Coke

Benton knows that there has got to be something in soda cans that he wants. He always sees daddy with them. Recently he was crawling around in the office and noticed that Daddy had a few soda cans in his trash can. He pulled them out and was trying to drink from them. He knew exactly what to do. He freaked out when I took the can from him. Sigh, I swore he wasn't going to have soda forever...alas.

I'm in so much trouble...

I catch Benton doing stuff like this all of the time.

And ending up like this. This child has serious skills.

And you wonder why I'm getting questioned about all of the huge bruises on his head whenever we are at the doctor's office. Sigh... perhaps I should just refer them to my blog?

Missouri Conservation Center

For a Children's Social with SAA, I took the boys to the Missouri Conservation Center. It was so neat. They had set up a bunch of different displays and activities just for the kids.

They had a little bat out on a table for them to look at. Tab was quite fascinated by it and we had to keep a close eye on him as he was determined to get it out of it's cage.

Benton thought it was pretty neat too.

They had this big "cave" that they made by taping some big black tarps together and then attaching it to a fan. The kids all got to grab an animal fur or a stuffed animal and go inside. They had a bit too much fun with the flashlights inside as I believe one of them came out in pieces. Opps.

They had set up a station for them to use some stamps of birds and such to make some book marks.

Benton got caught under the table sucking the ink off of the stamps.

Out in the main area of the conservation center, where they just have their usual displays was really fun as well. They had an awesome bee hive. The little tube on the side went to outside. We joked about how much it would stink to have to be the one mowing the grass where the bees exited the building. (sorry about the glare, it was hard to get a decent picture, even without the flash)

Tab thought the binoculars were really cool. He spent quite a bit of time just looking around through them out the window.

And of course there was a little treat afterwords. It was the perfect day for a popsicle.

Candy Land

For Family Home Evening, we decided to teach Tab how to play Candy Land. We haven't really tried to teach him any board games yet, so we weren't quite sure how it was going to go or if he would like it. Well, he loved it. He has asked me to play Candy Land several times since then. He just loved pulling the cards and trying to find which square he was supposed to move his little guy to.

Every time he went to move his piece, he would grab Jason's. So, finally we switched his and Jason's pieces. It didn't seem to matter because then he started grabbing the piece that was now Jason's. oh well.

We really had a lot of fun. Now I'm on the lookout for more fun games that he would be able to play.

Mmm...Potato Pancakes

We just love potato pancakes. I grew up on them. I always knew that when we had leftover mashed potatoes from dinner one night that we were sure to have potato pancakes in the morning for breakfast. I made them the other day for the first time and the boys couldn't get enough of them. Benton specifically was thrilled with them. I posted the recipe over on my food blog, check it out.

Sleepy Boy

Benton fell asleep during snack time. I just couldn't resist taking a picture. I just love how his little hands are clasping eachother. My sweet baby.

Neighborhood Barbecue

Have I ever mentioned how much I love this little town. I would seriously be happy if we lived here forever. At the end of every summer, one of the ladies and her husband host a neighborhood barbecue. Everyone on our little deadend street comes and brings a side dish and this lady and her husband provide the BBQ Chicken. It is amazing. There was a lot of good food.

It is always so fun to get together and just chat. The lady in the purple shirt is the one who organizes this.

See, doesn't he look full.

And don't they look like they've had some yummy food?

Tab really enjoyed playing on the see-saw thing with one of our little neighbors.

We really enjoyed the swingset. It was huge. As in, it looks like it was made for adults to swing on. So we did.

Truman Homecoming Parade

This past weekend Truman University had their homecoming parade. I put the boys in the stroller and we walked over. It was a bit chilly so on the way we stopped at the local gas station and picked up a hot chocolate and some donuts and then parked ourselves for the parade. The boys enjoyed watching everything go by. Tab was particualarly smitten with all of the people who threw candy at him. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. I'm still kicking myself for that. We sat next to some of our really good friends, the Guymons. Their two kids, Alex and Bekah came home with us to play. You should have seen the funny looks I got, pushing 4 kids on my stroller. So I had to have Jason take a picture when we got home. Ok, I guess I would pitty some girl if I saw her pushing a stroller looking like this.

A New "Money Place"

From the Beginning: Over the summer I went to some yard sales with my mom. At one of them I saw one of these. I remembered having one of these when I was younger and loved carrying it around with various things in it. So for a whopping quarter, I picked it up for Tab thinking that he might enjoy it also. I was right. He became obsessed with it. He carried it around everywhere. He decided that it was meant for keeping his money in. So he started to call it his "money place".

Well, a few weeks ago he was wearing his money place around his neck as usual. He decided to climb up and sit in Benton's highchair. He was goofing off and fell forward and the lanyard got caught in the belt clip of the highchair. So he was hanging for a moment from the lanyard. I was standing at the kitchen counter so I ran over to grab him just as the lanyard thankfully broke. I don't know how it broke but I was grateful. He had some pretty bad rug burn like marks on the back and sides of his neck.

Well, after that I decided not to "fix" his money place and tossed it. And of course I had to replace it. So we went to Walmart (of course) and bought a lunchbox for $1 and painted it and let Tab help me decorate it. He thinks it is the coolest money place. He could care less that his other one is gone.

And a look at the back.

He is doing a pretty good job saving his money. He decided over the summer that he really really really wanted a Mack Trailer from the Movie Cars. It is $23 and we told him that he had to earn the money to buy it because mom and dad don't buy toys like that. We figured that he would forget about it and move on to wanting something else that he could already afford. But he is still saving away. Although he has been getting a little impatient as of late. But he is doing a good job saving.

Poor kid still has about $9 to go. I know, we're mean, but we're not just going to go buy so silly toy.

Robot Time

The boys bombard Jason every day when he gets home from school. They think that Daddy's entire purpose in coming home is to chase them back to the playroom and be at their disposal. Unfortunately for them this isn't always possible. It is such a heartbreaker. But more often than not they get some good play time with Daddy.

A little while ago, Tab's big thing was that he wanted Jason to help him build a Robot. I think he had just watched the movie Robots and decided that he could build one too! So on several occasions Jason helped him build a robot.

Tab was very proud of the Robot. The creations usually only survive for a short time, but this robot is still sitting on his desk about 3 weeks later!

Stuck

I recently went in to get Benton out of bed in the morning when I heard him playing. When I went in his room I found him sitting like this. He was kicking his legs and giggling. He looks angry in the picture because I ran to grab the camera and he wanted to get up and realized that he was stuck. So he was kind of mad at me for making him wait so that I could take a picture. Isn't he just cute though?