Our Trip to Louisiana

We spent a week in Jennings at my parents and here are some of our favorite pictures from our trip!
This crawfish has been in front of this restaurant for as long as I can remember.
Mo Mo, Mom, Ben and I at the Lorraine Bridge. It is an old wooden bridge that is still in use.

Who doesn't love sitting on a swing in the shade??

We spent a day out at the Laccassine National Wildlife Refuge. We got to see an alligator after I took this picture of my dad and Ben at the end of a pier that went out over the swamp.

Leave it to my dad to know where someone is emptying crawfish traps in the middle of nowhere. We got to get on the boat and motor through the flooded rice fields and empty traps that were full of live crawfish.

Ben was able to see if he could catch a crab at the Laccassine NWR...no luck though. Farther down the road he did get to watch a man catch some the same way...raw chicken at the end of string!

This was one of the many fires we built to roast marshmallows. It was Ben's first time and he loved them!

More crawfish--He was trying to peel them. He did a good job, but decided that it was easier to let me peel them and he would just stand there with his mouth wide open.

Ben's Last Day of PreK

WOW!! A school year has never flown by as fast as Ben's PreK year! Today was the last day. For the past few weeks his teacher has been doing Pirate themed activities with them. Today they had Pirate centers set up outside. Ben's favorite was when he got to walk the plank!!

Who doesn't love a Pirate Pinata??

Look at these cute cupcakes a mom made!!! My little cupcake was so happy that it was finally snack time!

Ben had a great PreK year, thanks to Mrs. Brown and Mrs. Farris. I got to spend a lot of time in his class because of my flexible schedule. We are really going to miss them. All I can say is that his Kindergarten teachers have BIG shoes to fill!!!

Braves Rainout!!

We had tickets to the Braves game today and knowing that it was going to rain, we headed up there anyway. Ben loves the games and has just as much fun roaming around the stadium as he does watching the game. The game didn't happen today, but we had fun!!!

Thank goodness the fashion police was taking the day off because this was what everyone was wearing. We actually saw a few ponchos with Mickey Mouse on the back...just like Michael's from a previous Disney trip!

We were standing by the Chop House, trying to stay dry, and the man working there was handing out ice cream to the kids that would tell him 'Go Braves.'

Ben loves the batting and pitching cages. He doesn't care how long the line is, he patiently waits his turn and tries his best when he gets in there. He is very serious about baseball.

Every tunnel we saw, Ben would want to go check to see if it was still raining. It was...every time!!!

No event would ever be complete without cotton candy! He insists on holding it and tells me NO every time I look at him. He gets his love for cotton candy from his mama.

His daddy is a sucker for souvenirs. Here he is wiped out with his Braves Rally Monkey! Since a pitch wasn't thrown, we get to turn our tickets in for a free home game this season. Who knows if we will do that or not, but we did have a great time today roaming around Turner Field for 3 hours!!!

What We Have Been Up To!

We have been SUPER BUSY!!! Who would have thought that a 4 year olds calendar could be so busy??

Ben finishes up soccer this week.

We went to the Air Show. It only comes every 2-3 years so we knew that we had to go. This is a picture of Ben in a JSTARS plane.

Pirates take over PreK! Ben's prek class is doing a Pirate theme and he loves it!

Mother's Day produced some very heavy thunderstorms around dinner time. After Ben had his bath we saw this beautiful rainbow!!

Prek went on a field trip to the Strawberry Patch in Reynolds, GA. It was a blast! The kids (and adults) could eat as they picked because they used lady bugs as pesticide and not chemicals. Each child got to get a basket full to bring home. Ours were eaten by dinner!

Field Day, 2009

Today was Ben's Field Day at school. PreK had 2 hours of relay races and did a GREAT job!

Earth Day

I am all about taking out the boring plants that the landscapers put in and adding color!! Michael finally caved in and let me get the Japanese Maple that I have been asking for. I think that he is tired of me pointing out the same ones in the neighborhood everytime we leave the house. When I told him that I stopped in two different neighbors yards to ask about THEIR Japanese Maple, he decided that he better get me one before I am arrested for trespassing.

It took more time to get the Indiana Hawthorne out of the ground. There were two Gardenia plants that were being smothered by the bigger plants.

Now we can see the Gardenias and the new tree looks great!! Thanks Ben and Michael!

Ben's FIRST Dentist Visit

Today was our first dentist visit and I was shocked!!! Ben did GREAT!! I never would have thought that Ben would have sat there for so long and let the hygienist clean his teeth. She explained everything as she did it. She let him play with the instruments before she started working on his teeth.
Look at his shiny teeth!!!

Of course...you have to get prizes. Not to mention the one that mom and dad got you at Target before your dentist appointment!

Ben was so excited when we left...he left with a total of 3 prizes out of the bucket, a new toothbrush and toothpaste, a pizza coupon and an ice cream coupon! The boy made out like a bandit! I do have to admit..we go to the gentle dentist. I remember the metal pick that they would scrape my teeth with for what seemed like an eternity. After I got my braces off it was even worse...you would think that they would take the cement that had been on my teeth for 2 years off when they took the braces. I guess they just left it as a souvenir. I used to dread the dentist. I am so glad that Ben will have a much better experience.

Easter 2009

This year has been Ben's best as far as hitting the egg hunting circuit. Ben started his egg hunting season hunting eggs at school. We were off for Spring Break the week before Easter and Ben didn't miss a hunt! Here he is with his cousin Natalie hunting eggs at Nana and Poppa's house.
We planned a hunt for the kids on our street up at our playground. There were so many eggs!!

Every year Ben and Michael dye eggs. It used to be mostly Dad doing all of the work, but this year, Ben was big enough to do it all!

Ben was invited to another neighborhood hunt...this one where he was one of the youngest. There was tough competition...but he did a great job!!

The eggs that he and daddy dyed, along with the eggs he dyed with Nana, ended up hidden in the backyard. Luckily, Ben found them all--Or Cadillac would have in a few days.

Don't worry, Cadillac was not left out this egg hunting season. He found an EGGselent spot to lay on the sofa!

Painting with Dandelions

I saw this cute activity and we tried it today. All you have to do is pick a bunch of dandelions from the yard. Voila!! They turn into paintbrushes in an instant. It was really fun to see Ben work fast because the flowers start to close up pretty quick. He designated each one to be a certain color.

Ben figured out different painting techniques. He would dab some and then swirl some.

We decided to see what happened when you mixed the colors and also dipped the cut end of the stem in the paint.

Fun Saturday Morning!

It all started when Ben asked for some scissors to cut up some paper, then he decided to paint on the paper instead. Why is it every time he paints, he has to make a Christmas tree?? The rest of the masterpieces are drying on the island behind him. I highly recommend investing in these paints from Michael's or Hobby Lobby. They are washable and FUN!!!!!

In Ben's PreK class this week, they did two really cool science experiments. The first one is in the picture above. All you do is take 1/2 c. cornstarch and 1/4 c. water. Put it in a plastic bowl and mix it up. It turns into a STRANGE mixture that is a solid and a liquid at the same time. You can put your hands in it or stir it around with a spoon. The first time we made it was last night and I couldn't resist playing in it, too!

The other experiment was with m&m's and water. Put about an inch of water in a bowl. Drop about 4 m&m's into the water, leaving a space between each one. Watch what happens--the colors won't run together. If you put the candy m side up and leave it for a while, the m will float to the top. Don't tell your kids what will happen--let them discover as they go.