Ben's Party

After going round and round with my now eight year old about where we were going to have his birthday party this year, I finally consented to letting him have it at Sport Connection. Not my favorite place. He kept reminding me it was HIS birthday. Oh, whatever! Sports Connection is a bowling alley, arcade, pizza joint, bouncy hall, and laser tag all under one roof. Ben loves the place. I on the other hand would be happy if I never have to step foot into that place again.

But the kids had fun bowling and trying to eliminate each other at laser tag. It's all about the kids these days I guess.

Of course I made my future rock star an electric guitar cake. Not bad eh? I used a pound cake recipe so it would be easier to cut and shape. And it was easy. But the taste was a little strange for a birthday cake. You don't expect pound cake covered in buttercream. The kids didn't seem to care, they ate it without saying a word. But it definitely wasn't your typical moist and fluffy birthday cake. It was dense. I like dense cake. But it was a little odd to bite into a heavy piece of pound cake covered with frosting. I don't even want to tell you the amount of butter that was used. Yikes. I've been eating cake everyday since Camryn's birthday. It must stop. Maybe once this cake is gone. I need to finish eating it first, then I can stop eating it.

Since Ben's birthday was on a Monday he had to wait all day for Jon to get home before he opened his presents from the family. We knew he would be checking out the pile of stuff on the table all day so we did what any loving parents would do. We tricked him. We wrapped a couple random things from around the house while his real present was hidden in Jon's closet. All day Ben was picking up and shaking and testing the weight of presents. Ha! We got him good!!

He asked for one thing and one thing only. Band Hero for the Wii. When he woke up and saw the pile of small wrapped gifts he looked a little disappointed. But he did enjoy the Lego car set from his cousins that he got to open after breakfast.

Once Jon got home we let Ben have at it, as he started opening one of the gag gifts Jon went to his closet and brought out one HUGE box. Ben got his Band Hero. And now mommy needs an endless supply of wine and Tylenol. Kidding. It's not THAT bad. Yet. He's still learning.

Eight is Grrreat!!

Ben turned eight today. EIGHT!! That's close to TEN! As crazy as it is, you know what, it's kinda cool. To have a kid that you actually like. An eight year old who is funny, smart, caring, sensitive, creative and confident.

I love babies. I've always loved babies. That will never change. But I'm really enjoying my baby becoming a kid. I kinda like the person he's turning out to be.

When I don't want to kill him that is. But for the most part, he's pretty darn wonderful.


Happy Birthday Buddy.

Dangitall!

No sooner than the letters flew from my fingertips than my Nikon stopped working. Again. Those blood curdling screams around noon? That was me. I could scream again just thinking about it!! But I won't. I have four sleeping babies upstairs.
It appears that my Nikon is corrupting memory cards and pictures. Things were going ok since I got a new memory card, but now the D70s is up to it's old tricks again. I can see the pictures on the camera viewer, but I can't get them off the memory card. I left my camera plugged into my computer and did some digging. My camera is converting jpegs to files that my computer doesn't recognize and won't open. I tried it with Jon's computer. Same thing. The files are corrupt. My camera is playing evil tricks on me. I got 20 out of 70+ pictures today. UGH! And I was just starting to have lots of fun with all the manual settings too. This stinks!!!
My plan is to save all the gas money I'm saving by not going anywhere and buy myself a new one. A better one. So there D70s. Take that.

Sob. I miss my Nikon.

Creature Comforts

It's shots like these that make me really miss my Nikon. Not that I don't love a good point and shoot Cannon because I do. But these would have been awesome with my SLR. Can you see the butterfly on her hand?
Butterflies can be found around our pool all day, looking for so water in this 95+ degree weather. Eventually one will land on you ~ I think they like the salt and minerals in human sweat. Of course Katie prefers to think they just like her.

Showing Cam, who tried to grab it a few times. Good thing butterflies are fast! It came back to Katie over and over again. And then it landed here ...

Kate didn't mind, too much.

And eventually got it back onto her fingers.

So what's wrong with my Nikon you ask? My mom and I (and the professionals at Wolfe Camera) have been trying to figure that out for almost a year now. It's taken so long because of me, not them. I just don't like to leave the house. Even when I have a reason to. I think I may be turning into a hermit. Or my mother. Which really is the same thing. Kidding Mom, you're not that bad. Yet.

Back to the camera. As of today it is working just fine. I just need a new lens. Much cheaper than replacing the camera so I won't complain. I have been using it over the last couple of days. I'm whole again now that I have my Nikon. The only issue is I am using a manual lens with manual focus. Great for still shots. Not so great when trying to capture my four crazies who never stop moving.

Twofer

You would think I could remember from post to post to upload my pictures 'backwards' so they go in order. But no. I can't remember. And now that they are on here there's no way I'm messing with them. Call it lazy if you want. I prefer to think if it as creative time saving. Anyway, here are some pictures from Camryn's Birthday party. What? Don't all two year olds have TWO parties??? Yeah, it's overkill. But according to the older sibling of little miss 'you have to have a party!!'. Besides who doesn't love getting together with good friends and family over some cake?

Maya and Katie helping Cam blow out her candles. Check out that cake!

This is Miss Ella Rae, my niece. Isn't she just squeezably sweet?!? Camryn LOVES her. Almost too much. Sorry Ella.

Here are my crazies before the party started that day. Notice Cam's fat lip. Big sister decided to push Camryn in the doll stroller down a 'step-down'. She landed on her face. An hour before the party. Sigh.

Cam and her big brothers. Sweet love. And the cake. Made by yours truly. All from scratch. Yup, I am all that and then some.

I love brother kissing sister pictures. I think her day was made right then and there. Maybe even made her fat lip feel better. For a minute.

Who wouldn't swoon over those dark brown eyes, long eyelashes and dirty blond hair?!?!

Here's a close-up of the cake. Isn't it cute. I came up with it all by myself, thank you very much. I baked the body in one of my large mixing bowls (which took forever!) and the head consists of two cupcakes held together by icing ~ also made from scratch. Buttercream. Butter and sugar together in perfect harmony. YUM!

Here I am hard at work. It was a lot of fun really. And it's my newest obsession, no not baking. that just wouldn't be good for any of us. My newest obsession is knowing every ingredient that crosses my kids lips. I'm getting to the point where if I don't know what's in it I don't want my kids eating it. I have nothing else better to do than worry, so that's what I do. At least when I feed them my homemade cakes I know what it is made from. Butter, sugar, eggs and flour. Can't go wrong with that combo!

The gang. They deserve homemade cakes don't ya think?

EOY Picnic

Wednesday was Ben's first grade End of Year picnic. He and his classmates gathered at fellow student's Mazie's house for a morning of fun. The kids were split-up into three teams for all the games. Ben was on the yellow team hence the yellow bandanna.

Here they are getting the pep-talk about the relay rules.

Ben waiting in line for the laundry relay. The kids had to put on a shirt, flip flops, hat, sunglasses, and swim float then run to a marker in the yard, turn around run back, tag the person behind them, take all their 'stuff' off and help the next kid in line get dressed and on their way. It was so cute to watch the kids try to help each other and then cheer each other on. The face plants caused by the over sized flip flops had all us mom's giggling. A good time was had by all.

Sweaty boys taking a lunch break, it was only 92 that day. Austin is one of Ben's best buddies. Sadly he won't be returning to Latin next year. We will have to make a point of getting together with him this summer.

The t-shirt line. All the kids signed the shirts and each came home with one on.

There's the whole gang. Mrs. Cook & Mrs. Kohlemier's First Grade Class. The class of 2021. Mrs. Cook (in orange) has the nicest things to say about Ben. She said that in college she imagined all her students would be wide-eyed in anticipation of learning something new. As a teacher she says this rarely happens. Ben is one of those kids. According to Mrs. Cook, as soon as new information is presented to Ben he scoots forward to the edge of his seat, folds his feet under his chair, crosses his arms on his desk and stares at her with his wide-eyed 'tell me more' look. A few times she was worried he might actually fall out of his seat he would get so into what she was saying. As we were leaving the picnic on Wednesday she said to me "Next year when I'm having a hard day I am going to go find Ben and teach his class for a moment, just to have him look at me the way he does." How sweet is that!?!

Happy Birthday Baby!

My baby is two today. And she's every bit of two too. Talking up a storm, throwing fits when she doesn't get what she wants, using her cuteness to her advantage, trying to keep up with her older siblings and basically running our household.

Here she is helping make her birthday cake (from scratch. Thank you very much.).

And enjoying the fruits of her labor.

Camryn got to open her presents as soon as Jon was home from work. She waited patiently all day as her presents stared at her from the kitchen table.

Checking out new babies for the doll house, along with new fingerpaints, playdough and a sprinkler ~ hmmm, I think I may have an idea of what our day is going consist of tomorrow.

Happy Birthday to my sweet baby. I can not believe it's been two years since she was born. The time has just flown by. But she will always be my baby. No matter how big or how sassy she gets. Camryn's sentences are getting longer and longer everyday. At dinner tonight she said "Ben eat me carrot" ~ translation : Ben ate my carrot. It won't be long until everyone will be able to understand what she says. For now I'm enjoying my time as a translator knowing my days are numbered under that job description. Sniff.