Yesterday we celebrated Ben's 5th birthday. I cannot believe that he is 5 years old already! I love being his mom and watching him grow up. At school they had a parade where the kids dressed up as something they would like to be when they grow up. Ben was excited to have that scheduled on his birthday. His teacher and classmates helped him feel extra special. Ben requested Pizza Hut for lunch, so Curt brought that home and we had a picnic in the living room. The rest of the day was spent opening his presents, playing with his presents, having cake, and playing some more with his presents.  Before school we let him open one present. We had a certain one picked out for him that we knew he would be excited about. :)  He got red Yoshi and Fire Luigi. Fire Luigi was at the top of his birthday list.  He dressed up as an astronaut for his school parade.  Lucy had a fun party day too!  Opening up the rest of his presents after lunch. ...

It's sad when the season of fall passes without decorating pumpkins, but that is exactly what happened to us last year. This year I did not want miss out on the fun because Ben is at a perfect age for this kind of stuff and I really enjoy it. We traveled the last two weekends to celebrate Ben's birthday with each of our families, so this was our last opportunity before Halloween on Wednesday. I took Ben to the store on Friday and let him pick whatever "kit" he wanted to decorate his pumpkin. He decided that he did not want to have us carve a face/design and instead chose a set of pirate stickers. I have never painted a pumpkin (crazy I know :)), so he picked out a black cat kit for both of us to work on for my pumpkin. We made sure to also pick up a carving knife for Curt (I can't seem to find the 10 we already own), since he always likes to carve a face into his pumpkin. We had a really fun time working on the pumpkins this morning. I think it worked really ...

We celebrated Ben's 5th birthday this past weekend with my family in Grand Rapids. It's been a while since we got stuck in a traffic jam, but Friday night on the way we got trapped in a big mess on I-94. We moved about a mile in 1.5 hours. Not fun. We found out there was a 12 car pile up. I'm thankful that we weren't involved in that accident. It is not fun to add that much time to a trip with two little kids in the car. Saturday afternoon, Ben had fun with his Mario/Luigi party. My brother Jake made Toad cake pops and chocolate mustaches. My sister made Ben's cake and it had a few Mario Kart cars that he got to keep. He loved that!  Ben with his yummy birthday treats.  Toad cake pops  Chocolate mustaches  The cake!  Ben with his cousins Molly, Mya, Emma, and Caleb  Posing with mustaches  Time to open presents. This one was filled with lots of new dress-up clothes.  Ben had to try out his policeman stuff and arre...

Fall always seems like it flies by. I think having Ben's birthday in October (and the family visits to celebrate that) keep us pretty busy. This year seemed even busier with Ben finishing up his first time playing Upward Soccer and having preschool three days a week. Lucy has also been crawling the last month and she seems to find every tiny space she can squeeze her body into. She keeps me busy getting her unstuck from small places. :) My scar is looking better than it did at first, but is still a glaring red line on my face. I had an appointment with my surgeon last Monday and he thought it was healing well. He said it will still take a while for the redness to go away (healing really takes up to a year). But, as I said before I'm happy to have the skin cancer gone and I can deal with having a scar. As it gets closer to Thanksgiving, I've been thinking about all that has happened over the past year. This year has had it highs...the birth of our sweet Lucy being at the...

Ben went on his very first preschool field trip this morning. I had taken Ben to the same pumpkin patch a couple years ago, so I asked Curt if he would like to go with Ben. Curt was able to take the morning off of work and he drove Ben and his friend Nevin. Ben picked out a pumpkin that is mostly green with a couple of orange spots. Nevin and Ben  Ben's class waiting for pumpkin school.  In pumpkin school learning all about...PUMPKINS!  Ben out in the pumpkin patch with Kellan and Nevin.  Ben's green pumpkin (green is his favorite color right now).  Taking a hay ride.  All of The Lucky Ducks with their teacher Mrs. Miller. 

Today was Ben's last soccer game of the season. It was COLD out there today. I'm not sure of the exact temp but it was somewhere in the 30's or low 40's. Brrr!!! Ben's first soccer season has had its ups and downs, but I think that he will want to play again next year. He has learned so much about the game of soccer and being a part of a team. I've had fun watching his games, although I'm happy that our Saturday mornings will once again be free. :)  Excited to start the game!  Waiting with his team for their names to be announced.  Little Lucy all bundled up. She stayed nice and warm the whole game.  Ben got to do a corner kick near the beginning of the game.  Running with his teammates.  Throw-in     I had to add this silly one of Lucy last week. She loves to find all of the places that she can crawl/squeeze into. This particular morning she wanted to hang out in the bottom of her exersaucer...with a Little P...