It is a pretty hot out today! I think it is supposed to get up to 90 degrees. Since it was already very warm out this morning, we decided to break out Ben's new McQueen pool. He was very excited and jumped right in even though the water was freezing! We stayed out all morning until it was time for lunch. Then, Curt headed out to play some golf and Ben had a nap. Yesterday we spent most of the morning/afternoon trying to clean up the backyard landscaping mess, so it was nice to just sit and relax today.  Ben loves his new pool!  This is the nice spot that Curt and I hung out in. Trying out the slide. It was a little wobbly.

By making pretzels! I feel like it has rained most of the spring so far. I wonder if that means we will barely have a drop of rain over the summer? We are getting bored of being cooped up in the house or running errands. Today I decided to make homemade pretzels with Ben. It brought me back to my childhood when my mom would make these on a weekend afternoon. My siblings and I could hardly wait for the the dough to rise, so they could get in the oven. Ben was a great helper. His favorite part was rolling out the dough into snakes. It was a fun way to pass the morning and we had something to eat when the pretzels were finished. So basically a win-win!  Ben had to keep an eye on the dough when it was mixing with the dough hook.  I cut the dough into sixteen pieces then rolled one out so that Ben could see how long he needed to make his "snakes."  Ben rolled out all of the other pieces. I just had to make an adjustment here or there.  The pretzels all...

This past weekend our friends, the Bairds, came down from Grand Rapids for a visit. While Derek and Curt went golfing on Saturday morning, Rachel and I took the boys to the zoo. It was way warmer than I anticipated with my clothing choices, but other than that we had a wonderful visit. I think most of Fort Wayne was there with us too!  Luke and Ben driving the Safari car.  Ben, Jackson, and Luke (in the background) playing on the drums.  It's impossible to get three kids to look at the camera at the same time. :)  Ben took a pony ride on Cookie. She really took her time on the walk, but I guess you get more for you money that way, right? I thought this picture was funny. They just stared at each other while Ben brushed his chin.

The house that we moved into last month has two raised beds in the backyard all ready for a garden. We've never had a garden before and usually don't know what we are doing with plants. But, we decided to give it a try because we love fresh veggies! On Saturday morning we bought some plants for the garden and got everything planted before lunch. It was good timing because the rest of the weekend it has been raining. We planted tomatoes (large and cherry), cucumbers, zucchini, peppers (red/green/ and some hot ones Curt wanted to try), cilantro, basil, carrots, green beans, cantaloupe, and watermelon (that was Ben's pick...I guess we'll see how much room it takes up). Hopefully we will end up with some good things to eat later in the summer and I'm sure we'll learn some things to do differently for next year.  The empty gardens all ready to be planted.  We placed the plants around to try to figure out where we wanted everything. Ben helping Curt with...

This morning, Ben had fun making a few treats at the Country Kitchen SweetArt during the Toddler Time class. Some friends saved us a front row seat. It was fun to get a close-up view of the teacher's demonstrations. He made a ladybug cupcake, a bee cupcake, and a frog lollipop. He has already devoured the ladybug and I'm sure the rest will be gone soon! :) Adding some chocolate to the heart molds.   Ben sat with his friends Isaiah and Tiana. He was very excited when he walked in and saw them at the class.  Decorating the ladybug cupcake. The ladybug and bee cupcakes. Adding some chocolate to "glue" the eyes on the frog. Showing off the delicious frog lollipop.

It has been raining so much lately, I feel like the house is going to float away. Thankfully today it did not rain and we were able to enjoy our first trip to the zoo this season. We had a fun time, but had to work through Ben's new super independent streak. I had brought along the stroller because there are some long spots of walking so I thought he might need a rest, but he really just wanted to walk the whole time. Now that wouldn't really be a problem if his idea of walking wasn't running like a wild child way ahead of us. I felt like I said, "Ben stop running, please" and "Ben you need to walk next to us" and "Ben don't run way ahead of us" about a million times. I need to work on him walking "with" me so that I don't go crazy on any future zoo trips! I seriously feel like I need to have one of those things that attach our wrists together. :) Other than that, we had a fun morning out visiting with the animals. The new zoo...

Ben Reading from Curt Walker on Vimeo . Recently, I started working on some reading skills with Ben. I got the first set of these books  from Amazon. He has read through the first three books and we wanted to share a video of him reading the first book. He did all the reading for this video without any help from us. I'm so proud of him and he is excited to recognize words all by himself!

My mom group from church had plans to meet at a park this morning. It was at the Concordia Seminary and we had never been there before. Well, the morning started off with some rain and I thought about not going. I figured not many people would show up and all the equipment would be wet. But, Ben really wanted to go so we grabbed some towels to wipe everything down. After a while, my friend Adrienne and her son Austin came and the boys had fun playing together. It wasn't the best day for the park, but I'm glad we went because Ben loved it and wanted to stay all day! :)  Trying out one of the slides after we dried it off.  This was one side of the playground. I thought it was a great place to play. We will definitely go back! Crossing a bridge. Playing with a musical toy. Another part of the playground. Ben did really well going up the climbing walls and rope ladders. Ben helping to dry the inside of the slide with a towel. Having fun on the tire ...