Week in Photos: Last day of Kindergarten, Hiking with Kristin, and Summer Break So Far!

Ben celebrated his last day of Kindergarten on June 22nd!

The next day we went out for dinner and a movie at McMenamin's and saw The Indredible's 2 (which, btw, was incredible).  Such a fun night and great way to kick off summer vacation!

Early the next morning, Ben and I picked up Kristin and we went for a hike at Wallace Falls!  When Kristin invited us to join her for a hike, I wasn't entirely sure how Ben would do, but he surprised me entirely by doing GREAT and really enjoying it!  We had planned to play it by ear and just see how far we could go, but after achieving the lower falls, we decided to continue on to the middle falls, and then ALMOST reached the very top (but then realized our legs were tired and the view pay off wasn't even as good as it was at the middle falls).  We felt so accomplished!

Kristin printed out a scavenger hunt for Ben to do which kept him eager and occupied the entire time.

That night, I had Maureen and Rachel (+ Raleigh and Pepper) over for pizza and wine.  As always, an overdue visit with them!

What else has happened in our first weeks of summer break:

Ben lost his 8th tooth!

Ben spent hist first week at camp, which he LOVED.  The second week (week of the 4th of July), he stayed home with me.  On Monday, we went out to lunch :)

My mom and I went to see The Color Purple and it was incredible! 

We had a yummy brunch in Fremont before the show:

Ben was nice enough to join me and Greg for a little wine tasting in Woodinville :)  The boys were in love with this dog at one of the spots.

Ben has been asking me to buy him a pair of compression pants for months. I finally found a pair and he wants to wear them every day.  I really don't understand boy fashion, but he is super into choosing his clothes and its pretty cute that he even cares.

We made some 4th of July crack mix to share with friends!

Kickball with our friends!  I can see this becoming a summer evening ritual.

Week in Photos: So much to Celebrate!

It's been a fun week!  

On 10/10, Greg and I celebrated 10 years of marriage!  It's really hard to believe it's been that long.

Since we have a trip coming up next week, Greg and I agreed to keep it simple on the actual day.  But that didn't stop Greg from bringing me the most gorgeous flowers!

Nor did it stop us from going out for pizza with Ben!  I happily had the chance to try my very first deep dish pizza and it was everything.

And Ben had some rootbeer in a bottle and that kept him occupied for awhile :)

 

 

I also had the opportunity to celebrate my 36th birthday (a little early) with my friends!  I had attended a Pampered Chef party over the summer and loved checking out all of the cooking gear, so I invited her to come to my house for one in combination with lots of delicious wine and my friends.  I stocked UP.

The wine flowed and I loved having so many of my friends there.

Like, really REALLY loved it.

Ben got to celebrate ANOTHER lost tooth.  This makes 5.

We also got his school pictures back, which were taken the first week of school.  Back when he actually had teeth.

And lastly, chips.

6 Years Old

Ben is six!!!  

A little recap of the last year:

• Ben lost 2 teeth while he was 5.  One came out a month after his birthday last year and the other last December.  As of his 6th birthday, he had two VERY wiggly teeth (that came out the Thursday and Friday following his birthday). Loosing teeth was something he was terrified of last year on his birthday, but now he seems to be okay with the idea. (He got to see that he does, in fact, grow new ones to replace them)!
• Ben traveled to Hawaii like a champ and we had a blast on our family vacation.  Looking forward to planning something fun for next year.  I think this is the first time I haven't planned something well in advance.  To be honest, it will be difficult to top our last destination (Aulani).
• He is very much motivated by treats and using his iPad.  We threaten to take both away (and on occasion, do) when he has bad behavior.  Truly nothing will get him back on track than the thought of not having a treat after dinner.
• Ben is still very Type A in so many ways.  He still likes a schedule and to put things in order.  He likes to "rank" things (food, treats, sports teams, activities, and sometimes even friends - which mortifies me of course, but it's a phase I think).  He always wants to know when things will happen and what the plan is.
• Going along with this, EVERYTHING is a game. Everything (walking to the bus stop, which of us "gets" to play with him, who finishes eating something first) has a winner or a loser.
• He is less into toys than he used to be.  He still likes them of course, but we recently did a big toy purge and he had no problem letting many things go.  He LOVES games (board games, card games, video games, math games, you name it) and sports and would do them constantly if he could.
• Ben continued to participate in so many activities this past year!  He always looks forward to them, and now we do, too!  After another struggle of a season with swim (literally tears and complaining every morning on the day of swim and I would have to hear about it constantly until it was over), I decided I was over it and enrolled him into his Hip Hop class instead!  He LOVED that, and recently started back up again at a class closer to home!  He also did T-Ball, Basketball, and Soccer and lots of golf outings with Greg.

We celebrated his birthday this year with the same bouncy house from last year.  I've officially declared this the last "big" birthday party because it was overwhelming - not just for me, but for Ben!  Having so many friends from his different worlds there was hard for him to spend quality time with any of them, and at times he just shut down.  Plus he was fighting a cold. 

So far, six has been fun and challenging!  Being a month or so into a new school, with a new teacher, new expectations, a new routine, new friends, and a new soccer team has brought out new attitudes, new challenges and new parenting techniques to try!  It's a little hard to navigate at times, I must admit.  BUT, with all of the change, he is still our sweet, caring boy who we love so so much!  This should be a fun year :)

Kindergarten

 

Ben had his first day of Kindergarten on Monday, September 11, 2017.  What a big change from the last time he started at a new school.  This time around there were NO tears, no clinging (except on my part), just pure and utter excitement at getting to spend the day with friends new and old.  

I drove Ben to school on his first day.  As we walked in, hand in hand, he suddenly let go of mine saying "I don't need to hold a hand".  When he saw the look on my face, he quickly grabbed it back.  We found his teacher, he lined up with his class, and then they all walked in together.  (The teacher, wisely, decided to take the kids back to the room by herself vs. letting parents say goodbye in the classroom.  I think she avoided a lot of emotional meltdowns by doing that!).  I had planned to pick Ben up at school on his first day, but he told me he wanted to ride the bus home with his friends.  He also bought hot lunch (because it was pizza) and had a great first day!

And for the rest of the week, he has rode the bus to and from school each day - loving every second of it.  (And so am I)!

What a fun adventure he is on these days!

On Monday morning, I woke up to this picture my mom sent of me on my first day of Kingergarten :) 

I was pretty excited to pack lunches for Ben in his new bento luncbox!  I'm taking pictures so I can remind myself of different food options as the year goes along.  The plan is for Ben to purchase lunch at school on all of the days when the menu offers something acceptable to him ;)  I'm hoping with the school having more kid-friendly options, he will feel encouraged to be a little bit more adventurous.  (Not holding my breath there).

Week in Photos: Mariner Game, Dance Recital, and Summer Baseball

I remember looking at our calendar for June when we got back from our vacation and thinking: WOW we have so many fun things coming up!  And also: OH GOD we have scheduled too many things.  (I can be so lazy).

A couple weekends back we went to Mason's birthday party at a trampoline park in Marysville.  Knowing that it would be ending in the mid afternoon and that we would have a long(ish) drive back home, I totally called that this would happen:

The next morning, we had SO much fun meeting up with Lisa and Evan and playing at Gas Works Park!  Ben truly feels like he is on a play date with these two (because he is) and it was great to catch up.  I took a bunch of videos of the boys all playing frisbee and baseball, but only a couple pictures:

And then again, this happened on the ride home :)

I also spent some time that weekend doing my annual "Marcia is coming so I need to turn the junk closet back into a spare bedroom" routine :)  This year I moved the bed, got rid of a too-big shelving unit taking up way too much space and organized the closet.  We are so ready now!

Ben officially graduates from Pre-K next Thursday and it will also be his last day at the preschool he has been at since February 2015!  He has grown and learned so much from his experiences there and it's a very bittersweet goodbye.  Here are a few pictures of his activities there lately:

Ben had his first baseball practice on Monday night!  He has been so into baseball and we were excited to sign him up to be able to play with other kids and learn some skills.

What we weren't expecting was the email we got an hour before practice starting saying that there still hadn't been a parent volunteer to be the coach of his team...!  

So Greg and I decided to jump in and do it.  The first practice was a bit of a shit show (4-6 year olds playing baseball for the first time...) but luckily there are a lot of great parents on the team who are happy to get on the field and help herd the cats.  It should be an interesting couple months :)

Ben got to stay up late and watch the Tony's with me :)

After the last Mariner Game we went to, we immediately put another one on the calendar.  We lost this one, but we still had a blast!

Dippin' Dots:

Meeting the Moose!

Ben had his first dance recital and it was the cutest thing EVER.  We were amazed at how talented all of the kids were, particularly the older kids, and I really hope he wants to continue with classes (when we can find time between all of his sports he wants to do)!

Dress Rehearsal:

The big night:

My mom has gotten into painting Bothell Rocks, and made a special one for Ben to hide at the school!  So cute!

Game night: