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: A Week Late!

In an effort to get up to date on my blog, I was going to skip last weekend and go straight to this weekend, but then I remembered that last weekend was way too good to neglect!  I also need to start posting my weekly bump pictures!  I've been taking the pictures and writing the weekly update, I just have yet to combine the two parts.  I'm hoping this week will be less hectic than last!  My weekend fun started with a surprise birthday party at work!  I totally ruined the surprise because they had planned a lunch surprise without knowing that I had an appointment for Ben over the lunch hour, but luckily the appointment was done earlier than expected.  Bonus: Ben and Andy got to stop by for some fun too.  Panera and sweets/treats galore…YUM!  Ben rolled up his sleeves and dove right in…to the gummy worms.  :)

We opted to skip swimming lessons on Saturday morning in exchange for a trip to the petting farm.  We met my co-worker/boss lady/friend there with her son, so Ben was loving having a buddy to hang out with.  Ben LOVES the animals and isn't afraid of them at all.  He must get that from his dad.  :)  He was a little bored waiting for our friends to arrive on the fake animals.  Bring on the real ones!

This petting farm is a bit of a drive, but definitely worth it.  I'm going to do my best to recap Ben's thoughts on some of the animals we saw.  First up were the chickens.  They were a little aggressive in their eating/pecking, so daddy did most of the work with the chickens. 

Speaking of aggressive, check out these goats!  You'd think they hadn't been fed all week!  I definitely kept my distance.  

Ben and daddy, on the other hand, were more than happy to feed them.  "Little ones…cuuute!"  Ben loves the little anything.  "Little one!" about his pancake this morning.   :)

Being on the other side of the fence from the goats was one thing, but going inside the fence was another.  And Ben was on board.  He was giggling so hard when the goats would jump up on Andy.  I was scared enough for both of us.

Ben made sure to get some pets in.

I am not sure what the difference is between the goats, but there were two separate areas.  Thankfully, the second group of goats were on a different diet so you couldn't feed them, only brush them.  They were much more tame.  Ben has grown a bit since last year's trip to the petting farm, but apparently he still rocks the same color combo.  

Next up was the kitten barn, which was a little more my speed.  Ben obviously approved as well.  He loved trying to give the kitty the ball, just like he does with Auntie Anna's kitty.  Luckily he isn't to the age where he asks for pets yet, because I'm pretty sure a kitty would be at the top of his list. 

Since he loved the baby kittens so much, we stopped by the baby chicks next.

I thought he might have liked the little chicks more than he did, but I suppose they weren't as cuddly to hold.

Somewhat surprising was his love for milking the cow.  First, he practiced on the fake cow.

Then, it was time for the real thing.  He laughed hysterically when the milk squirt out, and of course, wanted to do it again and again. 

This is the face of a happy cow milker!

Although I think it is a bit obvious that my primary role that morning was photographer, just for the record, I did pet an animal or two.

By the end of the day, either my fear of animal slobber was rubbing off on Ben, or he was just getting tired, but Ben ultimately reached his animal farm max.  Notice him putting up his feet so that the piggies wouldn't get his piggies.  That's a far cry from the boy who wanted kisses from nearly every other animal.  

All in all, it was a successful trip to the petting farm.  He was so excited about all of the animals he saw that he decided he didn't want to nap the rest of the day.  This at least lead to an earlier bedtime.  (Night #2 in his big boy bed!)  An earlier bedtime left plenty of time for Andy and me to have a nice dinner.  Andy was gone all last week, so he made me a delicious birthday dinner before he left.  I'm getting hungry just looking at all that good food again...

Sunday was a busy family day because my Aunt from Texas was in town (dad's side) and my cousins from New York were in town (mom's side), so we had a lot of people to see in one day!  Our first stop was my grandma's house to see my Auntie Laurie.  I neglected to get a picture of her with Ben, but I did manage to get one of Ben being the center of attention, as usual!

I also managed to get a picture of Ben and Great Grandma.  I think Ben is her favorite grandchild ever!

After Ben took a power nap in the car, it was time for family party number two: dinner at my mom's with my cousins on my mom's side of the family.  There were about 20 people there including 4 kids 3 years old and under, so it was a little chaotic but oh so fun.  Ben loves his cousin Simmy so much.  

Possibly too much, but for the most part he is pretty gentle.   :)

I'm missing one of the babies in this picture, but this is the best group shot that I have…

Ben had his usual for dinner that night.

In addition to a delicious dinner, we also celebrated my birthday!  I can't remember what happened to the cake, but something or someone got at it.  ;)

That didn't matter to Ben because he ate an ENTIRE PIECE of cake and was even asking for more cake the next day--happy birthday to me!

He was less interested in the candles, which I suppose is a good thing.  

It seems like most of my iPhone pics are blurry, but I did manage to take a few pictures with my real camera.   Good pictures too!  Ben loves his Uncle Joe!  Especially since he chased him as he ran into the woods in my mom's back yard.  

He was so excited to see his cousin Theo again too.  Partners in crime!

On Sunday night, Andy left for an immersion week for his grad school program.  In other words, he left to allow Ben to be the first to wish me happy birthday at 3:00AM on Monday morning.  :)  I won't complain though, because the next night, he slept so well that I was able to shower and get dressed before he woke up!  I had a decent day at work, but the highlight of my day was dinner with my family.  We missed Andy, but we still had fun!

Thanks to my wonderful family for spoiling me on my birthday and basically everyday for that matter!  32 seems old but I can't complain!  Life is so good.  Looking forward to seeing what this year will bring!

My goal is to finish this weekend's post tomorrow night and MAYBE, just maybe, get my bump pictures posted.