures are blurry, but it was a good old time.
you can see ben's scowl from having to wait his turn..

my little girl carrying the big ball all by herself.

keep on rolling..

there it goes!


my kiddos were fascinated with the gun game. yikes.
mr. ben is getting really protective of his little sis. one of the kiddos accidentally ran into gracie, knocking her down. ben chased after the boy saying "don't push my sissy!" i had to explain to him it was an accident & he said sorry to his friend. ben could knock her down all day, but someone else touch her - no way! i can't imagine how it will be when she starts dating.

play ball! & playing at papaw's

we took the kiddos to see their first basketball game this weekend. basketball is a BIG deal here in southern indiana. we've been meaning to take the kids all year with papaw, but something would always come up. this past saturday was regionals about an hour away, so we went to watch the princeton tigers beat another team (good luck at semi-state guys!). the excitement at tournament games is just plain awesome. we had fun watching the game, even though it was a bit too loud for ben. i asked him if he would like to play ball like that & he said "no, they might knock me down." those boys were quite a bit bigger than him.


sunday, we went to papaw's for lunch & to help him out with stuff. he's about 1/2 through his chemo & the lump on his throat doesn't seem to be getting any smaller. he's starting to wear down a bit too.
this right here made his day though. gracie took his hand walking back from the barn...

he said little miracles still do happen.

there's an old ceramic cat outside at pap's. gracie has taken a liking to it.
damaw hauling around precious cargo.

i love this picture of ben. he doesn't look like he has a care in the world. just living in the moment, swinging. ahh, to be a kid again.

homemade playdoh

one of my favorite memories from childhood is playing with play doh. i played with it all the time. in our sunday school nursery class, the teacher always made her own. it was always the best.
here's the recipe from one of my grandma's old church cookbooks.


the kiddos enjoyed measuring out the ingredients & mixing them together (with a bit of help from mom).

cooking on the stove...

the finished uncolored blob...

ben wanted green (his favorite color) & purple playdoh.




the smell of the stuff brought back memories of my childhood, ahhh. the playdoh has now turned into a lovely shade of gray.

our gnomey home

why gnomes????
well, when daddio & i were engaged, for my birthday my mom had given me a yorkie lawn statue & then a month or so later a memorial statue of a pet that passed away. daddio thought that was a bit odd & asked if she had a thing for lawn ornaments or something. well, with that said the game was on.
one day, at walgreen's, all the summer lawn decorations were 90% off. i bought like 10. i called my mom telling her my plan to stick them all over our flower bed & tell daddio they were from her. we couldn't wait for his response of "gee, thanks," because he would never say anything bad. my mom & i crack ourselves up sometimes.

since then, for every christmas & birthday since daddio & i have been married, my mom (damaw) has gotten him a gnome. this year, namaw (daddio's mom) joined in the fun & added to our gnome collection. for some, it might be a bit much but it puts a big smile on my face.

for ben's first halloween, we were all garden gnomes. a mom at the library playgroup asked if he was a poorly dressed santa claus. i've been mad at her ever since. just kidding, i've gotten over it.

let's go fly a kite..

up to the highest height! i loooove mary poppins, my favorite movie. i wish i had her paitence & magic with kids.

we went kite flying and had a picnic when daddio got off work yesterday. ben didn't want to go, he wanted to play car game on wii. we drug him out of the house & into the van, crying for some family fun outside.



here's my beautiful son when i ask him to smile. priceless.

gracie at first was like her mom & much more interested in the picnic than the kite flying..


once she took a hold, she thought it was great!!!




ben was ready to go home & play car game, his new love. so, he grabbed the kite & headed to the van.


we've put a time limit on mario kart & it is a reward for not having any potty accidents. but my son is addicted to it! as soon as daddio gets home, ben starts begging to play. it's a bit annoying. we may have to take it to namaw & poppy's for a while...