Ice Treasures

I saw the greatest idea on a friend's blog the other day. You can see the 'whole story' on Paula's blog http://www.mylittleschoolhouse.blogspot.com/ You freeze 'treasures' in a large bowl of water. Once frozen, your child can dig them out. We just had to try it. I froze all kinds of Ben's little toys-legos, marbles, plastic animals, coins and a key. The next day, I emptied the bowl into a large plastic bin and set him to work out on the deck. I gave him a bowl of Kosher salt, a spray bottle, a lemon zester, and a plastic orange peeler to help him dig out the goodies. The Kosher salt worked great, because it was easy for him to pick up, and melted the ice really well. All in all, it took Ben over an hour. It was great fun on a hot day!

Later, even the neighbor boys helped out!

We have another ice treasure waiting for us in the freezer when Benny is ready!

Farewell Friends

Summertime is often a big time for military moves, and this summer is no exception. Nearly everyone we know here has already moved, or will soon. Since we decided to stay here an extra year, that means most everyone that came in at the same with us is due to leave. Even our next door neighbors who are not military decided to move! Needless to say, this has been a big adjustment for Benny. He doesn't remember our other moves, so this is new to him. He doesn't understand why all of his friends (and ours) are leaving. So, we wanted to bid a fond farewell, to some of our favorite friends!

Jordan and Anna from next door were Benny's first friends here in Kansas. Jordan is three years older, and Anna one year older than Ben, but they always played so well together. We will miss them terribly, and our summer days have not been the same since they left. The kids could usually be found outside riding bikes, playing baseball or pretending to be pirates. Poor Anna is the only girl on the block (besides Sophie), as there are 11 boys within 5 houses. However, she was the closest in age to Benny, so they were great friends. Have I mentioned that we will miss them? (We miss you too, John and Wendy!)

Ella is an Army friend. Her Daddy worked with Nick, and our families were in the same big group of friends. Benny and Ella survived the deployment together, and both became older siblings while their Daddy's were gone. Lately, we have enjoyed meeting Ella at the pool, and attending General's baseball games together. And there have also been all of those Army parties together! Ben misses Ella already, and she just left yesterday!

Benny starts school in three weeks, and I am anxious for him to go so he can meet some new friends. I believe he is the only returning student. All of the other kids either moved away, or have moved on to kindergarten. He should be just fine though, he is a really outgoing little boy!

Singing in the Shower

Last night Benny decided he wanted to take a shower. This is a rare event in our house, as he usually prefers baths. I was working on the computer when I heard him singing. It was so funny I had to get him to do it again. This is actually take three, because at the end he kept opening the curtain and I didn't think anyone cared to see Benny fully nude. Enjoy!

Happy 7th!

Yesterday Nick and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary! Actually, we celebrated it on Saturday. We had our babysitter come (what did we do before her?), and we went into Manhattan to a really nice restaurant named Harry's. We had a fabulous meal, and then went out for drinks. We had a great time. I don't have any wedding pictures on our desktop-our wedding was at the dawn of the digital age. But, here is a photo from our honeymoon in Maui!

Happy Anniversary Nick!

Happy 4th!

Happy 4th! Our family has been very busy over the last few days enjoying Independence Day and all of the celebrations! Junction City has a fest over the week of the 4th called Sundown Salute. We have spent a lot of time downtown watching shows and fireworks, listening to good music and riding a carnival ride or two.


Here is our "Little Sparkler" in the backyard on the Fourth. She loves waving her little flag, and had tons of fun waving it at the parade. In fact, I think she waved at everyone who walked by during the parade. She was exhausted at the end, and so was I! Nick had to work at the parade, so I took the kids by myself. The parade was huge and lasted a full hour and a half. By the end, we were very hot, sunburned and tired. I had no idea that is would last so long. The kids did have a lot of fun though. There were so many floats and trucks and motorcycles. I have never seen anything like it. There were even airplanes that flew overhead! Ben collected lots of candy and goodies. People in the parade also tossed out hot dogs, Popsicles, bottles of water and flags. It was quite the event!

On the evening of the 4th we decided to brave the carnival downtown. Ben was really excited to ride on the kiddie rides. Here he is in the front car of the kiddie roller coaster. He had a great time.

After the roller coaster, he chose to ride on the mini airplanes twice! We became very familiar with the man operating this ride. The first time Ben got on and then just before the ride started we had to pull him off because we could tell that he had to go to the bathroom really, really bad. After a quick trip to the restroom, we got back in line. Again, Ben jumped into the same orange and black plane. Soon after the ride started, he somehow managed to get his elbow stuck behind him. Ben was screaming and the man had to stop the ride to get him un-stuck. Meanwhile half of the kids on board started to get off because they thought the ride was over. We caused quite the commotion, but Ben really had a lot of fun. He even went on the plane ride again the next day.

On Saturday we headed back to Sundown Salute. We saw an Extreme Canines show and Wild about Monkeys. Ben laughed so hard at the crazy baboons. He also spent lots of time in the bouncy houses and on the one-man tug of war.

Finally before we left, we asked him if he wanted to get his face painted. To our surprise (shock actually), he said yes! Ben has never been a kid who was interested in that sort of thing. He has never had his face painted before, and until recently wouldn't even put on a temporary tattoo or even a band aid. He decided he wanted to be Batman. I'm not sure what we were thinking when we said yes. His Batman mask was a whole lot of black paint, and it was 92 degrees out. He thought it was great though, and I was happy that he tried something new.

We hope you all enjoyed your 4th of July Celebrations!