Growing up with Cale and Keegyn!!!!

Saturday, July 23, 2011

The kids had an absolute blast a few weeks ago when Mikayla came over to play for a few hours...Cale especially! He has a soft spot in his heart for his little cousin, Mikayla...everytime we mention her name he face just lights up and he gets a HUGE smile on his face. Sure, he loves his little sister too, but there is just something about that little Mikayla that Cale just adores! He will definately be protective of both of them in the years to come...I can see it already!

Keegyn now sports this facial expression when taking pictures...we say "Cheeeeese!!!" and she closes her eyes and says "AWWWWW!!!"

....well, at least the eyes are open in this one....but still with the "AWWW!"

Mikayla playing hide-and-seek....Found you!!!

Now Mikayla has the "awww!" down!

Keegyn has taught her well!!!

Bedtime snack...Goldfish (never mind the fact that they had just demolished a whole carton of cheese puffs between the two of them about 3o minutes before this)

Watching a favorite....Bubble Guppies. Shhhhhh....noone must talk during Bubble Guppies

....unless it's to say "AWWWW!"....

Friday, July 22, 2011

Cale's first attempt at the infamous Slip-N-Slide...courtesy of Auntie A and Uncle D!!

No commentary is necessary for these pics...just enjoy!!!

Our Day At The Beach!

We finally decided to head to the beach this summer...it was on my "to do" since last summer when Cale and I talked about it incessantly, yet somehow never tackled it. So one hot, July morning, me, Cale and my little munchkin headed out to "tackle" the beach...without Dad. Both the kids had a blast (and Cale made me promise that we would come back soon) but because I was alone to keep tabs on my little ones, we hit the road after just two hours...it was all I could handle! They both were getting a little too fearless and I quickly realized this was not a solo outing!

Surprisingly, there were actually two other families at the beach at the early hour of 9am! Yes, 9am...that was when we got there!

...Testing out the waters....

It doesn't take Keegyn long to make friends!

Filling, dumping....filling, dumping.....

...just doesn't get old...

I have to admit that I was more impressed with my little man...he was out in that water in no time, trying to catch the array of fish that were swimming around his little feet. Kept him busy for over an hour! I didn't have the heart to tell him that there was no way he was gonna catch a fish with his bucket...that it was more of a "net" project!

...Still dumping and filling....

(eventually, it did get old)

No fish, but ALL smiles!

Lunch break!

Unfortunately, our time at the beach had to come to an end WAY before Cale was ready to call it a day....

Monday, May 30, 2011

Rainy Day at MOA and Rainforest Cafe

Last week we were seriously starting to cramp each other's style...so I decided to shake it up a bit and get out of the house.

Off to MOA we went!!

Didn't quite know what we would do once there.

Just NEEDED to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE!!!!

We spent the majority of our time at Nickolodeon (I never know how to spell that word, by the way) Park, of course. Surprisingly, Cale didn't ask to go on any rides. Quite the shocker! Instead, we (and be we, I mean Cale) built Legos and dreamed about all the fun Lego City packages that would be "so cool to have someday" while walking around Lego Land. It was hard to get out of that place without purchasing anything...I do have quite the little negotiator on my hands!

Once the tour of Lega Land was completed (about 30 minutes past an acceptable time frame) we headed to Cale and Keegyn's favorite toy store at the Park.
We (and by we, I still mean Cale) continued to dream about all the "really cool toys that would be really cool to have someday."

At least Keegyn doesn't talk too much yet...and her negotiating skills are slim to none...so she spent her time going from stuffed animal to stuffed animal and hugging them up to her cheek and then putting them down. When I told her it was time to go, it was no big deal, cuz she didn't even think twice about trying to negotiate something out of me.

We (and by we, I mean ME!) did, however, walk out of that toystore with yet another dinosaur to add to Cale's collection, because as he's said..."Wouldn't it be really cool to have a dinosaur like that someday, Mom?"

...and I thought...

"Yeah, I guess it would."

Finally.....moving on from the toy store, we all worked up an appetite and headed over to Rainforest Cafe for some good grub!

Although Cale has really improved on his negotiating skills, I still can hold my ground on some things.

For instance, sitting next to those fish all through lunch, Cale had a lot of time to wonder and dream about Dory and Nemo and all their friends swimming by.

BUT

this time when he said "Mom, wouldn't it be cool to have a fish like that someday?", I completely held my ground...we DID NOT leave the Rainforest Cafe with any sort of fish!

See, I've STILL got it!

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Cale turns 4!!!!

Cale started celebrating his fourth birthday about a week before it actually began, and then he managed to turn the whole weekend into a celebration as well!

Started out Friday afternoon, when a package arrived for him in the mail....The mailman asked if he was Cale and if he was, well then, it was his lucky day, cuz he had a special package just for him!

What was in the package???!!!!

IRON MAN!!!

(from Gretch, Eric, Eli, and Syndney--they couldn't make it to Cale's big day)

Unfortunately for the Benson family, Cale seems to think the present came from both them AND the mailman!!!

We also told Cale he could choose dinner for Friday night, in honor of his BIG day....soooo, he wanted waffles 'like IHOP'. Well, I must say I was pretty impressed with my attempt at mastering the beloved IHOP waffle...

Did not disappoint!!!

(Cale's toppings included maple syrup, brown sugar, whipped cream, whipped cream, whipped cream, OH! and did I mention whipped cream???!!)

THE BIG DAY

Waiting patiently for everyone to arrive...it is only about 11am in this picture...By this time, I've already been dodging the "when can I open presents" question for 3 hours!!! I was waiting for everyone to arrive too, just so he would stop asking!!! (Next year party starts at 9am!!!)

Cale showing us how old he is!

FINALLY!!!!

THE WAIT IS OVER!!!

Meanwhile, these two could care less about the present opening....Here, Keegyn is giving Mikayla a lesson on how to keep her socks on. Mikayla is NOT a sock/shoe lover at all!!! Keegyn, on the other hand, has about 12 pair of shoes already and she just loves to change them up throughout the course of the day!