The last few days have been filled with the three f's...family, friends, and food! We drove up to Cadillac, MI on Wednesday morning and arrived right at lunch time. Curt's mom is a kindergarten teacher and she had a half day of school. After all of her students went home, she gave Ben a little tour of the school and her classroom. Ben really enjoyed seeing everything in her room. He played with some pattern blocks, checked out the kitchen, and sat in one of the desks. I think he would go to school tomorrow if he could! I'm not really ready for that yet. We spent Thanksgiving day over at Mark and Betsy's house with all of Curt's family. We stuffed ourselves (of course) with lots of delicious food. Then, because it's part of Walker tradition the guys had to play a game of Risk. That only took a short 4.5 hours to complete. Curt was this years' winner! On Friday we headed to my parent's house in Grand Rapids. We were able to meet our friends Rachel and De...

GO COLTS!

MONDAY  On Monday, I celebrated my birthday. Curt took the day off of work and that was my favorite present. It was so nice to be able to spend all day with Curt and Ben.  Ben did not really want to take a picture with me, so the best I got was the two of us by the stairs.  Blowing out my candles...I cannot believe that I am that old! TUESDAY  My friend Erin had a baby girl on November 4th. Ben and I got to go over and meet her on Tuesday. Big brother Will is showing off his new sister Lauren in the picture.  This week we've been working on the letter J. On Tuesday, Ben did a couple letter projects in the afternoon.  He glued jelly beans on the uppercase J.  Ben working hard on the lowercase j.  He turned it into a jaguar. THURSDAY  Ben finished up his last Lil' Sluggers class on Thursday night. He has learned a lot over the last ten weeks! I think he looks so cute doing his stretches. Swing!

A few weeks ago, I was able to get a great deal on a membership for Fort Wayne's Science Central. It was on Groupon and they were giving away year memberships for 1/2 the price. It will be a fun place to go during the winter months! Curt and I took Ben there yesterday for our first visit. I thought it was a nice place with several interesting things to do and I look forward to going back with Ben again.   The entrance of Science Central  Curt and Ben playing in a water exhibit.  Ben had fun crawling through the tunnel and flopping on some pillows.  He used a little hammer to make sounds on the strings.  Future Skateboarder! Curt and Ben figuring out how to shoot a little rocket up in the air. The more you cranked up and down on a lever, the higher it would go up in the air.

Benjamin has been enjoying his Thursday night baseball classes. He is just about done with them. The last one is next week. He really has made a lot of progress since his first session last spring. Curt took a few pictures when they were there last week.  Running the bases.  Practicing hitting the ball.  Sitting in the "dugout."  Running to first base, after hitting the ball. Ben is a running machine!

This week we had lots of fun spending time on the letter I. We did a couple little projects, worked on some counting, looked for I's at the store, and searched for I's in books we're reading at home. I think we might have to end this week with an ice cream treat! :)  Ben placed smarties on his uppercase I ice cream cone.  When Curt came home he thought that Ben had made a tree. So, it's been the joke all week for Ben to say, "Look at that tree mom!" and then he laughs and laughs.  Searching for the letters he needs to spell I-N-S-E-C-T. Lowercase i became an insect.  I had Ben use some little insects that we have to count 1 through 5 and place them on the cards I made.  After he filled up all of the cards, he counted up every insect that we had used. I also had him tell me all of the letters that I wrote on the cards. I was really surprised that he got them all correct...even the lowercase ones we haven't worked on yet. Next week....the letter G!

Last Friday when I took Ben into Curt's work to do some trick-or-treating we also had Ben's picture taken. They had a photographer last year too and I thought the pictures turned out so cute. This year Ben had a lot of fun ROARING at the camera. Here are a few of of my favorite shots.

Now that trick-or-treating is over with, we officially have way more candy in the house than we know what to do with! Last night, Curt took Ben door to door for about an hour and a half. I was really surprised that Ben kept it up that long. I stayed back at the house to pass out candy to the other trick-or-treaters. I decided to just sit out on the porch this year and I was pretty frozen by the time I came back inside. Next year, I think I'll have to tag along with Curt and Ben!  "ROAR!" This dragon is ready to go get some candy!  Waiting at the door for his treat.  Walking back to daddy with his loot. "Trick-or-Treat!"