Robin Hood and Fancy Nancy!

We had a few other birthday surprises up our sleeves for Benji -- for his birthday we got him a bow and arrow set which he LOVES. So much so, in fact, that he insists we all call him Robin Hood now. 

 He spends ages outside shooting now and has gotten quite good.

For a preschool outing, we took the kids to see Fancy Nancy the Musical. The kids were in heaven. We had front row seats and the play was actually pretty cute.  

Benji was a little upset that his crush, Brooklyn, didn't want to sit next to him. They are quite the item at preschool -- one of the moms even told me she caught them kissing during storytime one day! That kid!

 We've never really read the books, but I took Peter out of school to come with us and during the performance, one of the cast members reached out to shake his hand - he was beyond excited about that.

 The crazy bunch after the show (that's Brooklyn standing next to Benji). I can't believe this year is almost done and that Benji will be heading to actual preschool at Birdsnest in the fall. He is so grown up and changing so fast every day. 

Benji has the best imagination and is constantly pretending to be someone or something (a dog, a ninja, Scar, Robin Hood, a wolf, etc.). He loves books and he even asked me to start teaching him to read this past week, so we pulled out this trusty book for 'reading practice.' We love our little man -- he is our most emotionally invested child -- life is either the best or the absolute worst and we've learned that lots of hugs and snuggles help keep him feeling loved. We can't wait to see what he'll learn and do this coming year!

Benji turns 4!

Our main man Benji turned four a few weeks ago and we had a wonderful time celebrating his birthday. We didn't do a big party this year, so we let the birthday boy decide what he wanted to do as a family for the big day - he chose the Long Beach Aquarium. 

We had a great time swimming with the fishes even if it was totally crowded.

 Checking out the tide pools - only Benji was brave enough to touch these leopard sharks. But later on, both boys got to touch some jellyfish! Way cool.

 If you look close behind Peter, those big flat things in the pool are rays. They were HUGE!

 Then we stopped at the lorikeet pavilion and Benji got to feed the birds.

 And Peter too.

 And then one even landed on Travis. Nora REALLY wanted to hold one of those birdies but they kept flying away any time she got close. Smart birds, really.

Shark Attack!

Nora trying to pet a turtle. This girl loved the giant walled aquariums. She run up and down and 'chase' the fish, laughing like crazy the entire time.

And then Benji decided he wanted a souvenir -- so he picked out this Sea Krait with his birthday money. Oh boy, did he ever love that little snake. He carried it around the entire day and could not be happier. UNTIL...we had already left the aquarium and had dinner and were getting ready to go to the car to go home and Benji totally flipped out. He decided he did NOT want the sea krait any more, he wanted an eel and we had to go back THIS INSTANT to trade it. In his defense, it had been a long, napless day and I think the poor kid was just on sensory overload. We finally got him calmed down and he sacked out 2 seconds into our drive home (thankfully)! We were just baffled by the 180 degree switch in a matter of moments. Now the sea krait is back to being his BFF. Funny kid.

May the 4th 2015

Nerd Alert!!!

This post needs a hefty warning due to the extreme nerdiness to follow.

We sorta went all out for Star Wars Day (May the 4th) this year. 

A family from church invited us over for a Star Wars party that night and about an hour before we were supposed to be there -- I realized we were supposed to come in costume. So! Into the dress up box I dug and out came 2 padawan costumes, a Princess Leia, an ewok and one handsome Han Solo.

 Mostly the boys were excited to carry around their lightsabers. Even though Nora now has the bumps on her head to remind us we don't normally keep them lying around.

Such serious concentration from our Padawan Peter.

 Awww. What a happy little man.

 Serious props has to go to Travis for his costume. His came together in about 5 min -- after I sprung the idea on his when he walked in the door -- he's good for putting up with my last minute crazy ideas. I think his Han Solo turned out exceptionally well.

 My 'ewok' getup.

It was so fun to dress up with my crew despite the fact that we were the only ones who really dressed up for the party. We had a blast and now all our friends know the true extent of our nerdiness.