Benji's 2nd Birthday Party

Benji ended up having his birthday party the Saturday after the original planned date (cancelled due to the ice storm).  We had a small gathering of mostly family over to my mom's house for a Mickey Mouse party.  Ben had been asking for a Mickey Mouse birthday party for at least 6 months so deciding on the theme was easy.  I made Mickey Mouse ears for the kids to wear and some Mickey Mouse cupcakes for dessert.  The rest of the decorations were balloons and some store bought decorations.  Matt was nice enough to bring us a Mickey Mouse bounce house so we were set on the entertainment!  The kids, minus Benji, enjoyed bouncing despite the coldish weather.  Benji enjoyed being outside getting into whatever he could find.  At one point we had to change his socks because he found the water.  The boys ultimately had a ton a fun so I would consider Ben's second birthday party a success!!

Warning -- there are a lot of pictures :)

 

My big 2 year old!

 Waiting for the party to start...

 Brothers!

 Bouncing!

 Gigi and her local grandbabies

 Hot dogs - Ben's favorite!

 He enjoyed being in the spotlight!

 Yum -- cupcakes!

 



 My Mickey Mouse family!

Christmas Program 2013

The boys had their Christmas program at school a couple of weeks before Christmas.  The original program was cancelled due to the ice, so we were thankful that it was able to be rescheduled.  Luke had been really excited about singing his songs for the program.  We had the words at home and practiced for several weeks.  He sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, Do You Hear What I Hear?, and Away in a Manger.  Benji, on the other hand, didn't have a clue what he was singing in advance -- although I have no doubt they spent a lot of time practicing ;)  Turns out that he sang (well his teacher sang) Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star and J-E-S-U-S (to the tune of B-I-N-G-O).  He pretty much just sat up there looking handsome holding his little snowflake.  I love it when they have programs it school.  It makes me all giddy and proud inside :)

This is pretty much what he did the entire time ;)

 Taken during Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer.  Luke is on the back row, third from the right.

 Love, love, love them!

ICEmageddon 2013

I think that the day of Benjamin's birthday (a Monday) the temperature was 75 degrees.  Three days later on a Thursday, ICEmageddon 2013 hit our area.  It sleeted inches of ice and everyone was iced in for days upon days.  We even had to cancel Benji's birthday party.  Given that I work at a hospital and do not get snow days off of work I had to work a few of the days, but I did get to spend the weekend at home with my boys.  Luke wanted go outside and play in the "snow" really bad.  On Saturday morning we obliged, but the ice confused him.  He kept asking why it wasn't soft like before. Since our house has a sloped walk way and drive way we decided to use a make shift sled and let the boys slide a bit.  Luke went a few times and Ben was done after 1 shot.  Neither of them were ever agile enough to really master walking on the ice so our outside adventures were short.  Hoping for snow next time :) 

 

 These were some pretty neat looking icicles hanging from the trees

Trampoline Park

On the day of Benji's actual birthday Gigi and I took the boys to the local trampoline park for some jumping fun.  I had taken the boys to a trampoline park once before, but it was a long time ago.  In fact I don't think that Benji was even walking when we went before.  The boys had the best time jumping and running around on the trampolines.  We got there when it first opened and we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  I would say that they seemed to like the foam pit the best, followed closely by racing each other up and down a long stretch of trampoline.  I am so thankful to have these special times with my boys.  I just wish Daddy could have joined us :(

 

Hanging out in the foam pit

 1-2-3... Family jump!

 I love this action shot of us!

He didn't need help getting out (most of the time)

 The idea of dodge ball was lost on them ;)

 My big 2 year old!

 My boys

 Mommy can jump too!

 Going down the trampoline "slide"

 Love that smile!

 Shooting some hoops

 I don't want them to grow up

 Silly picture time

 Brothers

 Racing -- Luke won every time, but Benji didn't care!

 I cannot believe my baby is TWO!!