Benjamin at 1 year

Yes, our little baby, Master Benjamin, is already 1 year old. This date last year at 7:06am Benjamin joined our family.

This month has been fun watching him master walking and of course venturing up the stairs.  Coming down the stairs is a work in progress, but we're getting there.  He loves to push around our new Little Tikes grocery cart, but shows some frustration when it gets stuck in certain parts of the house.

The best part about turning one is no more formula! He’s made the switch to whole milk with no problem, and seems to really like it. The second best thing about turning one is getting to turn him around in the car. It’s got to be better than facing backwards, and he seems to really enjoy looking around at the scenery.

We gave Ben a strawberry shortcake on his actual birthday and he demolished it, unlike his Sister who didn't even want to put her hands in it.  Surprisingly there was not a lot of cake in his hair or on his clothes.

 Looks like he's checking under the plate for more strawberries.

Happy Birthday Ben!  We love you!

Trunk or Treat with Preschool

Emily's preschool had their annual Trunk or Treat recently.  We were able to use the bumblebee outfit for a second year.  We thought with so many costumes on the shelves this year that surely there wouldn't be another bumblebee in her class, but sure enough there was.  No biggie....they had fun buzzing around together.  It was a VERY windy day, but the kids, parents and teachers had a lot of fun.

Fall Family Festival

Our church had our first annual Fall Family Festival a few weekends ago.  It was a lot of fun and very well organized.  There was lots to see and do for the whole family including face painting (or belly painting as seen below - thank you Mrs. C for your artwork), live entertainment, balloon animals, a cake walk and lots of games and food.  Thank you to all the folks who spent many hours planning and preparing this event.  It was such a blessing.

Circleville Pumpkin Show

What a great place to visit to bring in the Fall season.  If you like pumpkin, this is the place to go - pumpkin donuts, pumpkin pies and even pumpkin burgers.  There were lots of food vendors and a few vendors selling arts and crafts.  Thank you to Mom and Miss Mabel for letting us join in the fun. 

Emily - 4 years, 2 mo. - Oct. 16

Emily is excited to see the leaves on the ground and loves to play in them, but she is already asking when it's going to snow.  One season at a time my child.  :o)

She continues to enjoy her preschool and is excited to go every Tuesday.  She has warmed up to her classmates and really likes her teachers.  We attempt on Monday and Thursdays to do some preschool oriented stuff such as Starfall or this ClicknRead  program we were able to try through one of Randa's connections.

One of the benefits of us not having a DVD player in our van is that during our drive/ride to a certain location Emily gets some pressing questions off her mind.  The question of the day last week was "Mommy, if Jesus takes you to Heaven is that the fastest way to get there?"  My response...."Honey, that's the only way to get there".  Emily returns with "yes, but is that the fastest?"  Oh the child's mind.

She has been really cautious these days while riding in any vehicle for some reason and is constantly asking the driver if they are going the speed limit.  It definitely helps keep one in check.

Fun at Pigeon Roost Farm with Preschool

A couple of weeks ago Emily and I had the chance to go to Pigeon Roost Farm on her very first Preschool field trip.  We had a blast.  We had been there before but since then they have added a lot of new stuff, including a big slide, a mini maze and a big fort at the back of the farm perfect the enhancing the imagination.  On our way out we spotted the little store and had to buy some yummy gummy bears for Aunt Holly as thanks for watching Ben so Emily and I could have some Mommy and Me time.

Pumpkinfest

Since we didn't get to go to Pumpkinfest last year, we were very excited to get to go this year.  There was lots to do - shopping, eating the yummy kettle corn and pumpkin ice cream, jumping in the jump house, playing at the playground, visiting family and friends, and waiting to see who won one of these yummy cakes handmade from scratch by Charlie's Uncle Skip.  We ended up getting our name in the raffle later on the day of the drawing and it worked to our benefit because we actually won the mouse cake below. However, because we were traveling back home that same day we offered it to a friend of Charlie's and his daughter.