Last day of Pre-K!

Ben had his very last day of Pre K today! Now it's off to Kindergarten :) I can't believe it. He had a great year, learned a LOT, and made some good friends!

Ben with his teachers Mr. Kasey and Ms. Jenna!

The end of Preschool also means saying goodbye to Ellie :)

Kate thoroughly enjoyed the end of the year BBQ, especially the cupcake walk !

Who's the Boss?

  Emma and Ben were VERY excited about going fishing this morning. Dave was outside loading fishing poles, rain gear and snacks into the car. Ben came running through the kitchen full speed and I said, “You need to make sure you bring your coat”.
He replied “Well, I’ll go ask daddy if I need it or not.”
“Um, I think I can make that decision too.” I said.
“But Daddy’s the boss” , he said.
I set the peanut butter down and stared at him. “Are you sure about that?”
He thought about it for a minute and then said, “Well, you’re the boss of the house, but daddy’s the boss of fishing.” Then he ran out the door.
Emma looked at me and said, “That was a good answer, right mom?”
I smiled…I guess I will make him a PB&J after all…..
   

Ben brings em home

At Ben's T-ball game Saturday he got a hit without the Tee!! And amazingly, we got it on video...he was the last batter up, so he got to run all the way home- stay tuned for the ending, when he tries to outwit the catcher :) Ha!!

Self-Esteem

  This morning while I was attempting to fold laundry, Ben, Katie and I were playing the question game. It’s a game we kinda made up, and is VERY popular around here. It goes something like this: Raise your hand if you like spiders…Raise your hand if you like cleaning your room…Raise your hand if you like to swim with Great white sharks. Anyway, you get the picture, right? This game can go on and on and on. So Ben was asking the questions in typical Ben style. “Raise your hand if you like eating garbage, raise your hand if you like skydiving, raise your hand if you think Katie smells”. We were all laughing. Then he says, “Raise your hand if you like to eat” Then he looks right at me and says, “You better raise your hand really high on this one mom”. Uhhhhh…talk about a hit to my self-esteem.
   I dumped the basket of clean clothes on his head and sentenced him to…find matches to ALL the socks! That’ll teach him……

Slug Bug game

   Emma and Ben usually get along pretty well, especially for a brother and sister. But, they also know EXACTLY how to push each other’s buttons, and lately they have been just picking at each other ALL THE TIME. For some reason, this happens the most in the car. They fight over the window seat, which music to listen to, who stared at who first, who crossed over the “invisible” line and touched the others one’s leg, who gets to give Katie a cheezit, Ben claiming Emma’s Barbie is staring at him, Emma claiming Ben’s kicking her seat on PURPOSE. I could go on and on.
  So today on our way home from church, they start playing the slug bug game, which in our family never seems to have a happy ending no matter how many rules there are. By the fourth slug bug citing, tempers were already flaring up. So, I yelled in my scary mommy voice, “NO MORE SLUG BUG GAME- EVER….we’re done with it!”
  This was followed by 5 seconds of silence. Then Emma mumbled, “But mom..” I said, “No butts! The next person that yells out slug bug is going on time-out when we get home!”
   Again, more silence. Then Ben says, “What if I just think it in my head? Will I get in trouble for that?”
   I say, “Ben, just don’t even think about slug bugs anymore- you need an intervention!”
   So, we continue driving. Then Emma yells, “Mom, Ben is totally getting slug bugs in his head! I can see him smiling when they go by!” OH. MY. WORD. God send me some extra patience today…..

Monsters

At 4am this morning I was nudged (not to gently) awake by the little boy of the house. He stood by the bed with crocodile tears in his eyes. “I had a bad dream” he said and climbed up to snuggle with me.
“What was it about?” I mumbled.
He said, “There were these HUGE monsters and they came into our house.”
“Wow, that’s scary, what did they do?” I asked (fully expecting to hear they chased us, or took Katie, or burned our house down- something to that extent)
 He grabbed my face and with one little tear escaping he said, “It was so awful. They came into the house and took BOTH our TV’s.” And with that, he buried his face in the pillow.
Wow, I’m thinking he needs a break from electronics for awhile…and once again, I need some more coffee…

Magic

Yesterday Emma and Ben decided to put on a little magic show for me. They’ve done this MANY times before, so I asked if it was going to be “new material or the same trick of making Katie disappear under a blanket?”. Apparently it was brand new, amazing, super cool tricks they JUST learned. So, I sat down to be amazed.
   Emma went first and put a dollar bill into a cup and covered it with a towel. “Now, I will make the money disappear!”, she said while waving her arms around. Then she says, “Now, close your eyes really tight!” Hmmm..(don’t you just LOVE magic tricks that require you to close your eyes?) When I opened them, the money was REALLY gone. Amazing.
   Then Ben said, “It’s my turn!” He goes over to the sink, fills a cup with water, and sets it on the table. Then, he goes and gets a washcloth from the drawer. Hmmm..I am very curious. He holds the towel over the cup and says, “I will make this towel change right before your eyes!” He then proceeds to dunk it in the water, pull it out, and drip all over the floor. “Ta-da!”, he says smiling, “I made it go from dry to wet!”
   I couldn’t have been prouder at this moment… I clapped and tried not to laugh, but when Emma said, “Maybe I’ll do magic tricks at the talent show at school”, I couldn’t contain my smile any longer. I said, “That might be fun, but maybe you should really refine your newfound hobby before presenting it to the whole world.” She agreed. Thank the Good Lord...

Mothers Day

Thank you God for these three precious kids- I love em so much!

Loving the boy

We were cheering on the fighting Irish last week at Ben’s T-ball game. It was his turn to bat, and he walked up to the plate with a ton of confidence and a helmet two sizes to big. He hit a nice grounder past the pitcher and ran to first base. Everyone clapped and I yelled, “Way to go buddy!” He turned and gave me a thumbs up, and then yelled really loud, “I love you mom!” My heart melted. He didn’t care that his whole team heard him. He didn’t care that it made everyone chuckle a little. He meant it. Pure and complete innocence. I’m pretty sure he won’t be yelling that out when he’s 15, but I hope he always feels like he can tell me it anytime he wants to…

Bossy

Evenings are usually chaotic around here, I think any household with kids can testify to this. Tonight was no different, lots of fun, lots of work, lots of chaos. So, after snacks, baths and a game of Uno, I started hustling kiddos to bed. I asked them to pick up toys, throw away trash, brush teeth- all the usual stuff. From down the hall I hear Ben banging around in the bathroom. So, I quickly walk down there and say, “Hey, how about we try and be a little quieter!”. He looks at me, smiles and says, “How about we try and not be so bossy?”. Wow… So, after I sent him to bed for that remark, I went out into the kitchen and laughed.. He’s got guts, I tell ya. I can’t wait till 13.….

Confession

   Confession: I don’t put the lids back on containers. There, I said it. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes I remember, but I’m notorious for this problem. Let me clarify a little more- my intentions are usually good. The lid might be ON it, but it’s the tightening part I have a really hard time with.
   My family can testify to this, they lived with me for 19 years. (I’m also known for spilling stuff, but that’s a whole other story in itself). Unfortunately for my husband, when he said “For richer or poorer, in sickness and in health”, he had no idea this also included “I’ll love you even when you leave the lid open on the coffee creamer 5 days in a row”. Luckily this is my ONLY weakness (ha!).
   EVERY SINGLE TIME I go to use the baby powder it puffs up in my face. How hard is it to twist the lid shut? Every time I go on a trip my perfume leaks on my clothes. If you go to get a baby wipe the top one is ALWAYS dry. I quit using the same container of mouthwash as Dave because I know it was driving him insane. And don’t even get me started on bubbles- I never remember to put the lid back on those babies.
    I cannot COUNT the number of times Dave has gone to get creamer, shook it, and was promptly sprayed with hazelnut yumminess. The kids have not been immune to it either. Just yesterday I handed Katie a sippy cup of milk and it ran all down the front of her shirt. Yep, the lid was loose. Have you ever seen how far baby butt cream can shoot when you step on it with the lid off? Pretty far.
    Dave and I have reached some sort of unspoken agreement on this issue, I know it drives him CRAZY. Seriously, I know it does. But, I think he tries to be patient with me for two reasons. He LOVES me, and he knows that his HUGE pile of clothes that accumulate on the floor drive me crazy. We work past it.
    But 2 days ago, as we’re sitting down to dinner, he went to get some cranberry juice. He shook it a little, and juice went everywhere. The room went silent. He stood there I think taking big deep breaths. I’m not to sure because I walked out of the room really fast. We both cleaned it up in silence. Nothing was said, and we moved on. I think I’ll go tackle the pile of clothes on the bedroom floor now- and check the lids before he gets home..
   

Goodbye Painted Ladies!

We watched our butterflies for 4 days. We fed them sugar water on flower petals and slices of oranges. We let them crawl on our hands. Katie sang to them. We watched them get stronger. Then it was time to let them go- Come back and visit us soon butterflies!

Butterflies!

Talk about a miracle! We have been taking care of baby caterpillars for weeks now, and the kids have been on pins and needles waiting to see them turn into Butterflies! Yesterday they got to watch it all happen, and were in total awe! God is sure awesome!

Our girls

Auntie Crystal did the girls hair while we were at the beach..they look so grown up! Love these girls!

Beach trip!

We were so blessed to be able to spend the weekend at the beach! (A BIG thank you to Janie and Kevin for letting us use their awesome house by the bay!). We had a great time, and it was the first time in 8 months that my whole fam had ALL been together.. We ate great food, walked the beach, sat in the spa, hunted seashells, dug clams, had a campfire, threw lots of rocks, got the kite out, went shopping and caught up...Oh, and we also got some good family pics! So, here a little glimpse of the Bodine/Hughes/Winters mini-vacay!

Special breakfast

This morning after we dropped Emma off at school Ben decided to open a hair salon. I really wanted to drink coffee and have breakfast, but apparently I had an appointment to get my hair looking “more like a woman” (his words). So, he did my hair very carefully and charged me 2 dollars (he said I could pay him whenever I get the money- he’s so considerate). Then, Katie needed a diaper change, the phone was ringing, and soon it was 9:30 and I still didn’t have coffee or breakfast and my hair looked like the bride of Frankenstein.
   So, I said, “I’m jumping in the shower and then I really HAVE to eat some breakfast so I don’t get GRUMPY!” Half-way through my shower Ben comes in to tell me he and Katie made me some breakfast so I could relax. Uh-oh. I could tell he was pretty proud of himself. He says, “We’re waiting for you out in the kitchen with your special treat!”
   Waiting for me on the counter was a cup layered with Fruit loops, a crushed up deviled egg, coconut flakes, a broken ganola bar, rainbow sprinkles, some shredded cheese and chocolate chips. People, I really enjoy food, but I’m not sure anyone could stomach that. Unfortunately, the deviled egg seemed to have touched every single piece of food- they must have mixed it all up. They were both smiling at me and Ben said, “We really hope you enjoy it!”
    I’m thinking of giving them some payback at lunchtime…..
Oh, here's a pic of the scrumptious breakfast bowl..

A great start to vacation

   Let me set the stage for you so you all can fully comprehend what I’m about to share. We had the car packed to the brim with sleeping bags, suitcases, beach toys, kites, 1 dog, 3 kids and a partridge in a pear tree. Anyway, you get the point. We were cruising down the road on our way to see family, play at the beach, and hopefully get some rest. Everyone was pretty happy, the trip non-eventful so far. But, as it goes with most of our vacations or outings, this was to be short lived.
  As most of you know from past stories I’ve told, Ben is notorious for having to go to the bathroom at the most inconvenient times. Every single time we go out to eat he has to go #2. It never fails. The minute I start bagging groceries at Winco he ALWAYS has to go. Standing on 2nd base during his baseball game he starts doing the dance. Basically if there’s not a toilet in a 5 mile radius you can bet that he’ll need one.
  So on Thursday, as we made the 2-hour drive south, we had already stopped twice for potty breaks. We were on the home stretch, only 15 minutes from out destination. That’s when I heard Ben say, “I have to go potty SO BAD!” Grrrr… Dave says, “You just went 30 minutes ago, can’t you hold it?” Then the panicking starts. “It’s gonna come out! I can’t hold it!” Folks, there was no place to pull over. So, I quickly scanned the contents of the car and my eyes fell on a  Panda Express Cup. I grabbed it, took the lid off, and told Ben to pee in the cup. He’s done it before, so he knew the drill.
    He hopped down from his seat, I reached back with the cup and said, “Make sure you aim right into the cup, ok?” Well, I’m still trying to figure out what happened next. Pretty much all H--L  broke loose. Pee starting flying EVERYWHERE. Dave got hit in the head first, and still managed to keep his eyes on the road (he‘s got super powers I think). The front seats and ceiling got sprayed. My arm was soaked. We both yelled “What are you doing?” Unfortunately, this made Ben turn and spray what was left of his potty ALL OVER EMMA.
   That’s when the shrieking began. Emma was MORTIFIED. Her right pant leg was soaked, all up her sweatshirt and sadly, some even got on her hand. Basically the end of the world to her. She screamed, “Thanks a lot Ben!” And then just started to sob uncontrollably. This made Katie cry, I was yelling at Ben, and Dave was….laughing (it must be his coping mechanism). Ben crawled back up in his seat and just watched the chaos unfold. Apparently he felt a lot better. Once I got as much cleaned up as I could, and Emma’s sobs got a little quieter, Dave said, “What were you doing Ben? What happened???” Ben said, “I started to go and then I think the wind just flew my pee everywhere. Sorry.” Ummmm…really?? I was still in shock. “Ben, there’s no wind, we’re in THE CAR!” He just shrugged and said, “Well, it’s really hard to go potty into a cup when your bumping around on the road.”
    I learned some valuable things from this experience:
#1- Don’t trust your 5 year old to pee in a cup while you’re cruising down the highway.
#2- Don’t give him ANY fluid before a road trip.
#3- If your 8 year old daughter gets peed on by her brother, don’t expect her to be ok  with it until she turns
      9 (or NEVER.)