Ninja Ben!

Ninja Ben out to patrol the cul de sac!

A Little Couch Bonding

 Eva and Nick enjoying a little bonding time while watching Jake and the Neverland Pirates. After all the slip n slide and running around, they needed a little rest time before dinner. 

Slip and Slide - On A Hill (and no blood!)

Slip n Slide time in Eva's new (hilly) backyard! And there was no blood! It was a slip n slide miracle! The three of them where pretty funny on it. Nick could not keep his feet under him. He was on his butt the second he stepped onto it! Eva cheated and wore shoes, but she's only 2, so we'll let it slide - this time.

Cousins Time in Chardon

A few weeks ago we drove to Cleveland to see Aunt Andrea and Uncle Kevin's new house, which is pretty awesome, by the way. As seems to be his new thing, Ben asked me to take pictures of him with Elaina. And again, he set up the scene, decided on the pose, whole 9 yards. He didn't have any choice in wardrobe this time, though. Elaina was a better sport than Ben's last photo shoot partner. And even Nick joined it (after Ben approved his pose and location).

Oh, Tricia Court, What A Night...

The annual Tricia Ct Block party. This year I was actually there for it, too! Adam was supposed to be, but his flight from Japan was delayed 5 hours, so he got to ride home in a plush metro car while I stayed home and 'supervised' the bounce house and beer pong. ;) It was a great night with the neighbors!

Kicked all the kids out and had mommy bounce house time!

Safety City Graduates!

In mid July, Adam had to go to Japan for a week, so Grandma came to stay with us. That also happened to be the week of Waterville's Safety City, so Ben was able to go since Grandma could take him and pick him up. He learned about fire safety, the police, saw an ambulance, fire truck, police car, and all sorts of stuff. He had a great time. Friday evening they had a little 'graduation' ceremony that lasted like 5 minutes, but the kids sang a few songs and received a certificate and a bike helmet! Cameryn was in the afternoon session. Every day when they picked Ben up, Nick wanted to play in the power wheels cars. We finally let him after the graduation ceremony. 

T-Ball All Stars!

The Silverhawks 2014 T-ball team! 

I love Nick in this picture - without prompting, he put his arms around the boys next to him. I thought it was so cute!

A Boy and His Dog - Ben's Photoshoot

This was all Ben's idea. One night Ben asked me if he could take pictures with Monster in the backyard. I said sure, but that night wasn't good, so we could do it the following night. The next morning, he came downstairs at 6:30am going on and on about this photo shoot with the dog. He had planned out what he was going to wear, what he wanted in the background, what poses he wanted to do, all of it. I was quite shocked at how serious he was about this! So that evening, I had kind of forgotten about this photo shoot and ran an errand. When I got back, Ben comes walking down the stairs all dressed for his photo shoot with the dog. He picked out his polo shirt, jeans and even wore his too small sperry's. All his idea. I had nothing to do with it. As I'm chuckling at this attention to detail, we head outside for the shoot. Well, by this point, Monster has been tortured by the boys for a few hours and wants nothing to do with them, so taking pictures with her actually sitting next to Ben was going to be challenging. After a bit of coaxing, I finally got her to cooperate for 3 minutes. Her faces of annoyance and slight terror are quite entertaining! 

This was Ben's very specific pose. He had to have one with Monster's legs around him, giving him a hug. The poor dog...she was a good sport!

To end the shoot, Ben wanted to take a picture of me with Monster and use my camera. I tried to make it a selfie, but my 6d with 24-105 lens weights about 6lbs and my arms can't quite manage that, so Ben got to hold the camera (while sitting) and press the shutter. You would have thought he won a year's worth of legos, the way he went on about getting to use my camera. I think Santa should bring him his own real point and shoot this year so he can work on his photo shoot and art direction skills more.