a fun day at the children's museum

we went to cmoe today with some friends. it was a great thing to do, as i wasn't motivated to get out of my pajamas.

the first area we entered was the ball area. ben did not want to leave. he was in heaven. balls everywhere. balls that float,
, balls to throw, balls to load, balls to dump, balls to launch,
you name it.

there's a section in the museum intitled big. there's a great big nose the kiddos can crawl through. here's miss grace inside that old nose.
the kids enjoyed pulling out a poor lady's intestines.


everyone's favorite part, was of course, downstairs, in the basement where all the balls go to. where the water is.... gracie ended up like a drowned rat; due to her need to fill up a basket with holes in it & carry it over to the large waterhole in the center over & over again. but, she had a good time. & we had a change of clothes, so no problem..
miss melissa makin some fog bubbles

after her water play, miss g decided to move on to bridge building. do i see a civil engineer in the future??


hope everyone is having a funtastic day!

teeshirts to tiedye for

ben was growing out of his tiedyed shirts, so it was time for a new batch. this year, i let them have free reign to color them all by themselves. (a very hard thing for me to do, knowing the color wouldn't be reaching into all the little nooks and crannies, but oh well).
i put rubberbands on several white tees & let the kids go to down. we had left over dye from joann's summer clearance last year. this stuff rocks. you just squirt it on; no ash dye to mess with, no pretreatment involved, you just get to squirting.
gracie's favorite canvas, was once again, herself (& me)

ben worked so hard on each shirt.

here is his favorite shirt. viola!

gracie thought this one was the best to relax on after all the hard artistry.

hush little baby,

this is a picture from when my gracie was a baby & i didn't leave her sleeping there for long. but i love this picture of them laying together. the kids have their own beds, but have never slept in them alone through the night. we all end up sleeping together. i must say i enjoy the closeness. gracie in one arm, ben in the middle and holding daddio's hand. it's peaceful until i hear my husband start to drift to sleep & his motor start snoring. then i pick gracie up & we move to ben's bed.

well, anyways, this past week we had a fun-filled day at the zoo where the kids walked the entire time & were totalled exhausted. they were both cuddled between us watching "king of the hill" (not the best show for kids, i know, but we were tired). ben was holding gracie & it was sooo sweet. all of a sudden, he noticed she was asleep. he was soo proud of himself as a big brother getting her to sleep. he even woke up daddio to tell him the great news. daddio, in his semi-conscience state was of course thrilled & told him ben to try & get him to sleep. so that was ben's next goal. ben told me once he did that we could talk, just like grown ups do.

my rockstar in training

when we ask ben what he's going to be when he grows up, he replies matter-of-factly, a rock star.

it's entitled "oh little kitten" & get's a little wild towards the end. i don't blame you if you can't handle listening to it all!

packing up for preschool

the other morning, when ben was putting on his good morning clothes all by himself, he decided to pack up his backpack for preschool. he was carefully thinking about what all he might need.
he packed the following:
* sunglasses to play in case it was bright outside
* 3 cars - 1 for him, 1 for alaina, & 1 for a new friend at preschool
* a book for storytime like at the library
* a block for building
* a keyboard for music time(but it wouldn't fit)
* a pillow for naptime (it wouldn't fit & he doesn't take naps)
* a ball to play with

he looks all set to me! i can't believe my little guy is 3 1/2 & getting ready to start preschool. it seems like yesterday he was just born. time flies by so fast.

3 sweet words

miss gracie lets mr. ben do most of the talking around here. last night going to bed, she finally told daddy i love you. of course i had to get the video camera out & record her!

just melts your heart.

surfin usa

a few final photos from vacation....
oh how i miss vacation...

family pictures by the sea

i think i'm about done with pictures from vacation.... here are the "fancy" ones we took together.
the crew heading down for pictures.
gracie girl in her pillowcase dress i made her. her & darby have matching dresses from their great great great aunt delia's pillowcase collection.


mr. ben. i can hardly get a picture of him anymore. he just won't let me.

our family picture

the kiddos playing around.








beano loves to be by darby's side. miss gracie would do anything we'd say for the camera. she's so good.

gracie's birthday party round 2

miss gracie was born on a friday the 13. i tried to not be to superstitious, but that day turned out pretty crappy (other than the miracle of her birth of course). there were complications & we were very stressed out about her health for weeks on end after she was born. now, you would never know it. this year, we got to celebrate her birthday on the beach. we had a "bee-buu" as she calls it (blue's clues) birthday party themed birthday for her. thank goodness i had everything left over from ben's 2nd birthday! worked out pretty well.
ben celebrated by trying his first sip of root beer (which he loved, thanks brad).

here's ever so cheerful ben. he was a bit moody on vacation. poor guy. he had a middle ear infection & testicular torsion and wanted to be big like his older cousin, so i guess those are all reasons to be a bit of a grump. he's now acting like his old self & i am much relieved. he does have a dr. appointment next week just to be looked over


miss gracie cuddling up to great great uncle paul, or "papy paul", to read a book. he & dee are our babysitters whenever we need one, but gracie really bonded with him over vacation.


we had a pinata, &

the kiddos had a blast trying to tear it apart. gracie enjoyed every bit of taffy from it. man, does she have a sweet tooth!

here's a video of her enjoying her cake. sorry i don't know how to edit out my laughing & other stuff.


daddio has been working hard on the big birthday present this week & it is complete! the kiddos love it!

they have decorated the inside of the fort with chalk all over the place. we started to stop them, but then realized we let them color on our house & this is their house so no bother.
i think they spent a good 4 hours playing on it yesterday. thank you daddio for the patience to put it together for us. we love you!