Four Years Old

Bowling Party

Ben seemed to have a great time at his birthday party this year! His buddies Connor and Dillon (and baby Abbie!) came as well as cousins Charlie, AJ and Maggie, in addition to both sets of grandparents and Uncle & Auntie. We had bowling games, bowling ball pinata, crafts, bowling tattoos, pizza, cake & ice cream, PRESENTS... what more could one boy ask for?! This year Ben got Wall-E sheets and blanket (his current favorite), a pirate playset, a subscription to Your Big Backyard Magazine, a Dragon castle playset, an awesome superman/batman cape, a special pillow made by Aunt Holly, a loft bed and new big kid room (pics coming soon). We are so grateful for wonderful friends and family!

Sledding!

Joe came home from work one night last week and said "get dressed, we're going sledding!" So, we dropped everything, got bundled up and drove to a nearby hill before it got dark. This was Ben's first time really sledding and he was fearless. Joe and I had a TAD bit of fun too!

Rockin'

Ben and his buddy Dillon... need I say more?

Male Bonding-

Ben and Joe had the awesome opportunity to go to a SLU Basketball game with one of Ben's friends and his dad. This was the first sporting event (besides HS football) that Ben has gone to. The boys had a blast - they had great seats, the game went into double overtime and the Billikens won. Everyone lasted the entire game (I was SHOCKED when they came home after 7, having left the house at 2:30 earlier in the day). I packed the camera for Joe to take pictures and he FORGOT, but thankfully our friends got a quick pic of Ben and Joe at the game. When they got home all Ben wanted to do was shoot hoops in his new Billikens shirt.

I Want a Bree!!!!

This is Bree. She's Bubba & Grampy's Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and one of the very few dogs I actually adore. I've never had a dog and am not-so-sure how I feel about having a dog here in our teeny house - seems like a lot of work (for me!). But, Ben LOVES, LOVES, LOVES Bree and will randomly tell us that he "misses Bree" or say "I want a Bree." Ben got to go for a ride with her (in his new booster seat) and according to Bubba he was "so proud having his girl in his lap." So funny!

Our beloved babysitter Sarah is on vacation this week (how dare she! - we love and need her :)... so Ben and I are having a long week of togetherness. Plus it snowed yesterday, so we've had a lot of stir-crazy togetherness. AND, my work is picking up to a super-busy pace (thankfully!) so I'm keeping on my toes. Taking calls from clients while Ben is squirting massive amounts of finger paint on his homemade Valentines... hopefully they dry before Feb. 14. But at the same time it's been a lot of fun.

Also, we decided to paint Ben's room last weekend... turning it from baby to big boy (as a surprise for his b-day he's getting a loft bed, bean-bag chair and new posters, etc. so we decided he needed a new paint job - more to come on that later). So we had the pleasure of having his bed in our family room, dresser in our dining room and changing table at the foot of our bed for two nights. It was a TAD chaotic but also pretty funny...

"NO"

These pics are kinda crazy because I took them with my laptop... but Ben's buddies were over this morning and he asked to borrow a pencil. When I asked him why he needed one he said he had some writing to do. He disappeared into his room with is pencil (needless to say I was feeling a little nervous about WHERE he was going to be writing). A few minutes later he returned and had written this on his cardboard stop sign...

It's hard to see, but it says "NO." He said "N-O spells no, Mommy. Stop signs mean stop and do not go, so I wrote no." Pretty amazing - this was the first time he wrote anything without me spelling the letters or standing over him. I know it's just two letters, but I thought it was pretty crazy he pieced everything together and did this on his own.