Weekend Recap: Long Overdue!!

This is my attempt at blogging about our weekends once again!  I take sooooo many pictures and the blog at least helps organize them a bit.  Now that Andy will be home more and NOT studying, I anticipate a lot more fun weekends in our future!  I love looking back at these posts, so I really hope I can keep it up.  This past weekend was jam-packed and did not disappoint.  Prepare yourself for lots of photos!

The weather was AMAZING, so we headed to the park to have a picnic dinner.  But  did the boys want to sit by the playground?  No, ma'am/sir.  They wanted to watch the kids playing baseball.  (And of course they didn't want to eat!)  I got a glimpse in to what I imagine my future will be like: Friday nights at the baseball diamond!  Though it will probably also be Saturday and Sunday all day at the diamond as well!

On Saturday morning, Ben graduated from music class.  I can't believe it!  I feel like he just started, even though that was way back when he was only 12 months old!  He was a little shy because he had quite the audience (Nana, Papa John, and Grandpa), but he still did such a great job.  I am so proud of him.  He has become so confident and has developed a love for music.  He is sad that music class is over.  Joshy still has a few more years and Baby Fish #3 can join soon enough too, but it is still hard to believe that Ben is too old now!

After music class, we headed to the petting farm!  It was a HUGE hit.  We've gone before in 2014 and 2013.  I think we went last year too, but I couldn't find a blog post about it.  I did find this post though which made me sad to see how much they have both grown this past year!  Sigh…. But back to the weekend!  Both Ben and Josh were so brave with all of the animals.  First up was the giant pig. 

Now that Ben is older, he noticed all of the other toys and play equipment at the petting farm and he rode one of these giant tricycles to every animal barn we went to. :)

We were able to pull him away from the trike to feed some chickens!

It's official: both of my boys are more brave than me!

The only thing that Joshy didn't seem to like was the horse.  (Sorry Auntie Anna!)  I think it was too big and moving too quickly for his liking.

You'd think they would have been tired after a busy day at the petting farm, but no such luck!  Neither of them napped on the way home or when we got home.  It was such a beautiful night that we wanted to make the most of being outside.  I only managed to take one picture, but that's probably because it was the only time Joshy was sitting still.  :)

After a great night of sleep, we were all up for another day of fun!  Ben and I had a date to see a play that afternoon, so we decided to make the day of going downtown.  We went and fed the ducks with Grandpa.  Always a good time!

It was PERFECT weather, so we decided to eat lunch outside.  It was heavenly.  

Ben is really in to this box making game--whatever it's called!  He's really good at making Bs too!

After lunch, Josh and Andy dropped Ben and I off at the play.  It was "Lilly's Purple Plastic Purse" and it was so cute!  Ben really likes the book, and I won a gift certificate for a play at an auction over a year ago, so I finally used it!  We were in the second row and Ben was SO GOOD the entire time!  He is such a good listener. :)  We had so much fun together.  I love when I get one on one time with my boys!

We got to watch the bridge go up and down! 

Ben was finally tuckered out after this!  But don't worry, the nap was literally only like the last 3 minutes of our drive home.  He was then ready to play again.  

Ben's new thing is saying that his tummy does or doesn't want to do something.  My tummy doesn't want to go to sleep.  My tummy really wants to play outside.   This day, his tummy just wanted to go on a bike ride.  Little did his tummy know it didn't want to bike too far!  Ben was happy to direct where he wanted to go, but then forgot that he needs to get back home again.  Josh was perfectly happy in the stroller until Ben took over all of his room and then he wanted me to carry him.  We walked to the site of the new park that is being built but then I carried Josh home while pushing the stroller with Ben and his bike.  Andy was cutting the grass and when we got home, I'm pretty sure I was sweating more than he was. :)

Last, but definitely not least, we checked out Auntie Anna's new apartment.  It is a retirement community turned "opened to anyone" place so there are a lot of older people events like Bingo and movie night afternoon.  There is also a work out room with antiquated equipment.  Ben and Josh didn't mind though!

Well, I'm exhausted reliving our weekend!  Time for bed!  Let's see if I can keep up with this weekend posts!  Long weekend here we come!

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.