Happy 7th Birthday, Benjamin!

1. What is your favorite color? Green
2. What is your favorite toy? Nintendo DS
3. What is your favorite fruit? raspberries
4. What is your favorite tv show? Pokemon XYZ
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? hot dogs
6. What is your favorite outfit? Paw Patrol shirt and camo shorts (incidentally what he's wearing right now...)
7. What is your favorite game? Pokemon
8. What is your favorite snack? peanut butter crackers
9. What is your favorite animal? tiger
10. What is your favorite song? Play That Song (Train)
11. What is your favorite book? Harry Potter
12. Who is your best friend? Aubrey, James, and Jack
13. What is your favorite cereal? Honey Nut Cheerios
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play Pokemon Go
15. What is your favorite drink? Ginger Ale
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? stuffed animals
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? cereal
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? pizza
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a vet

Benjamin turned 7 on Friday! He had a great day at school and had a pizza party there for a class reward. The little stinker convinced his teacher to schedule the pizza on his birthday! I got to eat lunch with him and I brought him some cupcakes to share with his friends at the end of the day.

Saturday was quite busy. We had soccer games and team pictures before his party at home. The house is still full of boxes everywhere, but you can't put off a birthday! We had friends and family come over for pizza and cupcakes, as well as time to play in the yard and visit with each other.

I love being in a house where we finally have room for lots of company. It will be even better when we get all the boxes unpacked and things put away. Maybe in time for Ben's 10th birthday! LOL!

First day they met each other and yesterday. They still love each other most of the time!

Mama Mayday

Good morning Internet,

I have a parenting question I need some help with. But first the details.

I put Benjamin to bed the other night. Ten minutes later he came out to ask if he could sleep on the floor.

"Whatever makes you  happy, Buddy!" I'm not much for arguing over trivial matters.

I didn't think much of it after that. I went about my business for the evening {ahem} Candy Crush {ahem} and went to bed myself some time later.

At 1:00 AM, I was awakened to Benjamin calling my name. I stumbled into his room and kicked him in the head. Not on purpose of course! But he was on the floor and I had forgotten.

"Mommy, I'm cold," said the shivering little boy, wearing only his underpants, huddled under a fleece blanket.

"Why don't you climb into bed, honey. I'll put the blankets on you and you'll warm up in no time."

"I don't want to! I want to sleep on the floor."

"OK, how about some jammies then? That might help"

"No."

At a complete loss as to what to do, I went to the living room and grabbed another blanket to throw on him.

"Is that better?"

"Mm-hmm."

And then I went to back to my nice warm BED and tried to fall back asleep while my brain was fixated on what must be wrong with my son.

Do you think it's poison ivy?

Benjamin's Birthday Bash: May the Fourth Be With You!

Benjamin asked for a Star Wars birthday party, and being the geeks we are, we delivered! Our birthday parties are really more family get-togethers, but that doesn't mean we can't have some fun with the food, right??

X: Six #AtoZChallenge

(I know I missed yesterday, but I'm gonna write it anyway and backdate it. It's my blog and I can break all the rules that I want to!!)

Today is a big day! Benjamin went to sleep last night as a five year old, and woke up this morning as a six year old. Technically, he was born in the afternoon, but I know better than to argue with him about details like that!

I have been super busy with a bunch of last minute things this week, so I didn't get to do Ben's birthday interview until this morning while he was eating breakfast. You may notice that as a theme in some of his answers!

I ask these question every year so that I can see how their answers change as they get older. They have fun answering them and also enjoy going back to read old interviews.

1. What is your favorite color? green
2. What is your favorite toy? Hot Wheels
3. What is your favorite fruit? raspberries
4. What is your favorite TV show? Football (Henry says, "That's not a TV show!)
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? carrots
6. What is your favorite outfit? my 6 shirt
7. What is your favorite game? Dragon Land (app on my phone)
8. What is your favorite snack? cereal
9. What is your favorite animal? tiger
10. What is your favorite song? Radioactive
11. What is your favorite book? Jack and Annie (Magic Treehouse series)
12. Who is your best friend? Jack (but not Annie, LOL!)
13. What is your favorite cereal? Honey Nut Cheerios
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play soccer
15. What is your favorite drink? Orange Fanta
16. What is your favorite holiday? MY BIRTHDAY!
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? my cars
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? cereal
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? cake...chicken (What kind of chicken?) ROOSTER CHICKEN!
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? vet

Happy birthday, Little Man! We love you very much!!

N: None of Your Business #AtoZChallenge

It's Saturday. I'll be honest. I'm not planning on having much time to read blogs or respond to comments, but I started on this challenge and I mean to finish it. I was tossing ideas around in my head and my eyes fell on a post-it on my desk. I had jotted down a few anecdotes from the kids and then never posted about them. One of them fit quite well with the letter "N," so here is a much belated story about my sassy son, Benjamin.

He has a flip phone that used to belong to one of my parents. He carries it around and pushes the buttons and pretends to make phone calls on it. Sometimes he calls me and I have to pretend to talk to him on my phone. A while back he "called" Grandma.

See this sassy face? Keep it in mind!

I only overheard his half of the conversation. Mainly because it's a NON-WORKING PHONE and there was no other side to the conversation. Except in his head, maybe. His side was very cute and full off, "uh-huhs" and "maybes" and lots of other inconsequential sounds that people tend to make on the phone. He ended with "I love you. Bye!" and he snapped the phone shut. (I miss being able to do that!)

"Who were you talking to, Buddy?" I asked him.

"Grandma."

"Is she doing okay?"

"Uh-huh."

"Well, that's good. What did you guys talk about?"

And then he looked at me with a sweet little grin on his face and said, "We talked about 'none of your business' stuff."

And then I had to go call my mom for real to pass along the story. After I finished laughing, of course!

Laundry and Literacy

This is a sponsored post that contains affiliate links. I received product to facilitate this review. No other compensation was received. 

We've had some big news at our house with Frances finally getting her own room right before school started. The transition has been great for her and she loves having her own space. It's been good for the boys too, since now they have a bit more room for themselves. I had some big plans for rearranging people and furniture, but as you may know Ken dislocated his shoulder at the end of August and we're still dealing with that. Basically, that means that he's not been able to help me when it comes to moving any heavy items.

There's a headboard that needs to come out of Frances' room and a desk that needs to go in it. A dresser in the basement that needs to be moved upstairs for Benjamin (and hopefully painted), and a dresser that needs to be tossed. Unfortunately, those plans have been put on hold. But life goes on and things still need to be functional for us.

Benjamin still needs a dresser and he is currently using the one that Frances left behind. It's got a broken drawer and it's too tall for him to reach into the top two drawers, but it's what we're working with for now. Ben is getting older and actually taking a bit more responsibility for himself around the house, so when I was given some chalkboard labels to try out, I knew exactly what I wanted to do!

Kindergarten has been great for him. He loves learning and he actually gets mad at me when I pick him up early from his after-school program. He wants to finish all of his assignments, even the "fun" ones that are more or less time fillers. I think the one things he's most excited about learning is how to read. We're big readers in our family, and he can't wait to be a part of that. Whatever I can do to support his literacy is my pleasure.

Now he has some more words to read in his own bedroom! I labelled all his drawers with a picture as well as the words indicating what's inside. It makes putting away laundry a little more exciting (if that's possible). He loves it and his brother, who is a fluent reader, now wants his drawers labelled as well! Good thing I've got extras!

These chalk labels from Stardom Brands pair wonderfully with the chalk markers I've reviewed previously. They come in a variety of shapes to suit any labelling needs you have. I am especially excited about the fact that they are reusable! I can move them from this dresser to the next when we finally have the chance to do some heavy lifting. I can also erase them and re-write whatever I want.

There are lots of other great uses for chalk labels!

• Make some soothing sugar scrub as a teacher or holiday gift. Decorate the jar you present it in.
• Label the spice jars or sugar/flour/salt canisters in your kitchen.
• Organize your office supplies into cute baskets and label them.
• Make party favors in mason jars with your own event logo on them.
• Create new candles out of old ones and re-label the jars.

If you are in the mood for some organizing and labelling in, you should check out these labels (and the fun markers too) on Amazon and then come over to my house. I've got some stuff you can organize for me before you lose your steam!

I received compensation (free items and/or cash) in exchange for writing this review.
Although this post is sponsored, all opinions are my own.This post may contain affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission should you choose to click through and purchase something. Your purchase price is not affected.
Please see my disclosure policy for more information.

http://www.thelieberfamily.com/p/contest-terms-and-conditions.html

Benjamin Graduates Preschool and I Need a Nap

Today Benjamin graduates from preschool! He's having a little ceremony and then lunch for parents and friends. He's excited because he gets to sing me a song. I love it when he sings to me!! He has such a sweet little voice.

I get off work at noon today, so I'm glad it starts at 12:15 and I don't have to use personal time to get there. I'm sure that is was planned that way to work with other parents' lunch breaks. I was worried though, because after the ceremony and lunch, I plan on going home. Without Benjamin. I need a nap and so does he. And he won't nap at home anymore. So I prepared him ahead of time and said, "Mommy isn't staying after the program. You will stay at school with your friends and Mommy has to leave." 
 

My silly graduate!

He gave me a little pouty face, but then he smiled and I know he's okay with it.

I don't know if I'll actually get a nap because I've got tons of other stuff to get done, but I do need a few moments to myself at home. Chores are harder one-handed and I was already behind before the bike accident. My arm is feeling a lot better, but I'm keeping the brace on a little longer just to be sure. 

At work, we've had inventory and end-of-the-year spending to get done as well. I thought things were slowing down, but in reality it turned out to be a brief break before they ramped up again. I've been doing tons of walking around, hunting for stuff, and lots of extra typing to get new technology things ordered with this year's budget. My brain has been extra full!!

The more I think about it, the more I'm pretty sure I'm going to aim for a nap today after graduation. After a hard day week of work, I think I deserve it!

*** This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post, where writers and bloggers gather to give their own takes on the week’s sentence. This one was “After a hard day’s work…”
Hosts: Kristi from Finding Ninee and co-host Michelle (this week’s sentence thinker-upper) from Crumpets and Bollocks.

Benjamin is Turning Five!

Today is the last day I get to spend with my 4-year old, because tomorrow he'll be my five-year old! We had his party two weekends ago because of other stuff going on this past weekend, but I saved the pictures to share today. I also asked him our traditional interview questions just to see what has changed (and what has stayed the same)! You can see his 4th birthday, 3rd birthday, 2nd birthday, and first birthday at those links.

1. What is your favorite color? orange
2. What is your favorite toy? 4-wheeler (he got a remote controlled 4-wheeler toy for his birthday)
3. What is your favorite fruit? straw-bee-bee-bee-bees  (He said it just like that!)
4. What is your favorite TV show? Odd Squad
5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? Colby Jack cheese
6. What is your favorite outfit? My monster truck shirt. And my favorite costume is Batman
7. What is your favorite game? tic-tac-toe
8. What is your favorite snack? Colby jack cheese
9. What is your favorite animal? lions and tigers
10. What is your favorite song? Taylor Swift
11. What is your favorite book? {He was being silly and declined to answer}
12. Who is your best friend? Simon, Paige, Raven, and Jack
13. What is your favorite cereal? Apple Jacks
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? football
15. What is your favorite drink? Gatorade
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas, Halloween, and Easter
17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? my lion, Baby Tiger, Spot Swat (the snow leopard) and Spotty (the giraffe) and Zipliner (zebra) and Trumpet (the elephant)
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? lime yogurt
19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? pizza from Little Caesar's
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? a police

Blowing out the candles!

Mommy and Daddy serving cake and ice cream

Yum!!

He's got Baby Tiger again!

Even the wrapping paper was fun!

His buddy D testing out his toys

Five Minute Friday: Because

Five Minute Friday has a new home! Come check it out and join in on the free-writing fun!

1. Write for 5 minutes flat – no editing, no over thinking, no backtracking.
2. Link back here and invite others to join in.
3. And then absolutely, no ifs, ands or buts about it, you need to visit the person who linked up before you & encourage them in their comments. Seriously. That is, like, the rule. And the fun. And the heart of this community...

Five minutes on because...

GO

Why? Because I said so!
Why? Because that's what happens.
Why? I don't know!
We've outgrown the toddler stage with it's endless supply of "why" questions, but I still here it pretty often around my house. I have curious, ready to learn children and that's a great thing, but it does get annoying on occasion!
The questions used to be fairly easy. They could either be answered easily or brushed off. Questions like, "Why is the sky blue?" can be satisfied with "Because that's how God made it!" Where questions like, "Why do I have to go to bed?" require something more obvious like, "Because it's bed time."
As my kids have gotten older, the questions have gotten more difficult. "Why can't I wear these shorts?" "Why does so-and-so not want to talk to me at school?" "Why are those bad people hurting kids in Iraq?"

I don't have all those answers. I can't explain everything the way they expect me to be able to. Many of these things I don't understand myself.
I hope we can all take comfort in the master plan. Even if we don't have answers, we can ask for faith. We can at least be aware that He is in control of it all.

And then I want to ask, Why are there 16 pictures of Ben's pants on my phone!?

Posted with Blogsy

The Post that is NOT About Potty Talk!

I wrote about some Frances-isms back in 2009 because of some cute things she said that I wanted to remember. I don't think I've written about any cute things that Henry has said, which makes me feel a little bit sad. It's not that he doesn't say cute things, I just forget to write them down. So today I am writing down some of Benjamin's latest quotes:

While eating SweeTarts after dinner one night, he went into the bedroom where his brother and sister were getting ready for bed.  He held out a SweeTart in his hand and said, "I hab a SweeTart an' I not afwaid to use it!"  This had his siblings laughing hysterically and I thought it was pretty funny too. I told him he should go say that to his father. He looked worried for a second and maybe he thought he was in trouble, but I said, "Go tell Daddy! He'll laugh!"  Then he realized he had eaten the last piece of his candy, so he started to spit it out into his hand. "Stop!" I laughed!! "You don't have to have the candy, just go say it to Daddy!"

One morning as I was helping him get ready for school, he started dancing around singing, "pee, pee, peepee, pee, pee, peepee, etc."  Then he looked at me very seriously and said, "Mommy, dat's not potty talk!  P is a wetter. I'n singin' about da wetter P, not da potty talk pee."

Then he sings a little bit more of the same song. Again he pauses, "Mommy, did you know dat P wike da wetter and peepee wike da potty talk whyme?! Dey whyme because dey have da same sound: peeeeeeeeeeeeee!!"

He's so smart!

What have your kids been saying lately that makes you grin?

Parents and Children Agree: My Parenting is Sub-Par

I woke up Sunday morning and I couldn't move. The upper half of my body was sore and tight and I was exhausted on top of that. As I lay in bed trying to figure out what was wrong with me, I remembered my adventures from Saturday.

My Julie was in charge of the PTA MayFest at her school and her husband was working for the day, so I told her I'd bring my kids out and keep an eye on hers as well. We did the same thing last year and everyone had a good time.  This year was no different. I met Julie at her school and got a set of tickets from her as well as a command to use her "tab" at the food bar if we got hungry.

We took our tickets and set out to play some games. Most of the games were "everybody wins" kinds of games, so the kids picked up a lot of kid-swag and I collected it in my bag. We got close to the end of our tickets and decided to go to the playground for a bit.

I was the bag lady of MayFest!

It's a nice playground with a climbing structure and some swings. I sat in one of the swings and watched the kids play.  They were playing my favorite game of all time!  The one where Frances is assigned the role of "mommy" and everyone else is her kid, trying to get her attention. So while I sat on the swings and played on my phone, they kept yelling, "MOMMY! MOMMY! MOMMY!" repeatedly.  I did try to respond a few times, but they always called back., "We're not talking to you!" So eventually I just started to ignore all of it.

Be thankful this is not a video of kids repeatedly yelling "MOMMY!"

After a while, I started to get hungry and I figured my kids would be too.  It was getting close to lunch time, so we went inside to eat. We got our food, put it on Julie's tab and sat down to eat.  The kids had won candy at one of the games earlier, so I told them they could eat that after they ate their lunch. What kind of a babysitter would I be if I didn't give the kids back all sugared up!?!

Would you have blamed me for licking him clean?

After lunch we went back out, got a few more tickets, picked up some more useless pieces of plastic kid-swag and then decided to go hang out on the playground again. This time it was a bit more crowded, so I hung out over by the edge, in the mulch. I set myself up to chill out for a while and then L called me over to push her in the swing. For the next 30 minutes I pushed kids on the swings. D wasn't interested, and Frances can swing herself, but L, Benjamin and Henry all wanted help.

Can you see the pout on Benjamin's face?

After pushing for a while, I told the kids I was taking a break.  L jumped off the swing to go play, but Benjamin stayed there waiting patiently for me to come back.  Except, not. He sat in the swing and called to me and whined for me to push him.  You would think by now that he would have learned of my superior ability to tune out whining, but, sadly, he has not.  Eventually, another mom came over to him and said, "Do you need a push on the swing?" while looking in my direction. I caught her glance as I looked up from the game I was playing on my phone.  I started to wonder if she was judging me, but I quickly decided that I really didn't care. 

So this other woman pushed my son on the swing a few times and then went back to her own kid. I gave her a casual wave and said, "thanks!"  She and her daughter left the playground shortly after that. Of course, Benjamin's swing had started slowing down again and he started to yell for me.  I was busy playing 2048 on my phone when I looked up to see a little girl, about 4 years old, standing in front of me.

"Is that your little boy?" she squeaked while pointing at the swings.

"Yep!" I said and smiled.

"Does he want to be pushed on the swing?"

"Probably," I replied.

*pause* "Are you...gonna push him?" she asked.

"Probably not."

And the she gave me a funny look and walked off. She was probably judging me too.

Ben's Star Wars Birthday Party

Benjamin turned 4 last Monday, but we had to put off his birthday party because of other things going on. When I realized that his party would fall on May the fourth, I decided I had no choice but to go with a Star Wars theme! The party turned out to be fun, but we had an intense wind blowing throughout the afternoon. I didn't even get the chance to take many pictures because I was so busy holding everything down!!

The cupcakes flipped over and icing got smeared all over inside the containers. The pizza boxes flew off the tables and we lost a whole pepperoni pizza. Please join me in a moment of silence for that downed pizza. LOL!

I made light sabers out of pool noodles, duct tape and electrical tape.  They were a big hit! Literally!! The made some fun labels for our drinks and the drinks win the prize for the only thing that actually stayed on the table during the wind gusts.

In the end, we all laughed a lot, chased stuff across the pavilion, and had a great time celebrating Benjamin's fourth on the fourth! May the fourth be with you always!

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Today is my littlest one's 4th birthday!  As Kelsey said this morning, "He's growing up so fast.  It seems like just yesterday he was three!"  (See what I have to put up with at work?!!?)  This is the first birthday that he has really anticipated. He's been asking me for the past week if this is day he gets to turn four.  We had a family celebration on Easter and he got to open presents then, but he knew that wasn't his real birthday As is tradition in our house, I sat down with Benjamin to interview him on the eve of his birthday. Here are his answers:

He went to bed a three year old and woke up a four year old!

1. What is your favorite color? ALL DA COLORS!
2. What is your favorite toy? fire truck

Proud big brother

3. What is your favorite fruit? baby oranges (Mandarin oranges)
4. What is your favorite tv show? Team Umizoomi

Their first group shot

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch? peanut butter sandwiches
6. What is your favorite outfit? tie die shirt and khaki pants (which, incidentally, is the outfit he was wearing when I asked him)

tummy time

7. What is your favorite game? the fish game (a game he got for his birthday)
 8. What is your favorite snack? peanut butter apples with chocolate

Baby's first Halloween

 9. What is your favorite animal? tiger
10. What is your favorite song? ABCD

11. What is your favorite book? cucumber!! (I have no idea what he was talking about, but this was the last question I asked him and he was being pretty silly at this point!)
12. Who is your best friend? Gabe, Jack, and Simon

The love of cereal began early

13. What is your favorite cereal? Honey Nut Cheerios and Cinnamon Toast Crunch (yes, he mixes them together)
14. What is your favorite thing to do outside? play on the slide

He's always been pretty cool

15. What is your favorite drink? lemonade and tea (again, mixed together)
16. What is your favorite holiday? Christmas

LOVE this picture

17. What do you like to take to bed with you at night? the frog that laughs and Baby Tiger, Lemurty, and Monkey
18. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast? cereal in a bowl with milk inside and a spoon (apparently I teased him once about getting his breakfast, and since then he has been this specific with each breakfast request)

SUPAH STAR!

19. What do you want for dinner on your birthday? baby oranges and chicken nuggets
20. What do you want to be when you grow up? A DADDY!

Precious!!

 Happy 4th birthday, turkey sweet boy! We love you!!