Trucks

The lot across the street from us had been empty until about a month ago. Then the trucks moved in and our new neighbors started slowly building a new house. It would be quite an understatement to say watching a backhoe loader and dump truck in action was a big hit with a certain little boy.

Lists

Yesterday we did a lot of this:

This month we've also been trying our hand at this:

And enjoying this:

But sometimes we just need a little of this:

Sorry for the sporadic posts. For those of you who don't know, I'm expecting another baby in December (yay!) so my motivation the past 12 weeks has been non-existent (boo!) I'm hoping that will remedy itself soon, but until that happens I'm napping whenever Ben naps and using the remainder of my free time to eat and wander aimlessly around my house. I know. I'm a very driven person.

This weekend was great. Ben and I enjoyed having daddy home an extra day and lots of family time. Yesterday we went to Lowes and bought an outdoor fan for our gazebo/pergola area in the backyard, ate Mexican food for lunch, installed the fan, grilled chicken and let a certain happy little boy play with the water hose to his hearts content. We also hung a flag outside the house for the first time and I enjoyed having such a powerful reminder of what Memorial Day is really about.

We've been having fun observing Ben and picking up clues about his constantly developing personality. Yesterday morning Joel made a list of items to pickup at Lowes and things to do around the house. After Joel patiently explained to him the concept of a list and what it's for, Ben decided he wanted to try his hand at list making. He walked in the bedroom clenching a pencil in his mouth and waving a sheet of paper in his chubby little hand. After positioning his pencil and paper just right, Benjamin would stick his tongue out, furrow his brow, say out loud what he wanted to do that day and then painstakingly scribble a little pencil mark on his paper to show it had been recorded. This was Ben's list:

tory (story)

B (This means Ladybird, and I'm pretty sure he meant he wanted to play with Ladybird.)

baf (bath)

nap

eat

eat

eat (Yes, he said this 3 times. )

Rrrrraaaawww! (Ok, in the grand tradition of mothers of toddlers, I completely understand this nonsense. It means tiger, and Ben has watched the Wonder Pets Save the Bengal Tiger every. single. day. for THREE WEEKS. Obviously he couldn't miss a day and needed to make sure it was on the list.)

You'll be happy to know he got everything done and was even able to add more tasks! Quite an achievement in time management for a two year old:)

File These Pics Under "Ways to Embarrass My Son In Front of Future Girlfriends"

Now that Bejamin is 2 he's FINALLY getting pretty good at walking in heels. I think that's one of the 2 year old milestones, right? A couple weeks ago he literally ran the length of the hallway in these shoes. I was suitably impressed. Unfortunately, they're my shoes and I like to wear them every so often, which doesn't sit too well with Master B. I guess not being allowed to wear mom's heels all the time is just one of those hard life lessons.

Finally....

...a rundown about Benjamin's two year old birthday celebration! I would have posted this much earlier but our seemingly indestructible Mac has decided to quit working for the time being. We've had an Apple tech here to work on it, but no dice. Today was the first day (after about 3 weeks) that I was almost driven to throw it across the room. It also didn't help that our camera joined in the shenanigans and decided not to load half of our pictures. Ok, enough complaining. On to the celebration of Benjamin!

The day started off with presents. A rake and hoe to help daddy in the yard, a preschool backpack, and lots of books!

Plus a card from grandma and granddad with a sticker that said, "I'M TWO!"

Donuts from Ollies! MMMMM!

Then we got Chick fil A and visited daddy downtown to see the tall ship that was temporarily docked in Wilmington.

And finished off the day having dinner with friends, and the yummiest, most delectable cake I've ever made. Every single person ate two pieces...and we're talking about adults AND kids! I've included the recipe just in case any of you have a special occasion coming up and need an amazing cake.

White Chocolate Raspberry Cake

2 nine inch cake pans lined with parchment paper and sprayed with bakers joy or a non-stick spray with flour. (must use parchment paper or you will not be able to get cake out of the pan. The chocolate in the batter sticks to the pan.)

3 squares of Fisher vanilla flavored Almond Bark

½ cup of water

2 ¼ cups of sifted cake flour

2 tsp. Baking powder

¼ tsp. Baking soda

1 cup butter

1 ½ cups sugar

4 eggs separated

1 cup buttermilk

¼ cup sugar

1 jar seedless raspberry jam

1 pint whipping cream

1 tsp. – 2 tsp Vanilla

½ - 1 cup powder sugar

Melt the 3 squares of almond bark and the ½ cup of water in microwave or on stove over low heat. Let cool (if it is not cooled the warm water will cook the eggs in the batter.)

Beat the butter until smooth, add the 1 ½ cups of sugar and beat, add the egg yolks one at a time and beat after each addition. Add the melted white chocolate mixture and stir on low. Add the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and baking powder) alternating with the buttermilk ending with flour.

In a separate bowl beat the egg whites and add the ¼ cup sugar beat until peaks are formed. Fold this mixture into the cake batter and pour into prepared cake pans.

Bake at 350 for 30-35 minutes test with toothpick or knife inserted in center comes out clean.

Let the cakes cool. (I usually wrap the cakes and freeze, the cakes are easier to ice that way)

Make the icing. Add whip cream vanilla and powder sugar beat on high until peaks are formed. Place one cake on serving plate, stir the raspberry jam and smear onto cake( I do not use the entire jar) Ice the cake with the whip cream and decorate with fresh raspberries and mint leaves is desired.

Sunshine!

Good morning everyone! I hope ya"ll had a great Easter. It's been in the 80's and sunny here, so we've been pretty happy with the weather, especially this past weekend. Speaking of good weather, the sunny days have given Joel and Benjamin more of an opportunity to invent fun games, like wheelbarrow rides...

and shovel sliding!

On Easter we went to the early service at church and then came home for brunch with friends and hunting Easter eggs.

My little boy is looking like such a big boy!

This picture cracks me up. He looks like he's going to start talking to the camera in a whisper, ala The Crocodile Hunter.

In other news, our computer is having issues so I am sans computer during the day and using Joel's work laptop during his off hours. I'm not too happy being cut off from my computer most of the day so we're trying to resolve this soon. I have more pictures to upload but might have to wait a few days. I'll have a lot to write about in the next week since Ben will be turning TWO on Monday! Right now I have a little boy who is jumping all over the couch and "waiting" for me to get off the computer. We're off to enjoy the sunshine!

Signs of Spring

"Working" on the boat, and getting it ready for spring weather!

My new spring shoes. I love them very, very much.

Did I tell you we installed the Ikea "Lack" floating shelves in our kitchen/dining area? This is the happy spring version of my shelves.

My spring kitchen table with spirea (I think) from our yard, and cheery yellow napkins.

And a new spring haircut!

Spinny Park!

We just arrived home on Monday from a nice trip to Grandad and Grandma's house in Oklahoma. Well...nice except for the fact that Benjamin decided to give up on sleep the whole time we were there, but we made it through. I was a little apprehensive about flying alone with a toddler but Ben is a good traveler. I'm still exhausted though! 

I just got off the phone with the preschool director at First Presbyterian Church and I'm going to observe their two year old class on Tuesday. I had always said that I would wait until Benjamin is three before putting him in preschool, but for a variety of reasons I feel like it will be good for him to start this fall. I'm a little worried about this but I'm hoping to quell my fears with a visit. I know the teachers are kind and knowledgeable, but I'm hoping they don't impose too much structure on the two year olds. Schedules are fine, but I don't want Benjamin to feel like he needs to conform to a certain way of drawing or coloring, or even playing. Does this seem ridiculous? Probably. I would hope that any educated teacher would be pretty hands off when it comes to creativity in children, but I know that all adults (myself included) can confuse helping with smothering.....like telling kids a horse has to be black or brown or white, but not purple, or that they are singing too loud and need to be quiet. A friend of mine loves to show off a picture he drew in kindergarten; he was told to draw a pig, and he did so, but VERY tiny and in one corner of the page. His teacher told him he needed to make it bigger, so he angrily scrawled PIG in big letters across the remainder of the paper. I love it! It makes a funny story now, but I don't want that to happen to Ben....at least not this year! Anyway....I may seem a little over anxious but it helps to write about it. My hunch is that Benjamin will really enjoy preschool. 

I uploaded these pictures before our trip and then never got around to publishing them. We met with some friends at the "spinny park" a few weeks ago and had a blast! Basically, everything at this park spins around. Ben thought it was hilarious to climb off the playground equipment and fall down from dizziness.

I love this! Ben sees the merry go round from across the playground and starts running. See him next to the slides?

"Hey guys! Mind if I jump on?"