You've got a friend...

My dad has become great friends with his boss, Greg. And Greg has become part of the family almost. And for some reason, Benjamin just loves Mr. Greg and Miss Steph's son, Jansen. I love that Benjamin pretty much has never met a stranger. I hope that he'll always have that personality!

1st Day Back to School (Full-Time)

Even though the kids have gone to school all Summer long, they didn't go every day or all day. Hey, I still had to get my time with them, too...that's why I teach (so I can enjoy my Summers with the fam)! But Benjamin and Mary Elizabeth started their new classes today, just like I did. And since they've been going all Summer, their "first day of school" shouldn't have been a big deal. But it was to me! First, I had to enjoy the first Arkansas sales-tax holiday and go get them new school supplies AND new outfits. Secondly and sadly, their first day of school was also my first day of school, so I didn't get to be that "Supermom" that I always dreamt of being and get to take them to school and take their pictures with their new teachers or classrooms because I have to be in my classroom taking pictures with everyone else's kids on their first days of school. It didn't help me get over that fact either when I showed up with 5 families standing outside of my locked classroom at 7:18 (school doesn't even start until 7:40!). Instead, I had to resort to Drew taking pics of the kids with his camera phone so don't judge the quality. Ha!



I got Benjamin an alligator polo to wear because he loves to "roar" people these days. I bought an outfit for ME, but she opted for one of her church dresses instead...gotta love a girl with style! Drew took this pic outside of our house right in front of the crepe myrtle that is pleasantly hiding the trash can, but not the pile of leftover shingles the roofers left.


I'm happy to report that they both enjoyed their first day in their new classes. Benjamin actually has the same two teachers as last year, whom I love! He just moved to a new classroom with his friends because they are not the "babies" anymore and had to move to a "big kid" room. ME, on the other hand, did move to a new room and got a new teacher. I was a little worried about her starting her new class this year at first because her two girl BFF's moved onto Pre-K since they have summer birthdays. And Davis and her other friends from her class were assigned to another room. As soon as Drew and I realized that she was only going to know one person in her new class, we were "those parents" that called the school to see if she could switch classes. But being in education myself, I realize class changes can't always happen that easily, even after Drew called. However, I gave it more thought and called back to the school myself and said that I just wanted to prepare ME before she starts back to school and tell her who will be in her class so she'll at least know her classmates' names. As I was talking to the director, she didn't realize that the kids' named were not in ME's previous class. Then I immediately realized that she didn't name ANY girls!!! Whoa! My sweet princess first of all isn't going to know anyone in her class? AND she's going to be the only girl? Well, ummm, I guess it is what it is and we'll just help ME through this change. But I guess the director heard my sadness in my voice and called me back in less than 10 minutes to tell me that she was a parent of little children once and totally understood how I felt, so she moved ME back into the class with all of her friends and with girls! I think it's going to be a great year!

I guess I've started a first day of school tradition with Benjamin and Mary Elizabeth now by taking them to Orange Leaf (or "The Leaf Orange" as ME calls it). With the week before school starts being so crazy for me setting up the classroom, I feel like I don't get to spend any time with them at all. ME has been begging me to take her there anyway for the last few weeks because she keeps reminding that hasn't had any accidents at nap time anymore. She's such the persuader!

There's nothing like a first day of school picture with a band-aid right on the forehead! But ice cream makes it all better!

I don't even think ME realized that Lila and Claire weren't at school today.

Ben Ben is 22 months

Benjamin really is 22 months this time! Sheesh, I can't believe I did that last month! But check out my big boy. He's such a pro at stacking blocks (did you see that he stack a 2 on top of a 2? coincidence? or a hint for mommy?) and posing now!

He's COMPLETELY into "tartars" (guitars) these days. He's playing his air guitar for me in this pic.

He may be a rock star these days, but he still loves his trucks!

• I don't think I've mentioned it in his last few monthly posts, but Benjamin is such a great eater. I've caught myself now ordering salads with the tomatoes just so Benjamin can eat them. Pre-Ben, I would 86 the tomatoes...yuck! He also LOVES blueberries!!! I think that he thinks they're candy. They've been my lifesaver during "Adult Swim" at the pool this summer. He could easily eat an entire package of them in one sitting if I let him (which I may or may not have a time or two). There have been several times this summer, where he skips right over his entree, chips, or fries and goes straight to the blueberries. And then in just a matter of seconds, they're "all don" and he wants "more! more!"
• Benjamin still isn't talking sentences, but I'm able to get most of his jabbering throughout the day.
• He still refers to most animals by the sound they make. I think my fave one is his imitation of a pig. It's a very unique "oink"! But the one we hear the most is "neigh neigh". Beware! If he sees your leg is sitting still, I can almost guarntee that he'll climb right on it and say "neigh neigh" to ride a horse.
• Surprisingly, Benjamin is going to time out more often these days. He really likes to hit Dixie and pull ME's hair. The one bad thing is that he'll put himself in time out on his own. He points to the spot and say "mout" and then will sit there with a sad pout on his face. But regardless if he was in "mout" on purpose or not, he knows he is always to go up to the person that he got in trouble with and tell them sorry...he gives a hug instead. Too cute!

Boo boo! Boo boo!

Sadly, but surprisingly, Benjamin had his first serious head injury today. I mean, really, I can't believe this is the first time that medical attention has been provided to one of his many head boo-boos, but it's still so scary!

This is my first week back to work and, of course, the daycare is closed this week to prepare for the new classes. So my mom kept the kids today. As soon as I sat down for my meeting, I saw that my mom was calling, but I hit ignore (sorry, Mom!) because I thought she was probably calling to tell me something cute that my cute kids did. I also thought that if she really needed me, she would've kept calling me or texted me. But she didn't and I didn't get a good chance to call to check on everyone until after lunch today. Here's the convo that we had when I finally did call:
Me: "How are y'all doing?"

LaLa: "Ok."

Me: "Is ME still awake?"

LaLa: "Yes. She's eating lunch now."

Me: "It's 2:30! Why is Mary Elizabeth just now eating lunch?"

LaLa: "Oh, we kind of had a situation this morning and just got back from the doctor."

Me: "WHAT?!?!" and let my tears begin rolling........

She then went on to explain to me that Benjamin ran into their thick coffee table. The odd part is that there are corner pads on TOP of all the corners of the table. But his head decided to bump into the BOTTOM part of one of the corners. Kari and McKenzie just so happened to be there at the time and Kari said that his head was BLOODY and LaLa was the most panicked that Kari has ever seen her! So my mom and Dad took the kids to the "brown" doctor (remember that's the color of the doctor building). Luckily, after the doctor looked at Benjamin's head, they determined that he just needed a "glue strip".



Thank God for cheap entertainment while you have to wait for numbing ointment to work!



"Please no stitches! Please no stitches!" Instead, they put a special glue strip on his head.
This gives me flashbacks to 2nd grade of when I ran into a sneeze guard at a Pizza Hut salad bar.

"Ok, they said no stitches. So let go of me!"



"Well, maybe this isn't too bad...two ladies are fanning me!"








The cutest patient ever! He had to wait for the numbing ointment to work, so they wrapped him up like he had a war wound. Then Dandy taught Benjamin valuable life lessons like where to put your hands if you don't have pockets. My word! And I was at school during all this craziness?!?!



"It's only a flesh wound!" Or as Benjamin keeps telling me and Drew already "Boo boo! Boo boo!"

My birthday=fun for all

I turned 31 today. I didn't have too much of a problem with turning 30 last year, but adding that one into the equation makes it sound old for some reason. Anyway, we celebrated my birthday at my parents house tonight. Really it was a party for the kids and grandparents, which is always fun.

You can't go to LaLa and Dandy's house without swimming in the elephant.

I L-O-V-E McKenzie's tongue hanging out! The kids couldn't get to the cake fast enough!

"More!" Benjamin was upset when the candles had to disappear, until he got a bite of cake.

I think all three of them enjoyed opening the presents for me way more than I enjoyed getting what was inside of them! Sadly, this present that they opened didn't quite make it all in one piece. Note to self and grandparents...Must.get.wrapping paper.and.boxes.as.Christmas.gifts.for.kids.

Thanks so much to all of my family for celebrating my birthday with me!!!

Summer play date

Since Ashley and I both have 2 little kids that can't really swim, we let the kids play in the sprinklers today. Awww...this brings back such fun childhood memories!

Stayin' cool inside

The summer days are STILL hot here in Arkansas, so we are resorting to making messes inside.

Benjamin is starting to fall into his sissy's foosteps.

He even likes to bodypaint, too!

We've been enjoying making yummy protein waffles almost every morning, too. Benjamin can't get enough of them!

After making so many messes at the house, we decided that we HAVE  to get out and make a mess elsewhere. So we headed to Chick-fil-A (are you surprised?).

Benjamin got really good at "roaring" people as they came and went.

As soon as they took three bites of their food because she's three, they headed off to the play zone. I L-O-V-E how Benjamin got scared to climb up and his "shish" came to his rescue!

She's such a "Mother Hen"!

Sometimes you CAN get what you ask for.
A few posts ago, I talked about how ME had already planned out what kind of ice cream she was going to get on her next CFA trip..."a ice cream tone with no any ice cream in it". She enjoyed every crumb of it!

Benjamin, on the other hand, enjoyed just dipping the handle of his spoon in the ice cream and eventually spilling it on the floor and letting everyone know about it.

So a quick fix to an ice cream disaster, of course, would be to go to the pool with Dandy, right? Excpet as soon as we pull up it's thundering! So a quick fix to the total disappointment of not going to the pool is going to get ice cream, right? I can justify why I allowed my children to "have ice cream twice in one day" because neither of them technically had ice cream at CFA (ME had just the cone and Benjamin had only a few "dip dips" with the spoon handle before it fell on the floor).

"Dandy knows just how to cheer me up!"

"Do I have anything on my face?"