Happy birthday, America!

We have had a crazy, busy week! It started off Sunday with Jeremy waking up with a 103 degree fever. He went to the Urgent Care in Winter Haven and the doctor said he had strep throat. I quarantined him to our bedroom, praying that Ben and I wouldn't catch it. After two days of doing nothing but eating, sleeping, and resting, his fever was gone and he felt a little better. The good news is Ben and I didn't catch it! The bad news is the doctor said Jeremy couldn't race in the Firecracker 5K that we were scheduled to run on July 4th. Jeremy went to the race to cheer me on, but was so disappointed that he couldn't race. I invited a friend of mine to take Jeremy's place and she ended up placing 3rd in our age group! She was so excited! We watched fireworks in Bartow last night with Papa Stone and Ms. Pauline. Ben loved them! He was such a trooper...we didn't get home until 11 o'clock last night!

I've posted tons of pictures from this last week, so enjoy!

Our plans were to take Ben to Common Ground Park, but it rained. We ended up killing time at Lakeside Village. Ben loves throwing pennies in this fountain. We took him to Books-A-Million and got two books for $3 and a memory game.

Family picture at Ms. Pauline's house

Sitting in the mule waiting for the fireworks!

Ben and Papa Stone

Firecracker 5K at Highland's Hammock State Park

The third guy from the left won the race. He ran it in 17 minutes!

New personal record! 28 minutes 33 seconds :)

Kayaking Trip!

Ben and Aunt Lisa before kayaking in Seminole

Jeremy and I had so much fun kayaking! Ben was a little nervous about the whole thing. He never cried, but I could tell he was nervous. The ocean water was only a few feet deep, but probably looked really deep to him. We kayaked to a little island and explored for a bit. I'm so proud of Ben for trying something new.

This was Ben's favorite part of the trip...stripping down after kayaking and watering the plants, ha ha!

Random outside pictures:

Playdate at The Children's Museum with Hunter & Hayden Halloran and September Wilson

More randoms....

Rain, rain, go away! I guess this is the best spot in the living room to watch Dora!

New monkey jammies from Grandma!

Playdates, Mudpies, & Bird Feeders!

We've had another fun week! I met up with one of my high school buddies and her two boys for some fun at The Children's Museum in Sebring. Ben had so much fun playing with Hunter. I had a blast watching them and holding sweet little Hayden. I have to admit....he gave me a little baby fever! I miss that age when they are just learning to walk. So precious!

Ben got a Little Tikes Mudpie Kitchen and has had some messy fun playing with it. We've had to play outside in the mornings because it's either too hot or storming in the afternoons! We've also been doing some arts & crafts. Ben painted a fish earlier this week and we made a bird feeder together this morning. He was so cute hammering the nails in with his little play hammer. It actually worked! I've posted some pictures at the very bottom.

Enjoy this week's pictures!

Reading "Goldilocks and the Three Bears." It's his new favortie story and we read it several times per day :)

Nice camera work by Ben!

Love that sweet smile!

THE CHILDREN'S MUSEUM:

We met up with Laura Kistner Halloran and her two boys, Hunter and Hayden. We had so much fun and can't wait to do it again!

He loved grocery shopping!

Loadin' that buggy up!

Hayden wanted to shop, too! Isn't he the cutest lil' thing!

Handsome Fire Fighters!

I LOVE that red hair!

I had to snap this picture fast! Hunter is even quicker than Ben!

MUD FUN!

ARTS & CRAFTS

coloring his bird feeder :) I didn't get any of him hammering the wood pieces together, which was the cutest thing. I was too busy making sure he didn't hammer his little fingers!

Happy boy!