Look Mom, No Training Wheels!!

So, little Ben, our creature of habit, who likes no change......well, he finally started riding his bike this spring, with training wheels of course. Dad always like to challenge him a little quicker than I do.....Wil would probably still be on training wheels if it were up to me LOL....anyway, after having a few weeks of enjoying the safety of riding his bike along with the training wheels, Den decided to "bend" the training wheels up, vertically I would say, but about 2" he would say. I was furious, kept my mouth shut and went inside. Last I saw, Den was hanging on to the bike, trying to talk Ben into going down the drive, and Ben was adamantly saying no. About 10 minutes later, Dad and Ben come in, Dad says there was no luck. I smirk, to myself. Then Ben comes up and asks me to come out, he wants to show me something. Sure, no problem. This time of year, Ben always has something to show you, be it a new rock, a worm, a bug, a turtle, something he built, who knows!! So, I go out, needless to say, I come back in to get my camera.....and this is what I saw.......

30 minutes later, the training wheels were removed, permanently. Ben's favorite thing to do is hot rod thru the yard and stand up on the pedals as he speeds down the hill, past our house, giving his mother a heart attack.--but with a helmet on.

I must say, I was very humbled, no more smirking to myself, and had to admit, Den was right. This time :o)

A Day at the Aquarium at Mall of America

One of the perks of the Mall of America is the Underwaters Adventure Aquarium. It is really neat to go thru, and you are in tunnels that go right thru the aquarium. So all the animals are swimming all around you, except below. This is all in the basement of the Mall. So, one day when the kids had no school, I signed them up to help feed the sharks! We went in for a tour, "Behind the Scenes" where they show you their lab, above all the tanks (which is where they feed the animals) and the kitchen, where they store and prepare all the food. This was really interesting, and they only take 4 people for the feedings. I snagged that opportunity up quick! No camera's were allowed down there, as it was the basement of the mall for security purposes, so the only pictures I can show below is from when we were finished and went thru the tunnels.

We were feeding the sharks mackerel and squid. They gave us long tongs, and we tapped the water to get the sharks attention to come eat, and when they would, we would hold the tongs down, and they would come up and snatch the food away--just 3 feet separating us from them. All 3 tried it, however, I did hang on to the tongs with Jacque and Ben just to make sure they didn't get tugged in!! As we were feeding them, this VERY large sting ray clinged to the wall below us, and kept lifting itself up and out ( so you could see him mouth underneath him) and would slide up to the open air a good 10 inches, trying to get the squid from us. So weird. They said that is how they feed the sting rays, and this one was still hungry!

So below are some pics of the kids as we finished up going thru the aquarium......

Typical teenage grin :o) Don't ya just love em' !

A sea turtle swimming by.....

It's a little freaky seeing a shark swim over you....

Some very large sting rays and sharks.....

OUCH!!!!!

Well, a few weeks ago, we were over at a friends house for dinner, and the kids took their scooters to play on. This is a fairly new neighborhood, so all the sidewalks are new, however, where the road meets the sidewalk, that has not been leveled out smooth. Point is, there is still about a 3/4-1" rise from the pavement to the sidewalk edge. Obviously, from this picture, Ben was unaware of that :o) He took a pretty good fall, head over the handle bars and ended with this skid mark. He wasn't very happy, unlike this picture, which was 1 week later. Wil did come to his rescue and brought him to us, and after that, Daddy worked a little magic on him and made him feel better. All is well now.........

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Cake, Cake and more Cake!

As I was putting up Ben's birthday post (below) I realized how much cake we had--3!!! For one little boy! His birthday was on a Saturday, and his party was going to be on Sunday. Well, of course we had a cake for the party, but I wanted him to have some cake ON his birthday, so we came up with a great plan of letting him make his own cake. So we baked one the night before, and had it all ready for him to decorate on Saturday afternoon.

There was one pitfall, Saturday morning from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Mommy and Jacque were to be at a Girl Scout Cookie booth, so more than likely, he would be in bed when I left. So, I got a "little" cake for him to wake up to and start his day out with for fun. Then while I was gone, he decorated his cake--chocolate cake with chocolate frosting along with some other colors and candies to adorn it with.

So, when I sit back and look over all the picture, he had 3 different cakes! And yes, 5 days later we are still working on them--although there isn't much left!

Cake #1--Good Morning Ben! It's an alligator! (2 cupcakes smothered in icing!--what can't you find at Wal-mart these days !)

Cake #2 Ben's creation--and it's yummy!--I'm working on a piece of it now as I'm writing this post.

Cake #3 Our cupcake Cake for the party. It had Kung Fu Panda on it--again, thank you Wal-mart Bakery!! Ben's friend Reese, sitting right in front of the cupcakes, well his expression says it all!

Happy 7th Birthday Ben!

So, Ben's now 7!!! I can't believe how fast the time flies by! We had one big gift for him this year, and actually didn't have enough wrapping paper to go around the box, so we opted to take it out of the box, have it already to play with and just cover it with a blanket. Well, Ben didn't take to that idea so well. He thought "something" was hiding under there and we were going to scare him. He told us later he thought it was a giant frog???? Boys!



So, as you can see, once he opened it, he was not afraid anymore. Oh, Dad actually had to open it for him, Ben wouldn't come near it--that is until he saw what it was! It's actually pretty neat, it is a trick/sport remote control that the boys can build jumps and tracks with it and race it. Thanks to daddy for finding that one!



So, this year, Ben wanted a bowling birthday party. Which was fine with me seems how his birthday crept up on me and I was so not ready for it! We took him and some friends over to Brunswick and went Cosmic Bowling. They turn off all the lights, and everything glows in the dark and laser lights everywhere. We had pizza and cake, it was a good time.



Here's the gang we spent our afternoon with--brother, sister, and some great neighborhood friends.



Our "birthday Hero"--a.k.a party helper, happened to be our neighbor, Travis. So, we had a good time with him. Weird thing is, when we moved here 8 years ago, Travis was about Ben's age--wow, I'm getting old!

Another pic of the group--don't you just love Jacque's photogenic qualities!

No birthday party is complete without a little game of limbo! Go Ben!

And that was the end of our fun day. Ben had a good time with friends, lots of pizza and cake to eat, and fun presents to bring home and play with. I don't know who was happier, Ben or Mommy-- who had no mess to clean up and a clean home to walk into, put her feet up, and rest! :o)

Author's Party

Ben had written a book, actually everyone in his class did, and they invited special people in to hear them read their books at their Authors Party. We had cookies and hot cocoa. I video taped Ben with my camera reading his book, however, he was very soft spoken that day, (Seriously, Ben was soft spoken that day, really, I'm telling the truth :O) ) so, you can't hear him read his book, but you can see him.

The next post talks about the Medieval Feast, and they were all in costume that day. This party took place on that day, which explains Ben's unusual, dirty attire.