School Pics ~ 2013

I love school picture time!  Here are my babies, getting bigger and cuter every day!

Ben, Age 4

Anna, Age 2

 Melts my heart!!

Take 2: Anna's 2nd Birthday

Well, I'm not sure what happened with that last post - all pictures, no words! I guess that's what happens when tired Mama is working on the blog at 11:30 p.m. :). Oh well! Here are a few words to go with those birthday party pics!

Anna had an Elmo birthday party this year.  Elmo is her favorite these days...even more than baby dolls.  So to greet her guests, we made this Big Bird to stand by the door, welcoming everyone in.   

Other random Sesame Street props:

Her favorite ~ Elmo balloon wreath. She would point to Elmo and say "Anna", then point to Cookie Monster and say "Ben".  I don't have a clue why, but she pointed to it and smiled a lot, so that made me happy!

Giant Elmo / chevron birthday cake.  I loved the little lamp post on the side.  I wish I could say I made it, but I did not ;)

 

Our baby is TWO!

These brownie pops were Anna's favorite, even more than the cake.  I must have found ten of these, randomly scattered around after the party with the icing licked off, brownie still intact.  Culprit:  Anna Banana.

I had the best time making these favor buckets.  After the party, everybody picked their favorite Sesame Street character and filled their pails with goodies from the buffet ~ bouncy balls, Gold Fish, pinwheels, silly straws....you would have thought they won the lottery, ha!

Down in the basement is where all the fun was to be had....Abby's Dress-Up station was a hit, even with the boys!

We also made a Cookie you could feed cookies, and Oscar's Tattoo Parlor.  Anna and Ben had at LEAST eight Sesame Street character tattoos on their arms when it was all over!

Cake time!

Somebody had a great day!

The whole gang! (Almost....impossible to wrangle every single toddler, ha!)

We love our Anna Boo so much....there are just no words for how precious she is to us!  Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!!

 

Anna-Boo is Two!

Last month, our sweet little Anna turned two.  She is precious as precious can be, honestly!!!  She's always such a happy girl, and so loving.  Anna copies everything Ben does, and they love playing together (most of the time)!

She has 16 teeth, wears a size 2T, and says 35-40 words.  At her two-year old check-up, Anna was 90% for height and 50% for weight.  Little girl sleeps so well, from 8 p.m. to 6:30 a.m. with a two hour nap after lunch.

Waiting on Ben to get a haircut...always so happy and smiling!

Anna is a big Daddy's Girl, and misses Mark so much when he's at work during the day.

She's getting "into" fashion these days.  There is only one certain style of hair bow (in any color, though) that she prefers to wear - and most of the time she wants all five that we have in her hair at the same time! 

Anna is a great snuggler...if she wakes up early, she will lay in our bed so nice and sweet until time to wake up, and even fall back asleep sometimes.  I love those days!

So beautiful, she melts Mommy's heart...

A few more things about Anna at age two:

~she likes to cook in her pretend kitchen and take care of her baby dolls - feeding, bathing, and strolling them.
~not very into TV right now
~says "Whoa!" every time we go over a bump in the car!
~still needs a baby gate for the steps
~new favorite word DOP = stop
~refuses to sit in her highchair anymore! She likes to have a chair like Ben's now.
~she loves school, and you can tell she feels like such a big girl being there (like her big brother!)

Birthday Girl going to school!

Hilton Head 2013

This summer, we went to Hilton Head again on vacation.  It was a really fun trip....Grandmama and Grandaddy went with us; both Mason and Chandler happened to have friends down there at the same time to hang out with; and we had bikes this time ~ fun, fun trip!

This trip was extra special because Ben's birthday happened to fall during that week.  Beachy birthday celebrations were had!

 

Ben is 4!

 Daddy taught Ben how to ride the waves ~ first time ever!

 

Fishing with Bobo...

Mommy and Anna

Ben and Anna's favorite thing to do was play in the waves.  Here they are, having a big time!!

 

Ben and Mason

Ben and Chandler

 

This beach trip was extra fun with Grandmama and Grandaddy there!

 

Our little bumblebee :)

The big excitement one day was a real sailboat ride for Mark and Chandler.  They took it out all by themselves with another dad and son, and actually had a Man Overboard situation!  It was all in fun, though, and everyone made it back safe...whew!

 

Cutie pies!

I adore this picture!!

And we wrapped up a fun week with a family bike ride to the General Store for ice cream! 

 

Kachow! Ben is 4

Last month, Big Ben turned four!  He has really liked the Cars movies with Lightning McQueen and Mater for a long time now, so we had a Cars Pool Party.  Mater + swimming = 2 of his favorite things :)

The Whole Gang!

Besides the cool cake with an edible Lightning McQueen on top (Ben wanted a "tall cake"), one of the highlights was this ballon stop light!!  Ben is crazy about stop lights and checks them out everywhere we go.  After the party, we took it off the pole and hung it up in his room ~ so fun!

Most definitely, though, the most fun Ben had was swimming with his brothers in the pool :)

Happy Birthday, Ben!

Lots of his friends and family came ~ we must have had 50 people there!  Grandmama and Grandaddy came, and Meme and Pop, Grandaddy and Mrs Alice even came all the way from Gastonia!  What a great birthday!!  We love our Ben and are so thankful for him :)

 

Ben (Age 4) and Great Grandaddy Dunn (Age 89)

School Days are Here!

I can't believe school is in full swing!!  Ben and Anna both had a GREAT first day.  I was a little nervous about Anna going for the first time ever...she's pretty attached to Mama most of the time.  However, my BABY didn't bat an eye when I left!  She sat right there and ate her snack of raisins and milk and said, "Bye Bye Mama"!  I really think that seeing Ben go to school all year last year got her comfortable with the idea.  You could tell she was so proud to have a bookbag (no help carrying it from Mama please!) and be going to school just like her big brother :)

Age 4, Mrs. Lisa's Class

Age 1 (almost 2!), Mrs. Robin's Class

Summer So Far ~ 2013

I really can't believe it, but school's starting back soon!!  Our summer has flown by...thank goodness it's not over yet ;)

Ben and Anna (and Mommy!) have really loved how the weather has been so pleasant.  I don't think there has been one day that I thought, "Ugh, it's too hot to go out and play."  So we have been outside a LOT.  Up until we went to the beach, their new (homemade out of a Rubbermaid bin) sand table was their favorite thing to play with.  After the beach, sand = old news.  Ha, ha!

Cousin Hank, along with Aunt Anne and cousin Max, came to visit and we had a ball!  Matching outfits were found for the boys and that seemed to multiply the fun by 100! 

Hank and Ben

Chandler was in lots of baseball tournaments this summer.  Here they are cheering him on. (Well, actually constantly climbing bleachers and raiding the cooler for ice to play with, but that's ok!)

 

Although it hasn't been to hot to play outside most days, it has rained a lot this summer.  So, we've found some fun indoor things to do.  Ben thought this "no mess" finger painting was cool...two paint colors, baby oil and waterbeads all sealed up in a bag taped to the table.  He squished it around for almost an hour!  Anna wasn't as impressed, so he squished hers around, too. 

 This might be my absolute favorite picture of Ben and Anna together of all time....Happy 4th of July!!