Happy Birthday Ben!

One year ago today I went for a walk with my mom around the block.  One year ago my water broke.  One year ago, I ate a quick dinner of eggplant parmesan, and one year ago today I drove to the hospital to have a baby.  One year ago tomorrow at approximately 1:30 am, Benjamin James Davis arrived.  How is my little baby boy one already?

Benny has been a joy and a light in our family for one year now.  He's walking (while holding on to something) and talking (with his hands) and delighting everyone he comes in contact with.  Of course we had to celebrate this sweet little boy and his big day.  So, on Saturday both sets of grandparents came into town, some friends came over to join us and we had a party.

I had been wracking my brain trying to think of a theme for Ben's big day, and then it hit me.  Mr. Happy needed a smiley faced themed party.  So, we made smiley sandwiches, blew up smiley balloons, and even had my wonderful friend Aimee make a personalized smiley face shirt. 

It was a great party.  Nothing big, just people that cared about Benny playing and celebrating.  It was just right.  The kids had a great time playing in the ball pit and eating the Ben sized munchies that we had made.  It's amazing how much cheese and fruit one group of babies and toddlers can consume.

We are grateful for all of the friends that stopped by to celebrate.  We are grateful for the family that traveled to be with us.  We are grateful for all of the loved ones who sent cards and gifts to our little man, but mainly we're grateful for Ben himself.  Our littlest boy makes his brother happy and amazes everyone who sees him with his good nature.  What a perfect completion to our little family! 

Happy first birthday Benny!

 (Ian and Gram with the spread...lots of cheese and fruit!)

 

 (The cake...another masterpiece from Ian)

(Ben's buds Quinn, Jonas, and Abby arrive.)

(More of Ben's buddies: Quinn, Carson, Amelia, and Evan)

(Ben is already quite the ladies man.)

 (Ben...meet cake.)

(Big boy in a ball pit)

 (Daddy and the birthday boy)

(Grandparents and Great Aunt watch the birthday boy...quite an audience!)

Photo Reenactment Fail

So, about this time two years ago, our little playgroup went to the mall.  We managed to take the cutest pictures including one with all of our little boys in a little orange boat in the play area together.  It was the best picture!

Here we are two years later with one of our playgroup families about to move across the country (boo), so we decided to try to reenact that wonderful picture so we could see how the boys had changed.  We headed to the mall play area, and just before we all went for lunch, we tried to get all the boys in the boat for the picture.  Here are the somewhat dismal results:

(Here's the picture from 2009: Quinn, Nathaniel, Evan, Edward, and Carson)

 (First attempt 2011: No Edward, he couldn't make it, one child we don't recognize, Evan and Nathaniel are at least looking at the camera, but Carson is hidden behind Evan...awesome.)

 (Take 2: Now we can see everyone, but there's still that random kid, and now Quinn is turned around.)

 (Take #3: That random kid left, but now NO ONE is looking at the camera.)

 (Take #4: It's getting worse.  Quinn has disappeared, and I don't think Nathaniel's mind is focused on smiling for the camera...sigh.)

(Take #5: Okay, I just give up.  Let's just get the next generation in here for a much better result: Jonas, Amelia, Ben, and Elise all pose quite nicely.)

Good Memories and an Even Better Beginning

A month ago, we received an invitation in the mail.  Our dear friend Flora from college was getting married to a wonderful man named Kyle that we had met the last time we had seen them.  They had looked so happy, so we were so thrilled to find out that they were getting married.  To top it all off, even though they lived in Chicago, they were getting married just down the road!!  We couldn't wait!

So, wedding weekend rolled around, and we knew that some of our other friends from college would be coming in to go to the wedding.  Most of them were occupied with pre-wedding festivities, but on Friday night we were able to see our old friend Drew and his girlfriend Linda.  We had a great dinner out at one of our favorite restaurants in Durham while we listened to some outdoor music.  I was so glad that some of our friends from college were able to meet Evan and Ben, and it was great to meet Linda.

The next day was the wedding.  We left the kids with a babysitter and escaped to the wedding.  Needless to say, we were ridiculously early which is what always happens when we travel anywhere without the kids.  The wedding was absolutely beautiful.  Everything was elegant, the food was delicious, and the happy couple looked perfect together.  The ceremony reminded Ian and I of our wedding as weddings always do.  Then, getting to hang out with all of our friends from college was great!  Even though we hadn't seen each other in 5 or more years, it seemed just like old times.  It made me remember just what good friends we had in our little college fraternity, APO. 

The only negative was that we didn't get to see Flora and Kyle for long enough, a quick hug and a conversation wasn't enough!  At weddings, everyone wants to see the bride and groom, we we were glad to get the time that we did have before we had to head home to relieve the babysitter.  Hopefully, they will be back in town soon and we'll get the chance to catch up.  Until then, we know they will be so happy together!  Let's hope it's not another five years before we see everyone again!

(Enjoying a great dinner...The kids loved Drew and Linda!)

 (The happy couple)

 (I didn't manage to get any pictures of Flora and Kyle together, so I had to borrow these from a friend on facebook.)

 (We actually clean up pretty well.)

(Part of the APO crowd: Ian, Tim, Jeff, Jeremy, Drew, and Linda)

The Big Hunt

Over Easter weekend we headed down to Charlotte to celebrate with Gram and Gramps.  On Saturday Gram put together quite the party for our family and some other family friends.  The Easter eggs were hidden and the kids came ready to find them.  The skies started out gray, but that didn't matter to the kids.  They grabbed their baskets and raced out into the yard where the eggs were hidden.  We pointed Benny towards some so that he could get a few in his basket.  He picked them up, examined them, and then chewed on them a little bit.  Evan on the other hand was the first one out the door.  He always races to find a few, then stops because he has to find out what's in them.  We had to encourage him to keep searching for the eggs before they all disappeared.  They both had a great time!

After the fantastic Easter party we had a great weekend just relaxing with Gram and Gramps.  We relaxed on their beautiful new screened porch, The Easter bunny even stopped by on Sunday.  While we wished that Evan hadn't woken up at 5:15 in order to see what the bunny had left, we all had fun discovering all of the goodies in the baskets. 

It's great to see the boys getting into all of the family holiday traditions that I've always enjoyed so much throughout the years.  I love holidays with my family!

 (Hmmmm...Easter basket or hat?)

 (Ready for the egg hunt...)

(Ben finds one with a little help.)

 (C'mon Evan get back to the egg hunt.  You can eat chocolate later...)

 (That's more like it...)

 (Boy that was fun!)

 (Easter bunny waves hi!)

 (Did Gramps steal the Easter bunny's ears?)

(Just a little practice for his upcoming first birthday.)

Animals!

No, no, that title is not referring to my children!  Over the past two weeks the boys and I have been heading out to see some real live animals in our area.  First, on Evan's preschool spring break week we headed down to the NC Zoo.  It's about an hour and a half away, but it was worth it.  We convinced our friends Amy and Gary and Abby, Quinn, and Jonas to come along and made our way to Asheboro. 

(Our group of intrepid zoo explorers-Amy and Gary, Our little family, and Abby, Quinn, and Jonas)

Evan really enjoyed seeing all of the animals live.  Ben just enjoys taking in all of the sights and sounds although he did think he had to stay in his stroller far too long!  We went to the Africa portion of the zoo on this visit and saw giraffes, chimps, lions, and more, but Evan's favorite was definitely the baboons.  I think that was because he had just read about them in the "Just So Stories" with Daddy the night before.  However, the gorilla put on quite a show when he walked right in front of us, laid down, and did a little scratching.  Evan and his good buddy Quinn took a little while after the gorilla sighting walking around on their own knuckles doing their own version of gorilla walking.  It was a great day, and I can't wait to head back to see the other animals that we missed!

 (Evan and Ben get ready to explore the zoo.)

 (giraffe rear end)

 (The boys watch the chimps-How cute are they?)

 (elephants)

 

 (Our little gorillas)

Then, last week, our animal adventures continued.  When I was working at The Hill Center in town we would head down to the Duke Lemur Center for a field trip each year.  The kids always had a great time, so I've been waiting until Evan was old enough to take him for a visit.  We were supposed to head down there with our playgroup, but due to a really nasty virus that had been ravaging the playgroup, it was down to us and our friends Sarah and Edward.  But we had a great time anyway! 


The Lemur Center is such a unique experience.  We got to get right up next to the cages and see animals that most people will never get to see up close.  It was especially neat to head into the nocturnal habitat and see all of the tiny nocturnal lemurs scurrying around in the dim light.  Lemurs are almost all endangered, and I don't think the boys realized how precarious the situation of all of these cute little animals was, but they are still learning the importance of caring for and learning about animals.  We even got to meet the actual lemur from the TV show Zooboomafoo which we are of course recording daily for Evan's viewing pleasure.

We wonder what animal adventure we'll be up to next!

Wearing Strawberries

Last week the strawberry patches opened back up in Durham.  So, needless to say, on Monday morning we were back out at the berry patches.  It's a great division of labor: the boys and I pick the strawberries and take them home and then Ian makes all sorts of delicious strawberry treats from our bounty. 

I was a little more concerned about going this year.  Last year, I only had one child.  I was incredibly pregnant, but at least I knew Ben wasn't going anywhere at that time.  I decided to try to put Ben in the carrier to keep him a little contained while we picked.  But I had no idea how that would go because he's gotten so squirmy in recent weeks.

So, we met our friends at the patch and headed out into the rows.  Fortunately, I had also forgotten how good strawberry rows are at containing toddlers, so Evan and his buddies Nathaniel, Quinn, and Jonas were nicely contained while we picked.  Evan enjoyed eating them, but the real entertainment was playing with the flag that they gave us to mark our progress.  Ben didn't squirm at all when he had a strawberry in his hands.  So, I was continually handing him strawberries which he would eat and smear all over his clothing, the carrier, his body, and his mom.  Hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. 

We all packed a lunch so after we paid for our berries and sat down to eat.  Unfortunately for Benny's clothing, there was a sandbox nearby, and we all know that there's nothing that goes with strawberry juice better than a sandbox! 

We had a great time.  The best outings always end with a change of clothes!  Plus, now we have jam and strawberry sorbet to enjoy!

 (Evan, Nathaniel, and the flags)

(Benny, Mom, and the strawberries)

Bye Bye BBQ

The last adventure of our packed weekend was a fantastic BBQ over at our friends, the Hopkins' house.  While it was a fun event, the reason for our gathering wasn't quite as happy.  Our friends, the Burts, are moving to California so we were all gathering to say goodbye to this great family.  We ate some delicious food, drank some drinks, talked, and watched the kids play in the backyard.  It's always nice to see them playing so well relatively independently.  However, we knew that they were getting tired and that we should probably wrap up the festivities when we looked down at the sandbox and there were multiple little almost-three year olds that had started to strip off all of their clothing.  Oh well, you never quite know what goes on in the minds of toddlers!

It was a great time with great friends, and we will definitely miss the Burts!  Ian and I will miss our friends, Evan will miss Carson, and Ben will definitely miss his first little girlfriend Amelia.

(Evan and Ben play in the sandbox-wonder what Ben could be eating?)

 

 (Nathaniel and Evan are looking a little guilty.)

 

 (Bye bye, Burts...)

 (We'll miss you!)