Visit with Santa

Saturday night we were an hour early for our family get together at the Cheesecake Factory. While wandering the mall we were shocked to find a very short line for Santa. We couldn't get a decent "two-front-teeth" shot, but this smile is at least genuine.

School Pictures

Kindergarten, P.B. Smith Elementary

First Baby Tooth

Benjamin's a very proud little boy tonight. At dinner (corn on the cob) he lost his first baby tooth. He's been bouncing off the walls talking about the Tooth Fairy coming to leave him a coin. I was a little worried at first that he had swallowed it, but when I inspected his corn, I found it wedged in there.

Now I just have to pray he doesn't wake up when I go in there. We never go into his room while he's sleeping.

Benjamin the Artist

Benjamin has been blanketing the house with paper "signs". In an effort to try to confine them to one place, we bought an artist easel. It's two-sided--one side is a chalkboard and the other is a white board. There's also a paper roll that hangs down over the white board. We weren't able to put it together until after he went to bed last night, but since he saw it this morning, he's been on it nonstop. He's focused on the chalkboard so far, but I'm sure he'll move on eventually. He has access to chalk, dry-erase crayons, regular crayons, markers, and watercolors. So far he's been writing instead of drawing, but I'm hoping that will change. He just drew the exit signs to South Jordan and Moab.

Preschool Graduation pt. 1-Teens & Tots

We attended Benjamin's preschool graduation this morning for Teens & Tots. Meadowbrook is next week. There are pictures on Facebook. Video to follow.

Imagination Movers

I've posted pictures on Facebook from the Imagination Movers concert and Meet & Greet that we attended yesterday and today. Benjamin had a blast.

More birthday pics

I've posted more of Benjamin's birthday pics on Flickr.

Benjamin's 5th Birthday

I'm having a really hard time getting pictures uploaded to Facebook, so I'll put the ones with people in them here. I have a bunch of fish pictures that I'll put in another post.

Standing in line waiting to get in. It rained hard all day. Dad and I were both white-knuckling it the whole way home and passed several accidents.

Fish near the front entrance:

Shark teeth:

Bubble tubes near the front. Although it looks like he's giving it a hug, he's actually trying to climb the tube.

John and Benjamin playing with the bubble tubes:

Obviously not a real shark:

Standing in line for the Dora & Diego 4D show:

Shark mask in the gift shop:

Frog mask in the gift shop:

The birthday boy back at Amanda's:

Seeing the cake Amanda made. I got several really good photos of him smiling at the cake. He was a very happy boy.

The cake:

Surrounded by his new stash of books. They're early readers that he'll be reading before bed.

The BIG gift. Once he opened it, the rest of us were forgotten.

Amanda and John goofing around:

We got the over-the-ear earbuds hoping they'd stay in better than regular earbuds. Unfortunately they're still too big. Oh well. He listened to his music the whole way home and had no problems.

Spring pictures

I've posted some recent flower pictures on Facebook. For some reason this year just seems extra colorful.

Snow!!

It finally snowed more than a dusting. I've promised sledding tomorrow.

Photos of the backyard on Facebook.

Ft. McHenry

John, Benjamin, and I met Amanda at Ft. McHenry last week. Even though it was cold and windy, we walked around quite a bit. Benjamin had fun posing with the cannons and cannon balls. I also managed to get both of my boys in jail for a picture.

The best part was Amanda getting a date with one of the guys in her group.

Photos on Facebook.

Christmas photos

I've been planning for weeks to take some formal Christmas photos of Benjamin. Because we've both been sick, it's been put off. We're both still coughing quite a bit, but I finally broke down and got it done. He was fairly cooperative. We did some in front of the Christmas tree then as a reward he was allowed to take the bears into the family room. I had sat down to download the pictures when he asked me to take some more pictures of him in front of the fireplace. My favorites are on Facebook.

Family Photo

A few weeks ago when Benjamin got his new church clothes we asked Dad to take a family picture for us. I've been experimenting with face swapping in Photoshop to get the best smile on Benjamin. Is it too obvious that this photo has been Photoshopped?

Visit with Santa

Today we braved the crowds and lines at the mall and took Benjamin to meet Santa. We've only done it once before (his first Christmas) and we figured this was the right year to do it. We stood in line for an hour and by the time we got to the front Benjamin was ready to go. It was hard to get a good smile. He was very hesitant to talk to the strange man, but eventually warmed up to him and looked to be telling him quite a story. When I went to retrieve him he was saying something about the guitar he wants for Christmas. I don't know what else he told him. We had discussed beforehand what he was going to ask for and both items he is getting, so I'm not worried.

Thanksgiving 2010

I just posted some pictures of our Thanksgiving on Facebook. The highlight of my day was the fact that Benjamin actually ate what the rest of us did. In the past he's eaten baby food, slept through the meal, or eaten stuff like chicken nuggets or spaghettios. The only thing we added to the table for him was carrots because he doesn't eat corn (strange, but I'm hardly going to complain if he prefers the more healthy veggie). He still won't eat olives, but we're working on it. He has had half a piece of pumpkin and apple pie. No cherry or pecan yet.

November Birthdays

Last Sunday when we gave Mom her presents Benjamin mentioned that we really needed a cake. I had already planned on making a pudding dessert (John's request). When it was time to eat it we let Benjamin pose with it and blow out the candles. He also really enjoyed eating his piece.

I've posted some pictures on Facebook.

Veggie Tales Live!

A couple weeks ago we went to Woodbridge to see Veggie Tales Live! They sang a lot of their most popular songs as well as songs from their new CD "Bob & Larry Sing the 80's". We bought the CD while we were there and Benjamin hasn't listened to anything else since then. It's really funny to hear him singing songs like "Gourds Just Want to Have Fun" and "Footloose".

I didn't get many pictures of Benjamin during the concert because it was dark in the audience. I posted the few that I did get on Facebook.

Trick or Treating Report

This is the first year that Benjamin has a good understanding about what Halloween is about so we were looking forward to trick or treating with him. We were planning to do only a few houses, but he was having so much fun that we did the whole street. He was really good about saying the appropriate words and then saying "thank you". There were quite a few funny moments too:

• Neighbor wearing normal clothes said to Benjamin, "I like what you're wearing." Benjamin's response, "I like what you're wearing too.
• A car drove by and Benjamin said "Oooh it's a scary car." After it had driven by he amended that "No, it's just a Virginia car."
• At about the 3rd or 4th house, while passing some other people on the driveway, Benjamin tried to Trick or Treat from them.
• While passing a parent wearing a crayola box costume, he said "Hi Crayons. Oooh, you're very Crayon-ey."
• There were 3 houses that went all out and had tents around their porches, lots of decorations, scary lighting, and scary costumes on the people handing out the candy. At one of the houses Benjamin was shaking his Jack-o-Lantern so hard I had to hold it steady for the candy to go in.
• Back at the house Benjamin is now handing out candy. I had to stop him when he tried to prompt a couple of kids to say Trick or Treat.

I won't be surprised at all if Benjamin requests that we go Trick or Treating again tomorrow night. A year is just too long.

Halloween

Last Saturday, Benjamin, Amanda, and I attended the annual Air & Scare at the Dulles Air & Space Museum. It was VERY crowded but we got some good loot and Benjamin had a great time seeing all the other costumes.

Tonight we carved pumpkins with Benjamin for the first time (although he couldn't do much). He had fun scooping them out and drew on one of his own.

I've posted pictures of both on Facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2091043&id=1338565858&l=720bba7e63

Fall Colors pt. 2

After our visit to Shenandoah earlier this week, John and I decided to go back today without Mom to do some hiking. We did 2 trails (one of which was about 1.5 miles of the Appalachian Trail). The other trail was as easier hike (although also about 1.5 miles) and had some great fall colors. It was a little chilly (about 55 degrees), but we were well prepared and had a great time. For the record, Benjamin "marked" a spot along the Appalachian just as he did the corn maze a couple weeks ago. He also had a pressing need as we were leaving and there were no official facilities around so he "marked" one of the overlooks as well. No, I did not get a picture of the full moon that he treated me to, although my camera was around my neck and I could have easily gotten some really good blackmail material.

On the first trail:

These trail markers became a highlight for Benjamin. He counted them going both directions. On the way down he made quite a show out of stopping at each post, holding up the appropriate number of fingers, reviewing which number was next, then telling us it was ok to walk now.

On the 2nd trail there were lots of tree stumps and this one was just too exciting to pass up.

He just had to sit on top of this one. It was high enough that John was just barely able to get him up there.

Again there are more pics on Facebook for those that are interested.