We do!!! This morning we went to see the Mizpah Shrine Circus. It was Ben's first time going to a circus and he has been very excited about it the last couple of weeks. We bought Ben a light up sword and he had fun waving it around in the dark arena. They had a wide variety of different acts to see (one esp. freaked me and Curt out-pic below). Overall, we had a great time together as a family and would definitely go back again.  Ben did not want to get too close to this clown for my photo-op. Now that I look at the clown again, I'm not sure that I blame him. :)  Ben and Daddy  Ben and Mommy  This was the first act of the circus. The motorcycle was hanging on a wire right in front of us.  Ben kept asking, "Where are their handle bars?"  It was pretty crazy to see a bear riding a motorcycle.  This was the act that freaked us out the most. It was performed by the ring master. He was inside that silver circle, running as it went around and aro...

Ben has really been into reading the Little Critter books lately. Since we worked on the letter L this week, we picked out several at the library. He loves them and I've lost count at how many times I read them already. I also like to use the Starfall  website. They have some cute things for each letter. Ben usually likes to click on about 10 letters each time we go to that site, not just the one we are working on that week.  Ben glued Smarties on the uppercase "L", then drew a line to turn them into lollypops.  Lowercase "l" became a lighthouse.  One of the afternoons, I poured salt into a pan and had him practice writing some letters. He liked giving it a little shake to clear the letters. He seemed to prefer it over the shaving cream because it didn't really make his hands messy.  I made four big ladybugs for him and he chose how many spots each one should have. Then, he glued the spots onto each ladybug.

After shopping at the mall for a couple hours this morning, we were in need of a break. I let Ben pick out two rides and then burn off some energy in the play area. His favorite ride is the Kiddie Coaster. He gets so excited when it moves backwards and forwards. He really wanted to ride on it more than once, but it is a bit pricey at $1 a ride. We've had a busy week, so I think tomorrow we are going to stay home, wear comfy clothes, play games, read books, and finish up working on the letter L.  

Curt just sent me a few ice skating pictures that the Vera Bradley photographer took at the Christmas party in December. When we were at Bounce Mania today (right next to one of the ice rinks), Ben said that he wanted to go ice skating again. We'll have to give it another try soon!

This morning, Ben and I met the other moms (and kiddos) from my Mom2Mom group at Bounce Mania. We had been there once before for the Vera Bradley Christmas party. We went during the toddler time (ages 2-6), so it was nice to not worry about big kids knocking down Ben. Ben had such a fun time playing with his friends. I also had a blast going down the slides several times. If only they could make it about 20 degrees warmer, it would be the perfect place to take your kids!  Ben bouncing with Brenna and Westin.  Climbing the ladder for the slide.  Going down the slide with me. I saw this happy face every time he came down one of the slides.

Today, I took Ben outside after his nap. I had some hard labor in mind for him (shoveling), but he only lasted a few minutes. Typical. :) After I got the driveway & sidewalks shoveled we headed to the backyard to play in the snow. Curt got me some snowpants for Christmas and I loved using them. I felt warm the whole time we were outside! Maybe they will help make a winter lover out of me...on second thought, probably not. :)  My happy helper.  Making a snow angel.  Trying to crawl out of his angel without wrecking it.  Ready to slide down the hill in our backyard.  Going head first down his slide. Being silly!

I have not been doing a great job posting on the blog this week. So, for the few of you out there that keep up with us, sorry about that. We spent many of the days this week doing exciting things like getting groceries, doing laundry, and running errands. Nothing that you really want to see a picture of. :) One of the mornings this week was spent on a mission to find cilantro. Who would have thought it would be that difficult? I usually just grab it (when I've needed it) on my regular grocery shopping trip. I needed it to make some salsa for this weekend. Well, the store was out of it when I got groceries on Monday. I thought I would just need to make a quick trip to another store later in the week. When I went later in the week, I struck out at three different stores. On my last attempt at store #4 (Meijer), I finally found some. Curt looked online and discovered there is a cilantro shortage going on right now...who would have thought? And more importantly, am I going to have to ...

Ben worked this week on the letter W. Sometimes I let him pick the next letter we will work on and this week he picked W because it starts our last name. He amazes me every day with his desire to learn new things. I've had a great time planning projects/activities each week for us to work on together.  We looked through magazines to find interesting words to glue on to the uppercase W.  Lowercase w showed some different kinds of weather.  One of the afternoons, Ben made a wax paper project using little pieces of crayon. I used an iron to melt the crayon after he was done putting it on the wax paper. The wax paper art project.  Wednesday, we searched through magazines and on the computer for pictures of things that started with W. Ben glued all of the W pictures onto a big piece of paper. He said his favorites were Whyatt & Wonder Red (from Super Why ) and Woody & Wheezy (from Toy Story ).  He also made a slice of watermelon. He painted a ...

Here's a little video of Ben using his new racetrack that he got for Christmas from Curt's parents. It is a Disney Cars track, so it works well with the millions of Cars cars that he owns. :)

Since we have a season pass to Science Central, we decided to play there for a little while this morning before going out to lunch at Chick-fil-a.  Curt and Ben put on a puppet show.  Building with some blocks.  Ben tried hard to squirt water on Curt.  Curt squirted water back at Ben.  Making a bubble window.  Dancing around on the big piano.  Curt and Ben held a button that caused the air in the hot air balloon to become heated.  The balloon is filling up and it's almost hot enough to raise it up in the air.  There it goes!  Ben and I tried out our skateboarding skills. Thankfully, for my sake, they are secured to the floor. :) Curt and Ben had fun using controls to make this robot arm pick up items and drop them in different spots.