FUN

What a weekend it was!  So much fun!!!  It started out Friday night with a bang.  We were able to go out to celebrate my brother's birthday a little early.  He turns 28 on Wednesday.  We wanted an adults only night so we hired a babysitter.  This was a big deal.  It was the kids very first non family babysitter.  They were so excited to have Madison come over and stay with them.  They were telling all their friends about it on Friday.  It was a huge success.  I should have gotten a picture of them with Madison.  They watched movies and played games.  They thought it was so cool! 

So that meant we had our adult only night at Melting Pot!  It was wonderful!!!  We just got to hang out and catch up.  And also eat some wonderful food.  It was amazing!!  Here is Andrew with his Darth Vader shirt from Ben and Kate. 

Love my sweet mama!  Glad we got to hang out. 

Andrew and Matt!  They are so goofy!

Ok the best part of the meal has to be the chocolate.  And we had some amazing chocolate.  Here is the flaming turtle. 

I joked that I wanted to just drink it up with a straw. 

What a fun evening.  Love my sweet family and so glad we got to spend such a special time together. 

Saturday morning we had a fun tball game!  Ben is really enjoying tball and improving each week. 

Saturday afternoon we met downtown with our wonderful photographer Christy for some family, Kate's 2 year and Ben's 5 year pictures.  It was 2 hours straight of pictures.  Exhausting!!!  I sure hope we got some good ones.  When you are in the middle of it you just never know. 

Sunday there were a couple of kiddos excited to go to church. 

Sunday evening Kate and I went on an "adventure."  We went to the town of Rainsville to check out a singer for a ladies event.  It was a fun outing with my friend Deree.  Kate did great on our road trip.  It was a fun way to wrap up the weekend.  Now we are back in the swing of things that are not as fun.

Another Kate Funny

Our crazy Kate keeps us laughing!  The other night at dinner we were just sitting there eating and she surprises us by out of the blue saying "Oh my goodness!  I have go to hurry!  The Nazis are coming!"  We all busted out laughing.  Where does she get these things!

10 Years

I have been meaning to post this picture for a few days.  This weekend (April 26th to be exact) it has been 10 years since Matt got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.  It was super romantic.  He had gotten a key to my apartment from my roommates and surprised me by being inside when I got in from class.  He was dressed in a tux!  I of course said yes.  I can't believe it has been 10 years!  It has been an amazing 10 years.  I would say yes all over again!!!

Pillow Attendant

 Last night Ben had the very special honorof being a pillow attendant for my friend Deree's 2 daughters.  It was for Acteens that is a missions group for teenage girls at our church.  It is a really big deal for the girls.  They wear nice dresses and have escorts and flowers as they get their awards for the year.  Back when I was in Middle School I did this same thing and had a little attendant.  It was so neat to get to see Ben do that now.  We had a really fun evening.
Here is Ben with Sarah and Hannah and their dad.  His friend Maggie was the flower attendant. 

 Ben's favorite part of the evening was getting some Star Wars toys as a thank you present. 

 Maggie and Ben looked so cute together!

 Ben did a great job of walking down the aisle both times.  He took his job very serious. 

School Pictures

I never have high hopes for school pictures.  They just never seem to turn out all that great.  But the kids took some really good ones a couple of weeks ago.  For some reason Ben didn't get one by himself but the one of Kate and them together is just too cute!  We are having family and individual pictures made this weekend so I am not getting these but it was nice to have some cute school pictures to look at!

Go To Dinners

It is no secret that we have some picky children in our house when it comes to food.  I struggle with the fact that I tell parents what to feed their kids for a living but I can't even fix food both of my kids will eat.  Really they are exact opposites in what they like which makes meal planning tricky.  For the most part I just fix something and they either eat it or they don't.  We have found that there are 2 "go to" meals that we can fix and know that they will be met with only smiles and empty plates.  They are tacos and breakfast.  So we have started a rotation that one night each week we will fix one or the other then rotate the next week.  Matt and I are getting pretty tired of them but the kids love it so we are more than happy.  I know one day I will look back on the picky eating and laugh but for now it is such a struggle and I am just happy to enjoy some peace at dinner. 

Tonight was taco night!  The kids love the tacos and cheese and chips and salsa!

Last week it was breakfast week so that means bacon (Ben's favorite), eggs (Kate's favorite), biscuits and fruit. 

Bowling & Baby Carriages

I did a horrible job of taking pictures this weekend. Now I have nothing to show picture wise from the weekend. Oh well... Here is what we did even without pictures.

Friday night the kids went over to Mema and Opa's house for the night! That allowed Matt and I to have a date. We try to make sure we do it once a month. We went out to eat at Surin and enjoyed getting caught up with each other. I also worked on getting some things together for a yard sale on Saturday morning. It was our neighborhoods biannual yard sale which is big business around here. My mom was selling some things so I threw some things together to sell. Then Saturday morning I went out and hit the sales!! A couple of my neighbors go each time and are hard core. They invited me along. We pulled out at 5:55 am. I told you they were hard core! We were able to hit a ton of yard sales. I founds lots of good odds and ends. Nothing too exciting other than a Pottery Barn Kids pram for Kate. I was so excited to get it. It is in perfect condition. She loves it!! Alot of our junk sold as well. We made $100 so that wasn't bad and we got some stuff cleared out of the attic.

Saturday afternoon, Ben had a bowling birthday party for his buddy Ford. He had a blast! It was a perfect party for little boys. I so wish I had gotten some pictures. It is so cute and funny. He did pretty well and bowled a 57! Better than me at times.

We enjoyed a quiet Saturday evening and Sunday with church activities. It was a great weekend!

Trike - A - Thon

Yesterday the kids participated in a Trike-a- thon at their school to support St. Jude. It was a really fun time! All week the kids learned about bike safety and St. Jude. They were so excited to get money to help support a great cause. Ben was ready to ride!They had a policeman on a bike to talk with the kids before they rode. They thought it was so cool. Ben did a great job riding. He had some trouble on the turns so took a couple of spills. He quickly got back on and kept riding. He did get a boo boo one time. But it was nothing a popsicle could not fix.

Ben's class. Ben and his buddy Cole. After Ben's class rode, Kate's class was up. They all looked so cute in their helmets. Kate brought her Cozy Coupe to ride around in.

Her class was a little crazy. They went in many different directions. This is Mr. Ben (her teacher's husband), who Kate adores, trying to direct traffic. Kate and her friends had a blast riding together!The popsicle was the best part of course. After the trike-a-thon we met up some special friends at the park. Matt has been friends with Eric since middle school. We have kept up with the Sanfords over the years and enjoyed getting to hang out with them while they were in town. They are about to embark on a wonderful new adventure following God's plan for them. You can read about their adventures on http://sanfordfamily.org/ The kids had so much fun playing together at the park and I had a great time catching up with Amanda.

Yogurt Makes It All Better

Sometimes after school and work the best thing you can do is go get some yogurt with friends!!!

Our Resident Super Hero

Ben has quite the imagination! One of my favorite things he has come up with lately is his very own super hero. His name is Super Mexico Man. It is a play off of Captain America. It makes me laugh just thinking about it. He uses a trashcan lid for his shield and some play hangers for a bow and arrow. He runs around the house pretending to be Super Mexico Man. He also has a pretend parachute and a sidekick named Mr. Robin. The boy cracks me up! I hope he will always be so imaginative.

Let's Go Fly A Kite

The weather continues to be just wonderful! Sunday was no exception. The kids looked so cute prior to church. We have been promising Ben that he could fly his kite as soon as we had a windy day. There was a nice breeze on Sunday so off we went to try it out. He got it flying high! Such a fun spring time thing to do. We also enjoyed a fun outing to a new playground near our house. It is a natural playground that is really neat. Kate had fun in the sandbox.

Our Weeked With Rosalyn Bunny

Ben's class has a "pet" bunny named Rosalyn. Throughout the year she goes home with each of the kids for a week or so. You are supposed to take pictures with Rosalyn and then put them together in a folder. The kids then present the pictures to the class telling them about Rosalyn's adventures with them. It is a fun thing for them to do. Ben was so excited to get Rosalyn last week. So over the weekend we took pictures with Ben and Rosalyn. She enjoyed playing with Ben and Kate!

Rosalyn went to Ben's tball game on Saturday morning. She joined us for lunch at Arby's. Then Ben, Matt and Rosalyn went to the Space and Rocket Center. They went to watch the moon buggy races they do there each year. They had a blast!!! Ben loved seeing all the buggies. The first one they saw almost flipped over. Finally, Ben and Rosalyn went to his friend Spencer's birthday party at Sci-Quest. They had fun doing experiments and playing with the experiments. We had a fun weekend with Rosalyn. She will return to the class tomorrow.