Weekend Recap: Wedding and Music

This past weekend was soooo fun!  Actually, the fun started on Thursday with "Muffins With Mom" at Benji's school.  I am pretty sure I was more excited than Ben--I live for this stuff!  He was a little nervous when we arrived, but as soon as he realized I was staying with him, he was a happy camper.  He basically stared/smiled at his teacher the entire time.  Unfortunately, I didn't actually know which kids were from Ben's class, but luckily I saw a friend from college, so Ben and I finally socialized for a bit.   :)  After Benji ate approximately 6 grapes and got powdered sugar all over me, it was time for me to go to work.  :(   Luckily I had some post-work fun to look forward to!  My fabulous coworkers and I went to a food tasting benefit for kids with cerebral palsy after work.  Gotta love eating and drinking for a good cause!  We had a blast--too bad it was a Thursday night instead of a weekend!

Andy, Ben, and I spent Friday night getting ready for the rest of the weekend!  After music class on Saturday morning, Andy and I were off to our friends' wedding!  Although we missed our boy, he was in great hands with his sleepover buddy, Nana.  Ben kept Nana and Papa John busy at the children's museum for nearly 3 hours!  He LOVES that place!  As much as I would like to think he was missing his momma and daddy, I'm pretty sure he didn't have time for that.  :)

Andy and I grabbed a quick lunch before meeting up with some of my college friends.  A brilliant friend decided it would be a good idea to get drinks in the short amount of time we had before the ceremony.  We were at a bar for about 6 minutes before the girls starting corralling the guys.  We arrived at the church at essentially the worst time ever--when the bride was just about to walk down the aisle.  SORRY SHEILA!  She graciously welcomed us in and pointed us in the right direction.  Not only did I feel horrible that we were late, this also meant seats in the back corner, which is not where I like to sit for weddings!  It was a beautiful ceremony though!  The reception was equally fabulous and it was so great to catch up with everyone.  I just realized that out of the 8 girls in the picture below, we live in 5 different states!  It will probably be a long time before we are all reunited again... :(

Of course the whole night went too fast, but I am so thankful that we were able to celebrate Sheila and Brian.  It's not our best picture, but we managed to get one photo-bomb-free photo of the two of us.  :)   Andy and I had to get up relatively early to head back for our parenting class.  We were tired but we sure do like our class!

After class, we made sure that Benji got in a quick nap before his big concert debut!  I wish I had a video of his performance because it was the CUTEST thing ever!!!  I really didn't know what to expect, but it was like he knew that it was time to shine.  He did what he was supposed to do for all of the songs AND he gave 3 shout outs to NANA throughout his performance, typically when it was nice and quiet.  It was so funny.  It was bright on the stage and the audience was dark, yet somehow he knew what direction to yell NANA!  The auditorium was packed (a few hundred people??) and he was a total ham.  Clearly he doesn't take after me in that department.   It was the 20th anniversary of the string academy I used to play violin with, so all of the alumni were invited to play at the concert.  I missed the rehearsal for other songs, but I did play "Twinkle, Twinkle" with the big group.  It was fun to play my violin for the first time in about 10 years, even if it wasn't a very impressive performance.  ;)

We, of course, had to celebrate Ben's first concert at our favorite restaurant.  All in all, it was a fun-filled but exhausting weekend.  We were all in bed early and we all slept through the night!  Woohoo!

SCHOOL UPDATE:  Ben had another great day at school yesterday.  He was a little sad when he got there, but as soon as he saw his teacher, he reached for her!!  He voluntarily put his nuk away, ate a good lunch, napped, and made art projects.  Made my day!!  He told us all about it over a date night.  I have the best dates ever.  So unbelievably blessed.  

Weekend Recap: Momma-Benji Style

Andy went on his yearly snowmobiling trip this weekend, so it was up to Ben and me to have some fun.  Luckily it is impossible not to have fun with B!  We made sure we soaked up the last of our daddy time before he left.

Since Andy is the cook of the house, Ben and I ate out for most of our meals this weekend.  (two weekends in a row...oops!)  Although I know I am totally capable of preparing meals, we couldn't pass up the opportunity to go out with great company.  Friday night was dinner with my mom, John, and Auntie Anna.  It was our favorite restaurant for probably the 5th time this month.  :)

On Saturday I took Ben to the daycare at the gym for the very first time ever.  I almost started crying, but luckily he had plenty of distractions to keep him busy.  I rushed through my workout and a shower before going to pick him up.  There is a big window that looks in to the daycare.  When I went to get him, I scanned the whole room and could not find him anywhere.  I nearly had a heart attack before I found him by one of the daycare staff members, trying to open the cabinet under the sink.  CLASSIC BEN.  I didn't get the full, detailed report that I was hoping for, but they said he did great and that there were no tears.  SO proud of my guy!  To celebrate our success, we had a lunch date with my old college roomie and her daughter.  Ok, we weren't really celebrating our success, but had so much fun that it might as well have been a celebration.  It was great to catch up and  I absolutely love watching Ben interact with other kids--he loves it!  I see more playdates with his slightly older girlfriend in our near future.   

For dinner on Saturday, Ben and I went out with some of the wives of the guys Andy was snowmobiling with.  We had a great time, but unfortuantely Ben was not that interested in sitting nicely and having some quality girl talk.  I could only entertain him so long before it was time to put the babe to bed.  (How do single moms do this full time??)  We had to get some sleep before our Sunday adventure.  My mom, Joe, Anna, Ben, and I hit the road Sunday morning to visit my aunt and friend for the day.  

We met for a quick lunch before we were off to the children's museum.  That's right, there were 6 adults to 1 child.  Buddy boy is so spoiled in the attention department.  I think all of the adults had fun, and I am 100% positive that Ben had a blast.  It is hard to say what his favorite part was, but playing in the water, sweeping with a broom, and petting (odd) animals seemed to keep his attention the longest.  

While we missed Andy dearly, I am so glad that we were able to spend time with some of my (our) favorite people!  Ben L-O-V-E loves all of the people who love him.  It makes me happy to see the happiness he brings to others.  

Weekend Recap: Staycation Vacation, Part 1

I'm falling behind AGAIN.  I'm in a rather blah mood tonight and I'm crabby that I work so much and don't have much time to blog, so hopefully writing this post will make me :).  I actually have a lot to be :) about because I had a wonderful 4 day weekend with my little family!  I am probably forgetting something, but I don't believe that I have had 4 consecutive days off since my maternity leave!  Waaay too long!  I seriously loved every work-free minute.  I don't know if I would be the best full-time stay at home mom, but I would certainly love to work even a little bit less.  We had big plans to go on a 4 day road trip, but after realizing that we weren't sure how Ben would do in a hotel room, we opted to only spend 1 night away.  (Hindsight: BRILLIANT move on our part.)  It was rainy on Friday, so we decided to take a trip to the children's museum.  We had never been there before and it was awesome!  I think Ben could have stayed and played all night.  

 

Ben jumped right in there with each and every thing that caught his little eye.  He is getting quite good at repeating what he sees.  He loved throwing the fake fruit down the chute!

He also loved checking out the "home town" exhibits.   Ben was quite the tour guide and made sure that we did not miss an attraction.  He was an excellent bus driver and was a pro at opening and shutting the (invisible) door--probably because we sing "Wheels On The Bus" about 10 times a day.

He had to stop at the ATM before we got too far.  Unfortunately, it was only dispensing plastic cash that day.  Good thing he found us a little free library nearby, although he preferred opening and closing the cabinet doors over the actual books.  

We made a quick stop at the fake grocery store so Benji could pick up one of his favorites--watermelon!  He was seriously trying to eat it, much to my germaphobic chagrin.  

And since I'm a total thrill seeker who loves to live life on the edge (not), we ended our trip with a ride on a Harley (without helmets) and broadcasting the news at a crime scene.  Hopefully this is the closest that Ben will ever get to both of these things. :)

These pictures do not even come close to demonstrating the amount of energy that was expended that day, and thus, no sooner did we get home did I find the boys like this:

I'm feeling as tired as these guys right now, so I'm going to make this a 2 part post.  I've been working out in the morning lately, which I had been missing terribly, but this also requires an earlier bedtime.  Hopefully I'll have time to finish writing before it's the weekend again!  Super pumped that tomorrow is already Thursday!