Ben's 1st People

Today on the way to school Ben had a little notebook that he was writing in. He says, "Mom, I drew a picture of dad dancing". He was holding it up so I could see it in the rearview mirror, and I was expecting more of his scribbles, but to my surprise he had drawn his version of a person. I told him to pass it up to me and I took a closer look and it made me chuckle under my breath because 1) it did kind of look like his figure was dancing and 2) of all people to draw dancing, I would not have expected him to draw John because John does not dance! I am constantly amazed at what his little mind comes up with. He then proceeded to draw each person in our family on a separate page. He actually made each kid a different size and made me skinny :) (that was sweet of him). After drawing each person, he would hold it up for my inspection and approval and then show Heidi. He drew our immediate family and then drew Grandpa. The paper fell to the ground and he said, "I dropped Grandpa! Where are you grandpa?" I suggested that he just draw another picture of grandpa, so he drew grandpa and grandma on the same page. We arrived at school as he was finishing that picture so it wasn't as detailed as the others. I got Heidi and Kate in the stroller and he was still in the car. I told him to get out so we could get to class and he told me very matter of factly, "Mom, I had to draw hair on the girls". And he had. I kept the little pictures in my purse today because they make me smile. It's funny how such little things can me so proud of my kids. So enjoy Ben's 1st family portrait!

Getting ready for TT's wedding

We are getting very excited for Aunt Toni & Jesse's wedding. The other day Ben & Heidi both packed bags full of toys to "take to Nashville". Tonight my mom stopped by with Ben's outfit for the wedding so he could try on his pants. Heidi really wanted to wear his shirt and she did until we got her to take it off to wear her red dress. Here are some pictures of our crazy kids. Ben was showing off his muscles and being silly and Heidi has on Kate's Minnie Mouse socks with her outfit. Ben must really love TT because he put on that collared shirt without one little complaint- that is nearly a miracle! He hasn't worn a collared shirt for probably 9 months except when he goes golfing with John. Hopefully it will be that easy on wedding day :) How does he look TT?

Ben's 1st day of 4 year old preschool

Ben started his second year of preschool today. What a difference from last year! He practically didn't even care that I left. He did not take Oscar and Softie either, which he took faithfully every day last year or chase me out the door begging to come home. He is growing up so fast. He insisted on wearing a shirt with a pocket; he is obsessed with wearing clothing with pockets to keep his money, tweezers, etc.. in for safe keeping. He did agree to leave his tweezers at home. I gave him a lucky penny to keep in his pocket, but he informed me that "lucky pennies are only shiny". I assured him that non-shiny pennies could be lucky too, and amazingly he was satisfied. When I picked him up, he said, "Mom, whenever I got a little worried, I rubbed my penny to remember you were coming back." He's such a funny kid. He also told me that he made lots of new friends, but he couldn't remember their names and he loves Mrs. Fritz!

Kate wears jeans

Kate wore jeans for the first time this weekend. She looked so cute! This is the only picture I took and you can't see her jeans well, but she did look adorable in them!

Labor Day Weekend

We had a busy Labor Day weekend. Friday night we got ready for the garage sale we had Saturday morning. It was wonderful to have Grandpa & Grandma Sherman come over and help us. It was a pretty successful garage sale and we cleared out an area of the garage, which is always nice. John had his Fantasy Football draft at our house that afternoon.
Sunday evening we took a family trip over to the Fountains for some dessert and play. The kids love to watch the fountain and play on the playground. There were too many big kids there though. They kept plowing Heidi down and running up the slides. I was proud of Ben because he took her up to the top of the slide to help her. He said, "Come on Heidi, sit in my lap. Don't worry, I'll help you." He was helping her sit down in front of him to go down the slide when a boy jumped over them and kicked Heidi. As the boy started to go down the slide in front of them, I saw Ben give him a little kick in the rear! When he got to the bottom he told me, "Mom, I had to give that boy a little kick because he kicked my sister and I needed to protect her!!!" It made me smile because earlier that day he had no problem shoving her out of the way on one of his missions! On Monday, we spent the day at the Sherman's with my parents, Aunt Donna and the McGuckin family. We had a great time hanging out together and it was fun to see Ben play with the girls- he is quite bossy (I wonder where he gets that from :). The weather was beautiful and it was so nice to spend some time relaxing outside before the craziness of the week began. It was also fun to spend some time with the McGuckins. We love them- they have such a delightful family and we are really going to miss them when they move to San Diego!!! It was a great weekend, but I did not take many pictures, oops! Here's a few.