We {heart} Three Day Weekends!

First, a quick recap of the parade that started off our long weekend. . . The kids’ school has an annual parade before the 4th of July. They decorate banners and flags and march around the building in red, white and blue outfits. This year they had the drum line from a local high school lead the parade. Ben was lucky enough to be in the class right behind the drum line. He waved his streamers and sheepishly smiled as he passed his adoring fans. Elizabeth was further back in the parade and was one of the lucky babies that got to be carried by a teacher rather than ride in the buggy. Ben has not stopped talking about the drummers since. He thought they were very cool!

Friday:

We enjoyed a couple of cartoons before heading to the “tree store” to check out some potential trees for our backyard. Ben thought the nursery was wonderful and asked when we could go back to play. We headed to the library after that. Ben got six new books and thought we were having the best weekend ever. Yea for two fun and free experiences all before 11AM.

We napped and ran errands in the afternoon. Friday night we got to have a special dinner with our friends Abigail, Claire, Lisa, Matt, Matt and Aaron. The bigger kids ate quesadillas and enjoyed giggling and running around together. Elizabeth studied faces and enjoyed being passed around. She was a little jealous of Claire’s high chair so we may have to try one next time. It was so fun to see everyone and we look forward to seeing Abigail and Claire again in a couple of weeks! Yea!

Saturday:

We started our 4th of July by going to a birthday party for our sweet friend Ella. Ella is also a new big sister so Mom got to drool over the new baby! He is precious and we will be visiting him again soon for a longer visit. Ella’s party was so fun! At the party we found out that Ben is going to be one of those kids that can’t keep secrets. He yelled out to Ella several times what we got her and asked if she would open her puzzle so he could play with it. I think I know where he got that trait from, Uncle Jeff. :)

We tried to recover from Ben’s cupcake high and both kids actually rested at similar times. That gave Mom and Dad time to pack up for the next event! We spent the evening at a cookout and fireworks show with some friends of the family. They host an annual 4th of July party and do a pretty decent size fireworks display after dark. This was Ben’s first year to stay up and watch fireworks, so he didn’t really know what to expect. He told us they would fly up in the sky near Jesus and that God would like to watch them. Pretty sweet. J Ben watched the first 5 – 10 minutes in Mom’s lap and then made a convincing argument that we would rather watch them from the porch. A couple of minutes later, he decided that he would enjoy watching them even more from inside the house through the window. We quizzed him later and he said that he liked them very much, but they hurt his ears. Fair enough.

Sunday:

We were a little groggy, but still got up and made it to church by 8:00. Little Miss E wanted to make sure she got her share of attention that morning so she proceeded to dirty her entire car seat. Yuck! We recovered though and enjoyed a nice service and class time. Sunday’s nap then allowed for poor Dad to disassemble, clean and reassemble the car seat and all of its accessories.

Mom’s family all gathered at the house around 3:00 to welcome home cousins Erin and Eric. They are home from a stint in Seattle and we are so glad to have them here! We celebrated with snacks and visiting. The three E’s finally all got to meet and Elizabeth quickly warmed up to her cousins. Ben eventually warmed up and proceeded to recount the weekend’s activities to anyone who would listen and showed all of his Hotwheels to everyone. We regrouped around 5:00 and headed to the bowling alley. We had one regular lane and one bumper lane. This was Ben’s first experience bowling and he was very excited. Luckily we had happened across an episode of Arthur a week or so ago where they all went bowling, so he at least new generally what might go on.Dad helped Ben pick out a light ball and try to roll it by himself the first time. It was the slowest roll we had ever seen and no one was sure it would make it to the end of the lane. It eventually did and then we got a special ramp to help launch the ball each time and not tire Ben out as much. Ben enjoyed the evening and ate pizza and hammed it up for his aunts, uncles and cousins. He was glad to have gone bowling but told us that he didn’t want to go again soon, because he was very tired from it. :)

So that concludes the last three days from the boring to the exciting moments. We are thankful for getting to spend time with so many friends and family. What a blessing!

Five Months as the Fab Four

We have successfully completed five months as a family of four. Elizabeth is growing big and strong. She continues to enjoy rolling to her tummy, eating cereal and focusing her attention on anything that Ben says or does. She was 14 pounds a couple of weeks ago at the doctor. Mom took her in for a “rash” to find out that E has eczema just like Ben.

Ben grows sweeter and more stubborn by the day. He loves “Lithbeth” so much and takes any chance he can to hug on her or talk to her. We recently took a trip to Lawrence and after we had been in the car a few hours, Ben proclaimed that he just “needed” to stop and hold sister. It had just been too long. On the flip side, he is less than charming at nap time and uses any excuse to postpone sleep. Mom’s favorite excuse yet was that he needed his fingernails clipped. Wow, he was desperate not to sleep that night!

During our trip to Lawrence, the kids got some fun time with Grandma Elaine, Grandpa Larry and Uncle Adam. Ellie got her first swim in the pool and Ben enjoyed two good stretches in the pool and now loves to jump off the side onto Mom or Dad. We had to institute the rule that you make eye contact first and count before you jump rather than sneak attack. Ben also acquired some of Dad’s “vintage” Hot Wheels and was please to add a carrying case to his collection as well.

A couple of weekends before we went to Lawrence, we had Aunt Sarah and Uncle Dusty come to stay with us. Ben was shy for about five minutes and then he had pulled out every piece of artwork he ever made to show off, was telling them both how to play cars and loving every minute of the attention. We had a nice visit and are happy that Elizabeth has met Adam, Sarah and Dusty now.

It has been a fun summer so far. We are looking forward to a long weekend coming up and more time outside and by the water. Will update soon with our fireworks adventures!

Rollin', rollin', rollin'

Ellie is a rollin'!

Miss Elizabeth finally made it over from her back to her tummy last week. She makes it to her side quite frequently, but couldn't get over her arm. Well, the toys on her baby gym were enough incentive to get her to reach a little more and make it all the way over. She was so pleased with herself and was not appreciative when Mom flipped her back over to do it again. Pretty soon she will be rolling across the floor causing trouble in Ben's previously baby free zone!