Sledding with Daddy

Adam's parents got a little bit more snow than we did, so they dusted off the old sled and headed for the back hill today. It was pretty darn cold out and Ben was bundled to the hilt. I'm not even sure he could see. Ben and Adam made two runs and then Ben decided he was done. It was pretty cold out and he just wanted to go in the barn and play with his trucks. While they were cold and freezing, I was nice and toasty warm in the house, taking these pictures with my telephoto lens :)

Birthday Party: Part 2 - JoJo's Pizza

After some time playing at Playland, we all headed over to JoJo's Pizza for dinner and cupcakes. JoJo's was great! They had the table all set up for us, we had a room to ourselves, good service and good food.

Lily and Susan make cookies earlier in the day, and spelled out a special message for Ben!

As part of the kid's goodie bags, I found foam animal masks.

Ben received some very nice, generous gifts that he was very excited about!

Ben gets so weird when people sing Happy Birthday. He hides his face like he's embarrassed.

An action shot of blowing out the candles - he blew out all 3 in one try!

We had another round of Alligator cupcakes - chocolate malt flavor this time. And again, they were a hit!

On the way home, Ben told us that this was his 'bestest birthday ever, ever' because you know, he's had soooo many...

Birthday Party: Part 1 - Playland

Part 1 of Ben's birthday party: play time at Sylvania Playland. We invited Cameryn, Andrew and Lily to join us in celebrating Ben's birthday. This was Ben's first friends party. After a tumultuous nap time, I was concerned about Ben and how he would behave, but he, and all the kids, were excellent! They all had a great time playing in the bouncy house, on the slides, the rollercoaster and the always popular school bus. (I think the school bus might make an appearance at our house for Nick's birthday. It is a serious toddler/preschooler pleaser). I of course could not get a picture of all the kids together at once, but we could always photoshop Ben into the picture with the other three kids.

The Birthday Boy!!

Ben is 3 today! The birthday boy had a good day. He had eggs for breakfast, got a special surprise from Grandma and Grandpa B, cookies for lunch and birthday party with his friends this evening. And there is even more to come tomorrow! We're having a birthday party at Grandma and Dziadziu's, sledding and a skype birthday party with Grandma and Grandpa B and Sarah on Sunday. Whew, it's going to be an exhausting weekend!

Alligator Cupcakes!

And while Ben decorated his cupcakes, I made these alligator cupcakes for Ben's birthday. He is taking them to daycare tomorrow for a little party. He is going to be very excited when he sees them in the morning. I finished them after he went to bed, so I think he's going to be very surprised.

Decorating Cupcakes

Ben helped decorate cupcakes tonight. He made a 'water' cupcake (blue frosting), along with white frosting. He was relatively mess free, amazingly. And of course he really liked eating his work.

One Step At A Time

Nick is just starting to take his first steps. So far he's only taken one or two small steps at a time. I'm not exactly pushing him toward taking more, either!

The Place to Be!

Well, apparently the mall is the place to be on Saturday nights in the winter! I took the boys over to the mall Saturday while Adam worked on the new bookcase. After returning some pants I had ordered, I took the boys to the food court for dinner. After we finished, we ran into Kristi and Andrew! The boys went over to ride the merry-go-round, where we ran into Scott, Susan and Lily! All the kids rode the merry-go-round and Ben was being completely ridiculous for some reason. He was hiding his face and being all shy. But it was still nice running into everyone at the mall!

A Pretty Typical Sunday Night

My first attempt at using the self timer on the camera. We were all on the couch watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates (compelling television) and I thought it might be a cute family picture.

Silly Boy In A Basket

Lil' Cowboy!

Giddy Up!

A graceful dismount

No, Mommy, I'm Not Tired

Uh huh, someone wasn't tired and didn't need a rest. He passed out literally in the middle of playing trains.

Ben Can Ride A Bike!

The weather was so nice yesterday, the boys and I went for a walk. Ben had been asking to ride his bike all day, so I put Nick in the stroller and let Ben ride his bike. He is now able to peddle pretty consistently and start from a dead stop. He kind of rocks himself back and uses the momentum to get forward motion. We need to work on endurance and steering. He gets pretty frustrated when he goes off the sidewalk, which happens quite frequently yet.