Little Princes

Our neice Jenny had her 3rd birthday today. She had a *princess party* this afternoon. The boys are the only boys they know really- that's always how it is when we go to playgroup, a bunch of girls! All the girls were coming dressed as princesses. So here are my princes:


I just love this picture, even though Ben is doing his "look anywhere but at mom" thing... I think because they are just standing there together like two little (sniff) BOYS! Chris is all big and walking and they are just growing up. It's so cute. I used a Chuck E Cheese crown for a template with some posterboard, fur, and pompoms from the dollar store along with some good ol' tinfoil! They actually liked wearing them!

When we got there, Ben saw all the girls and was saying "she a princess, she a princess and she a princess too!" He loved all of it- hey, (pink) cake is cake.

(Where's the) Watermelon Festival

We looove festivals.... we used to love that show (not sure if it's still on?) on the Food Channel I think- Great American Festivals. We have yet to find any that are that cool, but we've been to a handful and some have been pretty cool. Well, yesterday we ventured out to "the country" for a "Watermelon Festival" where there was not a watermelon in sight! There was not much of anything- it was pretty trashy, really. Not to mention it was about a million and five degrees outside, I thought I was going to die. You can see in the pics how flushed the boys are- that was after like two minutes out of the car. The whole thing was down the main street so it was heat coming off of the asphalt. I gave Chris his big water sippy a few minutes after we got there, and he just sat there in his stroller drinking in non-stop. We didn't stay long, but we did try the big slide (which was almost too hot to go on!) ... Ben liked that. They got a waterballoon yoyo and this very cool wooden frog that sounds like it's croaking when you run the little stick across its back.





We were glad to be back in the A/C in the car!!!

Bye!

Chris has been waving more lately, especially when it's time to go to bed, he *waves* night-night to Ben and Daddy. Well, tonight out of the blue, he just started going "Bah" (bye) and waving. So cute. I would say it back and he would do it again and again. (Luckily, since I had to run for my camera :P)

And then all my boys were so cute at the table, playing with the new Jojo's circus colorforms...

Silly boys...

So Ben has started to speak for both of them.... he'll say "we want to" do something instead of just "I want to". Today, he was saying he was still hungry after eating his lunch and I looked at Chris who was whining and banging his cup and said "are you hungry too?" and Ben said, "yeah we're still hungry, Chris is still hungry". Ha!

One thing that they have been driving me NUTS with is their (mostly Chris' but then Ben joins in) obsession with pulling wipes and tissues out of the box. If they ever get a hold of a box, that's the end of it. Chris likes to stick the wipes in his mouth. He pulls one after another out until I stop him. On his own, Ben usually will just pull out a few tissues and mess around with them. Well, Ben's NEW thing is to pull the tissue out of the box, then wipe his nose with it (because THAT makes it okay that he pulled it out right?) Then he comes to me exitedly and tells me, "I wiped my boogers on the tissue!" LOL.

They've started mimicking each other more, as a game. Yesterday in the store, Ben was making the same sounds as Chris (bababababa) really loud as he "helped" push the cart and they were "talking" back and forth like this, getting progressively louder. In the bath this morning, Ben was saying no, no, no to getting his hair washed or something and Chris started going "do, do, do" and they went back and forth laughing like it was the funniest joke. So cute!

Well, as I was typing this, they were, guess what? Yep, pulling wipes out a few feet behind me (I'm too oblivous!) I told them no, and told Ben he knows better and he told me in his best apologetic voice (another new thing) "Oh, I sorry Mommy, I no mean to!" Oye.

Off to the store.

Awww, cuties!

I thought I'd give it a shot and do some portrait type photos- something I rarely attempt with these guys because they are just NOT cooperative when it comes to actually sitting for me. Ben is okay for about a minute, but Chris thinks it's a big fun game to get up and come towards me to grab my camera. And if we're outside trying to take one, fuggedaboudit! He's off like a racecar. Anyway, the last ones I took were at Valentine's, so I needed something new. I thought these turned out pretty darn cute! Just in time for fall, they kind of look like school pictures with the tan background, ha! (That's just my living room wall a few feet behind them)

And because I have three big frames over my mantle where I keep a photo of each of them with one of both in the middle frame... I had to attempt an updated group shot. This is the best I could get. I think it's the only one where they are both even looking.

Sure! I'd love to!

This is what Ben says now when I ask him if he wants to do something.... so cute!

Dat me!

Grandma and Grandpa brought the boys some cool lift-the-flap scripture books from their trip to Utah. Ben LOVES them. One is Book of Mormon stories and the other one is Bible Stories.



Tonight we were reading this one and we got to the story about King Benjamin and Ben says "Dat me! Dat meee Mommy!" Oh, and have I mentioned I love how Ben says his name "Be-ben" (Benjamin) For a long time he really didn't ever say his name, then when he did- it was "Beh" (I guess it still is) but when you ask him what his name is, he usually says "Be-ben"

"Cheeeeeese!"

So I posted a while back about Ben and this old 35mm camera. He likes to take our picture with it. Now Chris just started holding it up and saying "Teeeeee" (cheese). SOOOOO cute, I was cracking up!

Fingerpainting!

We haven't pulled out the fingerpaints in a while, because when we first tried, Ben wasn't really interested- too messy! Since then, he has enjoyed painting with brushes. Today, we tried fingerpainting again and he loved it! Except for when I wouldn't let him squeeze the paint out with his messy hands... he covered his face at first and got paint on it, which made him even sadder....


But, not to fret- he was fine about a minute later! We looove fingerpainting!

Did I mention...

we have another WALKER? He is so cute, toddling around the house. Once he got the confidence to go, he was all over this walking thing! He went from taking just a few steps for a week or two to really going:

Leh Pay Gase! (Let's play games!)

How to play the Dora ABC game, Ben style:

Open the box and take out the board- see that the back is 'backpack" and turn it over to look and get all excited and sing the song.... "backpack, backpack...."

Put the board down on the table and pull out all of the ABC cards- have your mommy put them all out with the letters facing up while you mess around with them. Put the Dora on the board at the beginning of the alphabet.

First Mommy says something, then you YELL your response...

The first letter is....

A!!

Where's the A card?

Here it is!!

Right! A is for...

(Turn over the card) Apple! (a-oh)

Okay, Put it on the picnic!

Put the card somewhere at the bottom of the board, being sure to mention who it is you're putting the food by.... except the kite! The kite goes up in the sky!

Repeat with each letter of the alphabet. Get a little tired towards the end. After all, you do have the attention span of a two-year old =)

Ben is LOVING games these days. We have a few so far that he can play so far (modified a bit) and he thinks it's great. After Dora, we played "Wheels on the Bus". They love this one because the little bus sings the song. Chris goes nuts and wants to play too, but he just wants the bus the whole time. When we're done playing, we give it to him and put the game away whenever he's tired of it. He loves to keep pushing all the buttons over and over and rolling it to make it sing. This is Chris' FAVORITE song right now, I think that's why he likes it so much.

Silly kid...

Ben just asked to watch Wiggle Bay for the third time today... as I turned it off, I said, "No way! I'm so sick of Wiggles, I could just... puke!" And he said, "no way, that's gross!" hahaha... I didn't think he knew what puke meant!

8th of July

We celebrated with the fam the Sunday after the 4th. We had dinner, they played in the little pool for a while, while we all got bitten to death by mosquitos... then did some fireworks. The kids mostly liked it. They were interested at first ;) I think Ben liked picking out the fireworks more than actually watching them. He picked a chicken and a car... lol. He thought most of them were "too louder!" when they lit them. Chris was more interested in just playing with Grandpa. He almost fell out of his little chair once, but he sure liked sitting in it!

Here are some more pics from the day:

4th (8th) of July

Box fulla cuteness

It's funny how much fun a kid can have being pushed around the house in a cardboard box. So cute how they were loving being squished in there together!

The wagon...

This was the highlight of their week, I think... I took them for a walk and let Ben pull Chris in the wagon. They thought it was so fun and just hilarious. I was snapping my camera the whole way, and it was so funny- I would run ahead to get the shot and Ben would start running too, and then Chris would laugh and the would both just laugh and laugh! I had to do a scrapbook page.