Bentley's T-Ball

Last fall Bentley participated in the YMCA Soccer Program, he enjoyed himself but after a few weeks he lost interest. This spring he participated in the YMCA T-Ball Program.

Bentley has been introduced to baseball through his cousin, Brendan. Brendan plays baseball for the high school and whenever Bentley gets together with his cousins it often ends in a big baseball game. He has really practiced hard and has gotten pretty good at hitting the ball.

He really enjoyed playing t-ball and loved it even more because his cousin Sayge was on his team. Here are some pictures from his last game!

You said we are going to get ice cream after this right?

Determination!

For some reason I love this picture. Look how small and sweet he looks!

Special moment with Daddy and Clayton!

Cheering on big brother!

Playing 3rd base!

Batter Up

I got a trophy!

Look at that face! Pure Joy!

Outer Banks Trip Day #2

We woke up and Pap Pap made a wonderful egg breakfast for everyone.

The boys decided that they wanted to go visit the Cape Hatteras Light House. While the two older boys went and checked out the light house, I stayed in the car with a sleeping Blake. So, I think they had a nice time visiting. From the pictures it looks like they liked it, and I can tell you every time we were in the car they were talking about the light house. I think it was a success.

We, also, visited the old light house spot. We didn't last long before the rain started coming in.

We then went to the museum. It was nice to see some of the neat ship things, and they had a great scavenger hunt for the boys.

We came back and took a nice nap and by the time we woke up it had cleared up a little bit.

After dinner we went out to the beach for a little while and watched PapPap fish. He caught a nice one and the look on Clayton's face was that of pure joy and have terrified! (That boy makes the best facial expressions!)

Blake always wanted to lay on his belly and play in the sand!

We also let the boys get into the hot tub for 10 minutes!

All in all it was a nice day, the boys were worn out!

Day 1 Outer Banks Trip 2015

My wonderful in-laws rented a house in Avon, NC for spring break. They were kind enough to invite us down to spend some time with them! We went from Wednesday to Saturday. It was such a nice relaxing time! We really enjoyed it and I am pretty sure my boys want to live at the beach.

The night before we left I started feeling bad. All three boys and Jeremy had strep with in the last week. I immediately knew what it was and I knew we planned on leaving for the beach at 6 in the morning. BOO! Plans changed and instead I got up early and went to the doctor and picked up my medicine and we were on our way....only 4 hours later than what we were hoping. Plus, it was Jeremy's birthday! WOOHOO!

The trip was a typical trip down with kiddos. Lots of whining (are we there yet?)! We got to the Outer Banks around 4:00 pm but still had an hour and a half before we arrived at the house.

We took the boys to a monster truck show in February and ever since they love monster trucks. We stopped at the Diggers Dungeon to see all the old Grave Diggers.

Original Grave Digger!

The boys loved climbing on the truck!

Little Man

 

It was a nice break for the boys to get out and run before finishing the rest of the trip!

We arrived around 6:30 to the beach, we ate a quick dinner and ran down to the beach. It was very cold and damp. The boys found a small crab and Daddy picked it up and let them have a turn holding it. Clayton squealed with delight(?), or maybe fear, as it ran across his hands! 

When we got back to the house we enjoyed a piece of cookie cake for Daddy's birthday!

Not exactly the most exciting birthday, but we were glad to be there and be able to relax.

Bentley's 4th Birthday

How can it be my baby (not so much a baby anymore) just turned 4?!

To celebrate we had two parties! One for friends and one for family. I struggled to decide if I wanted to do a friend birthday party (mainly because we just moved the day before Bentley's birthday and we haven't sold our old house yet). As I gave it more thought, and talked with Bentley, he really wanted to have friends over. I am so glad we made that decision. I expected to be stressed with the move and planning a birthday party it was anything but stressful! 

Bentley had 5 little friends come to his birthday party. A couple of them are his friends from preschool and a couple of them are family friends. All but one of them were girls (that is the way Bentley rolls, he likes his little girl friends).

A couple siblings came as well, which was great!

 
Bentley insisted that he wanted to have a ninja turtle party (sorry, ladies)! Since I didn't really have time to be pinterest-y, I decided to throw some rice in a bucket and put it on the rug. I am pretty sure that is the only thing the kids played with. Rice was everywhere, but fun was had by all (and was easy clean up). Even better....the kids played so well together the adults were able to chat and relax. 

I am pretty sure the adults had as much fun as the kids! Everyone was so kind.

P.S.- Bentley has good taste in friends, not only are they cutie pies, but their parents are awesome too!

Thanks to one of the sweet moms who picked up my camera and took pictures, otherwise I would have none to share!!

We, also, had family over that evening. This is the only picture I have of the family event! Photo credit goes to Gandpap!

 

I think it is safe to say, he had a great 4th birthday! Now if he could just stop growing......

Pete the Cat Activity

Clayton loves to read. He really loves to read Pete the Cat books (lovingly known as Pete Cat around here). Jeremy and I also enjoy reading these books because the morals of the stories are great. When Clayton starts getting upset we often say, "would Pete Cat cry?" and Clayton says, "Goodness, NO!" and giggles. They are definitely some of our family favorites.

Right before we moved, I was reading the Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes. As I am reading a light bulb went off in my head. I had the perfect idea for an activity for the boys to do. It was quick to set up and the boys LOVED it. They actually loved it so much they ask to do it at least once a week.

I quickly drew a two shoes and laminated them. I am not an artist and they were not fancy, but the boys didn't seem to care!

In the book Pete Cat walks through a pile of strawberry's and turns his shoes red. So we painted the shoes red.

Next, Pete Cat walks through a pile of blueberries. We painted our shoes blue. (Right on top of the red).

Then, Pete Cat walks thought mud. We painted the shoes brown. Again, right on top of the red and blue.

Finally, Pete Cat walks though a bucket of water and his shoes turn white again. So, we had a bowl of water and a towel. The boys dipped their "shoes" in the water and washed them and dried them and they were back to white.

The moral of the story was: No matter what your going through, keep on going!
 

I often try and do activities with the boys that I find on Pinterest. Very rarely do they work out how I think they are. This one was a hit! Super easy and kept the boys attention for a long time!