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.

Imagination Station

It has been a while since we went to Imagination Station, so the boys and I headed over there this morning. And may I just say, the valet parking is totally worth it there. It might be a couple dollars more than parking in the scary garage, but it is SOOOO much nicer and way less scary.

The boys had a good time. They mostly played in the fire truck area. Nick was crawling around and playing with the fire truck while Ben moved stuff around and put out the fire on top of the little play house.

And then I let them play in the water for a bit before it was time to leave. Taking a lesson from Susan, I brought an extra change of clothes for Nick, which was absolutely necessary. He was as wet as if he had jumped into a pool. But he had a great time playing in the water.

Scrub a dub

two dirty little boys in the tub!

Building Towers

Ben got a set of wooden blocks for Christmas and has been working on his tower building skills ever since!

10 Month Pictures

Nick's 10 month pictures and some new favorites!

Awww, Cute Baby Monster

Poor Baby Monster. She needs her own blog post. She had a very good Christmas vacation at the dog sitter's. She played, and played and played with a golden retriever, had free reign of the backyard via the doggie door and had no kids around. It was Monster paradise. But, unfortunately it was probably Monster's last visit - our dog sitter is moving to Florida! :(  Monster made the most of her last visit, though.