Afternoon Snack

This is just a random cute shot of Ben enjoying his afternoon snack today. What a smug little look on his face! He actually was smiling because I gave him an entire half of an annisette toast to munch on - his new favorite snack this week after Pop bought him some at an Italian bakery last weekend - as if he knew that I usually don't give him entire pieces of food at once without breaking them into bits. So funny!

Warm Weather!

FINALLY the weather is getting warmer and it seems as if winter is actually gone. Today it is in the mid-80s outside and so sunny. My friends Amy, Julie and I took our kids to the local park this morning to play, so I couldn't help but take some photos of them outside enjoying the sun.

Here is everyone (minus me) enjoying the sandbox. Ben loves sand - I can't wait to set his sand and water table up on our deck at home.


Ben and Tyler playing in the sandbox and below that, Samantha explores the sand.

Just chilling out. The sun always makes the kids sleepy so by the end of our trip they were all ready to go home for a nap!

Michelle's Baby Shower

This weekend my sister-in-law Michelle visited from Seattle for her baby shower. She is due on July 3rd with a little girl - Baby Madelyn. We were so excited to see her since we have not been together since New Year's and will not see her again until the baby is born.


The shower was at Audrey Brown's house in NJ and was beautiful - a "Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice" theme with lavendar (and other pastel) accents since Michelle and Kurt will be doing the baby's nursery in shades of purple and light blue. Here are the "diaper" napkins that Audrey made for each place setting and the baby bootie candy cup favors that I made:

Michelle is 6-1/2 months pregnant and looks adorable with her little tummy. Andrew and Yvonne Anderson came early to help us set up so we had a mini photo shoot before everyone arrived:

The guest of honor opening all of her gifts. Madelyn will be one well-dressed little girl since many people couldn't resist buying some of the adorable little girl clothes. She got dresses, panties, rompers...and even a robe with matching slippers to use after she takes a bath in her baby spa (seriously! Michelle even got a baby whirlpool tub!).

Michelle with her cake, a baby rattle shape that Aunt Audrey made. Adorable!

Some of the guests. There were approximately 20 women at the shower and Andrew brought Ben over towards the end to socialize with all of the ladies.

Audrey, Michelle and me.

My mom Lisa and Audrey.

Some of the girls from high school - Karen, Lindsay, Gillian and Jen.

Joy, Aunt Tina, Grandma Shaida, and Auntie Marian. Joy, Tina and Auntie drove down from Buffalo for the weekend.

Aunt Tina, Michelle, Auntie, Joy and me,

RuthAnn Struss, Rosemary Osbourne and Judy Imperial, friends from church.

Loretta Chester, her daughter Ali, Rose Egan, and Yvonne Anderson, more friends from church.

The high school gang again.

My mom and Aunt Audrey again.

My blog entry wouldn't be compelte without a few photos of my son! Here are some after Andrew and Ben came back for the end of the shower and after everyone left, since we spent the afternoon with Michelle at the Browns' house.

Ben and Aunt Chel.

Cruising around the house with his walker. We have a few of these walkers and lately Ben prefers the flimsiest one of them all since he can pick it up to reposition it and turn it easily. He is basically walking on his own with this thing since it has absolutely no support but if you take it away he's afraid to take the plunge and walk without it. Soon!

Andrew and Aunt Tina with Ben.

Aunt Tina, Joy and Auntie Marian came back to our house for the night after the shower, since we needed to be home for Sunday morning and it is on their way home. Here are just a few photos of everyone after church yesterday morning.

A family photo of us. We don't have too many of these since one of us is usually taking the picture. I think the last one is in November.

Finally, the Buffalo gang with the baby.

I also have uploaded all of my photos to Shutterfly so I believe that this link will allow you to access them: share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZsm7di4cs2Oo Enjoy!

Sand and Water

I was lucky enough to stumble across this adorable sand and water table for Ben on clearance at Amazon.com a few weeks ago when I was investigating some fun outdoor things to keep him occupied this summer. For less than half of the retail value, I thought it would definitely be a fun pre-summer gift for him, something to get him excited about playing outside once it's nice out (if that ever happens, given the snowstorm we had last night!).

It arrived today so we set it up to give it a trial run before we fill it up and put it on the deck. One half will get filled with sand and the other half with water. Ben likes to splash and loves sand so he should have a field day with this!

Testing out the funnels and wheels.


Daddy thought it would be funny to put Ben inside!

When the table isn't in use, there is a cover that has recessed roads on it for Ben's cars and trucks. This was another reason I couldn't pass this table up - even when it's not in use he can use it. He loved the roadway and brought all of his small cars and trucks up to give it a try. His favorite is his ambulance Matchbox car, which he always races around while making a siren sound!

Bugs!

It was fairly nice weather today so we took Ben outside to play, mainly to try to desensitize him after his fear of grass developed last weekend at the Easter egg hunt. After a few minutes of what you would think was major torture due to the extent of his screaming, he warmed up to the grass and started to explore it. Silly guy!

Not too long after he got over his fear did he discover....a worm! This is the first bug Ben has come into contact with and my first taste of being a "boy mom" since he thought he'd "show" both me and Andrew his wiggly friend (before he broke him into two pieces!!).

Exploring...
Playing in the grass, completely over his fear. Phew, now we can have a normal summer playing outside!

Ben's Second Easter

This year was Ben's second Easter - what a good time we had all weekend sharing in some holiday excitement with our son! Nana and Pop visited and we all had fun doing some Easter activities with Ben - dyeing Easter eggs, filling his Easter basket(s) and taking him to an egg hunt.

Here we are dyeing eggs together. This is Andrew's favorite part about Easter; we've had to buy a coloring kit every year since we've been married!! Unfortunately, Ben has decided to become a picky eater now that he is a toddler. He let me know today at lunch that he does not care for hardboiled eggs now that we have two dozen of them :).

On Saturday, we went to our church's annual Easter Festival which included shows, the Easter Bunny, an egg hunt, and a petting zoo, among other fun activities for the kids. Our friends Dave and Roberta came with their daughter, one of Ben's girlfriends, Caroline. Ben and Caroline weren't quite as excited about the festivities as we had envisioned - especially Ben who discovered that he does not like to crawl in prickly grass in the cold - but the two babies did have fun together, as usual.

A photo with Nana and Pop as we were getting Ben all bundled up for the egg hunt. He's all dressed up in his Easter finest but looks like Elmer Fudd in his little hat - ha ha! Either that or a miniature jockey :). He has his personalized Easter egg basket all fired up and ready to go so that he can fill it to the brim with plastic eggs.

Ben and Caroline at the pre-egg hunt show. Ben was getting bored with the performers so he decided to put the moves on Caroline and do the 'ole s-t-r-e-t-c-h and reach for her hand. C'est l'amour!

Here we are before the egg hunt. It was COLD! What a shame the weather wasn't nicer since it would have been more enjoyable for everyone.

And here is the Kunkle family - Roberta, Caroline and Dave.

Ben and Caroline at the starting point for the egg hunt with their daddies. Aaaaand they're off!

As stated before, Ben was not quite as excited about the egg hunt as we had imagined. Next year he may like it more, when he can walk and understand what's going on. There was a big crowd at the event so the extra people, the cold weather and that strange substance called grass that we tried to get Ben to crawl around in (cold and damp, no less) was not the most enticing ambiance for a one-year-old. So instead of a basketful of eggs, Pop collected four of them for Ben just so that he wouldn't leave empty-handed. Once Ben realized that there was chocolate inside of the eggs, he realized this Easter thing was not so bad.

Caroline enjoyed the festivities a bit more!

After the hunt we visited the petting zoo. There were goats, sheep, a llama and other animals just roaming around!

Easter morning was a lot of fun. When I brought Ben downstairs for breakfast we walked past his Easter baskets and he pointed and started smiling and making happy noises!

All dressed up for church, opening Nana and Pop's card.

Here is Ben's Easter craft he did in Sunday School yesterday. Now that he is old year old he is officially out of the nursery and into the toddler class at church so he does little activities and songs every week instead of just being babysat. He's a future Andy Warhol if you ask me, pop art just waiting to be discovered!

Finally, one random cute shot of Ben wearing Nana's glasses. A.K.A Baby Einstein.