Back to School!

Tomorrow is our first day with our new group of students. It is also Ben's first day with a new group of playmates at Aunt Joycie's house. He used to be the youngest, but all of his friends are starting pre-K or kindergarten tomorrow. Ben will be one of the oldest now. Jeremy and I are hoping he does well with the new group and hoping he will keep progressing with his language and behavior. We will be waking him up at 6:15 so we can leave to drop him off by 6:30. I think we are all going to be very tired next week :/

We had a lot of fun exploring Bok Tower Gardens on Saturday. We were getting Ben ready for bed Friday night, and out of the blue, he said he wanted to go to Bok Tower. It was miserably hot, but we still enjoyed it. We took Ben to the Window by the Pond. He thought the lily pads were pretty cool. We got to see the swans up close again, and Ben enjoyed feeding them.

I've posted pictures of our little Picasso below. He loves the new markers he picked out at Staples last week. They are very messy, as you will see, but he sure has fun drawing with them. I keep a nice stock of Mr. Clean Magic Erasers these days :) He'll say, "draw picture, Mommy." He thinks I'm the best artist in the world. I'm sure there are kindergartners that could draw better than me, but he gets so excited when I draw a star or a "kitty cat."

Here are the pictures from Saturday @ Bok Tower

Ben still thinks he needs to close his eyes when I say "say cheese!"

Ben found this on the ground. I'm not sure what it is, but he loved it!

I love this picture. Jeremy and Ben walking down to the Pinewood Estate.

Benny the Explorer.

We took him in to the Window by the Pond. He liked the "wiwy pads."

Our last week of Summer 2010

Well, Summer 2010 is officially over for the Byrd family *tear*. This summer went by way too fast. It seriously feels like we just got out. We have enjoyed spending almost every minute of the past two months with Ben. He has grown so much in that short period of time.

I got to work in my classroom Tuesday afternoon and all day Wednesday. Ben loved playing with all the markers and spinning in my desk chair, haha! That helped me get in the new-school-year spirit! I get excited thinking about the first pep rally and football game of the fall. Ben's birthday is coming up soon, so I'll be planning that shortly. After that is Halloween, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas! Before you know it, we'll be ringing in a new year!

Here are the pictures of our last week of summer. I'm hoping to have some fun work stories for the blog next week! ;)

This was the day of no nap.......he crawled in my lap after dinner and knocked out! He slept from 6:30 pm to 7:30 am.

mowing like daddy

eating yogurt...the messier the better!

surprise!

Sheer determination :)

This is a close-up of Ben's art work. This is what every piece looks like right now :D

Quick snapshot before bed!

Heading to the lake!

Showing momma a shell

watching daddy mow the yard

Play park fun!

Gangsta! (don't ya' just love the graffiti on the slide??? good grief!)

It's Willie Nelson!

We have had another great week of summer vacation. We are not looking forward to going back to work in a week. Ben is so much fun these days. I am loving this age and am not looking forward to losing so much time with him. He turned 22 months old August 1st. That means his 2nd birthday is just two months away. I thought his first year flew by, but I'm thinking his 2nd year went by even faster. I really wish there was a way to freeze certain moments in time so I could go back to experience them again.

Here are some random shots of Ben from this past week. The title of this blog will make much more sense when you get down to the bottom of this post :D Enjoy!

Ben loves playing with Grandpa's "flashwight"

Riding his "motorcycle" at Grandma & Grandpa's house

Spinning around on the stool at Frosbite

Trying very hard to get a good mommy and Ben picture

The best smile he would give me, haha!

Thinking very carefully about which crayon to use next...

Ben and his orange "wowwipop!"

Ready for a lake day with Aunt Joycie :)

Ben had a great time tonight playing with the guitar Grandpa pulled out of the garage. We were watching Willie Nelson on CMT and Ben was completely fascinated. He was so cute trying to play it and kept calling it a "gui-car." I've posted video and pictures of his guitar-playing debut below.