Project Life 2012 - Week 29

July 15-21

The week before vacation -and it was a BUSY week! 

In the midst of our packing, Bennett went to strength and conditioning camp at church (and he LOVED it!), Bennett and I both had bookclub meetings, and we both got haircuts.

 Here is Bennett's new 'do... spikey! He's so handsome! He's not really sure that he wants to wear it spikey, but we have gotten a good tutorial from Mr. Rony about how to replicate it if he wants to. Did I ever dream that my little boy would have a 'hair style'??? Nope.

We left EARLY Friday morning on our vacation to Michigan. And by early, I mean 5 AM. Of course, this was only difficult for me, but I made it happen!  13 hours later, we arrived in at our condo. Whew.

We had a late dinner at the Beechwood Inn Restaurant, and then headed to bed.

On Saturday morning, our first stop was the Holland Farmer's Market. This is the BEST Farmer's Market. Ever. I mean, if you wanted it, they had it. And everything was so beautiful!

 Here's Bennett with the biggest bunch of radishes I've ever seen in my life.

 Here's a pic of all that we bought at the market. Isn't it pretty? See those flowers in the back? $6 a bunch! I was in heaven.

That afternoon we headed to Brad's mom's cousin's house to ride in their car boat (otherwise known as an Aquicar). Way cool.

 Here it is on land.

 In the car (I guess you call it a car when it is on land??)

 Off we go!!

 Then Mooma and Poopa wanted a turn. Bennett got to ride again :)

That evening after a great dinner at the condo, Uncle Terri came to take Bennett for a ride in his MG. Nothing like a cruise to the beach with the top down :)

Let the vacation begin!!

Project Life 2012 - Week 28

July 8-14

This was the week that Bennett has been excitedly waiting for all summer long... Samford baseball camp!!

The camp was Monday-Thursday from 9 to 12 each day and he had a BLAST!! He had a group of 11 and he knew all but 3 in the group - and it was a great group of boys :)

I went early on Thursday to pick Bennett and his friend Cole up and I snapped a few action shots. The thing that strikes me the most is just how happy Bennett is in these pictures. He loves being around his friends - and even if he didn't know anybody that first day, I think that he would have had 10 new friends by the end of the week!

 I fully intended to get some group shots of the boys after the camp was over, but just as they were wrapping up, the sky opened up and it rained buckets. Seriously. All I could think of was finding the boys, saving the camera, and getting to the car (and yes, I did have an umbrella!) We all had to change clothes when we got home!

Friday (the 13th!) was Cow Appreciation Day at Chick-Fil-A. I mentioned it to Bennett and  by the time I got out of the shower, he had designed a whole costume - a baseball cow!! It was so creative!

 His jersey says 'COWZ' on the front...

 and Chick-fil-a #1 on the back. LOVE IT!!

Nana even joined us for lunch (after we went to see Ice Age, which was cute :)  AND Bennett got his meal for free :)

It was another great week! Bennett is happy. It is summer. He was with his friends. He was playing baseball. He saw a movie. He at Chick-fil-a. What more can a boy ask for? :)

Project Life 2012- Week 27, part II

I know! I've already done week 27! Why can't I just move on?? :)

Well, I found some pictures on my phone that tell some stories I'd like to remember, so here you go!

 On Monday, July 2, Bennett had his 9 year old check up at the doctor. We didn't anticipate any shots, so Bennett was happy to go :)  Everything was perfect (just as we expected) and he was just 1/2 inch shy of 5 feet tall! His height and weight were still way off the charts, but perfectly proportionate (he's taller than his is heavy, actually). AND he's on track to be 6'4" or 6'5"!!! Being taller than Daddy is a very exciting prospect!!

At the end of the visit, he got to pee in the cup, which is one of his all-time favorite things (boys??!?!?) and then came the bad news... finger prick. I held my breath, waiting for the wailing and tears, but they didn't come. He just sat there and took it. Wow. He really is growing up.

And, he just talked about the wound in his finger a few times over the next couple days :)

On Saturday, July 7, we had a free Saturday. It was so odd!! So, without anything else to do, we headed out to Treetop to play a little. We played mini-golf (I complained a lot - it was HOT!), and Bennett drove the go carts. This was the first time that he wasn't involved in a collision!! Yippee!! We had great time just hanging out together :)

Ok, that's all for week 27!

Project Life 2012 - Week 27

July 1-7, 2012

Happy Independence Day!!

Hooray for the USA!!

We were so excited to go to Gigi and Bubba's house for another pool party! We ate lunch right when we got to their house (Shane's carry out :) and then dove right in!

 It was so hot that even Nana got in the pool!

Bennett enjoyed the view from Bubba's shoulders.

 Brad was chillin'...

 Evie liked the water (for a little while :)

 Pa enjoyed the shade, but couldn't be lured into the pool any deeper than his ankles (although he did have on his swimming suit :)

 Evie was still happy in the water :)

 And Bennett got really adventurous with his diving!

I think he was inspired by his swim camp the week before...

 This picture is just funny to me!

 I'm not sure what he called this, but I think it was a flip...

SPLASH!!!

 And here is the real challenge... trying to get a swan dive.

 He got REALLY close to a swan dive... but he did really great diving in general :)

 Bennett and I made our cake again this year and it was super yummy! (in spite of my off-level oven that cooks everything wonky!)

Happy 4th! 

Project Life 2012 - week 26

June 24-30

Swimming Camp Week! This is the camp that Bennett puts at the top of his list each Spring as we talk about Summer plans and we were so happy when Mrs. Gina decided on a date that worked for us!

 Each day Bennett went for 3 hours (plus a little for free swim) and he had a blast! This was his 3rd year to do this camp, so he really got a lot stronger on each of his strokes - and he learned to do flip turns, back stroke starts, and he started to learn the swan dive (that one's going to take a little more practice :)

On Friday, the kids did an Expo for the parents to showcase all that they learned during the week.

Elementary backstroke

 Diving through a hoop

 They also got to showcase their own jumps. This one is the 'Mr. Miagi'

 'Mr. Miagi' part 2

 This one is the 'Dive and Catch'. Wow!

 Then the boys lined up and all did karate moves.

 And, just to note - Bennett thought it was super cool to wear his hat when swimming... and to fill it with water :)

Bennett is a really great swimmer, which makes me so happy! I was always able to get around in the pool, but never was very proficient. So, I guess he's taking after his daddy in the swimming department :)

Just to note - this week he also took an art class at church on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon and he LOVED it. I don't have any pictures of his masterpieces, but the first day was Auburn or Alabama, so you can guess which he chose :)  The next day he painted a cross. He's a great little artist!

Another note - I'm posting this one on time! Whoa! :)

Project Life 2012 - Week 25

June 17-23, 2012

This week started with Father's Day...

 I made Brad a cake (his request) and Bennett wanted to do the sprinkles. Needless to say, there were a few 'words' about that sprinkle job. 

And I'll never let him near my cake again :)

 Luckily, Brad still liked it. and it still tasted good :)

We celebrated lunch at Kobe, and sadly, Brad got called into work so he missed it.

 Evie enjoyed sitting by Bennett. I just love the way she looks at him :)

And we celebrated Father's Day with Pa and Bubba. 

Brad got home in the afternoon and we got to have his requested dinner of homemade chicken salad, corn, and cake :) We are lucky to be surrounded by so many good dads!

During the week, Bennett went to Latin camp and cartooning camp. 

He really loved both camps (although he didn't admit to loving Latin until the last day :) 

Here he is drawing a cartoon after the first class. He was so excited about his hero and villain, that he spent the ENTIRE afternoon creating. I love it!

On Saturday we invited the family over for dinner and Bennett was in charge of creating the menu in Latin...

He did a great job looking everything up and had a little guessing game at the beginning of dinner to see who could guess what we were having. Oh, and he made place cards too... do you see that mine has a muscle man on it? Interesting :)

It was a great week and I was super thankful for the opportunities that Bennett had this week to grow and stretch his mind. Since we are starting at a new school next year, he is going to be a bit behind in Latin (they started it in 3rd grade) but his teacher told me that she was going to have a great time with Bennett and that he was going to be fine. I know that I'm his mom, so I am definitely biased, but his mind just amazes me! He learned all of those Latin words (several pages of them!) in just days. He learned the conjugations and whatever else was taught to him (I am outta my league when it comes to Latin!) 

Simply amazing. 

Project Life 2012 - Week 24

June 10-16, 2012

This week was an 'off' week. We didn't have anything special planned, which was really nice. At first, at least :)  I quickly realized that Bennett needs to be occupied. Now, I did know this before, but I guess that because I was looking forward to some down-time, I thought that he would too... but he'd really rather have things to do. If he doesn't, he'll want to watch TV. And if you let him watch one show, he'll want another. And then after the other show, he'll want a snack. And then... well, you get the idea, right? Oh, and I should mention that he always wants me to watch with him. 

Anyway, we've got a system for 'plugged in' time with 2 hour limit each day (which sounds like a lot when I write it, but 2 hours go by so fast!) Anyway, last summer we started a system of reading for minutes and it worked great. He gets a minute of TV time for each minute that he reads. Works like a charm!

In fact, when we went to get his reading log stamped at the library for the first time, the librarian asked if he had 'really' read all of that (over 600 pages :)  Of course, Bennett, who is probably the most honest kid I know, responded 'yes.' and that was it :)

Anyway, he asked to go to McWane, so we headed there on Tuesday before picking Nana up from the airport.  We had a great time...

 The bed of nails

(he said that it really did kinda hurt. Kinda. Ha!)

 Water is ALWAYS a big draw.

And, although this picture is terrible, I have to post it because we FINALLY built the bridge! We've tried this so many times in the past, but this time we got it (with a little help from the teen volunteer ;)

Bennett loved trying all of the experiments that they had (and they really had quite a few this time!) And once or twice I think that I caught him actually pausing to read the explanations about the experiments. We're gettin' there!