Ben's Jog-A-Thon

Ben's elementary school did a jog-a-thon as a school where he had to run/walk for 20 minutes during school.  He raised money for the end of the year school party and school supplies.  Ben ended up doing six laps!.  Based on the amount of money he raised/collected, he was able to get prizes.  He collected those prizes today!  He gets off the bus and I see him carrying all this stuff and he was so excited, I had to take a picture and blog about it!  Here are the goodies he received:

A cool Livingston Leopards backpack

A new soccer ball!!  Whoo hoo!!

A $25 gift card to Big 5 Sporting Goods!!

AND his class raised the most money as a class so they get to have a special lunch of Subway tomorrow!  Good job Miss Maxwell's kindergarten class!

Day at the Park - April 3, 2013

Spring break was finally here!  Our good friends, the Baumanns, were here for the week and so Ben and Ethan got to see their friend Isaac again.  We haven't seen them since they moved to California in August 2012 so it was a fun visit.  Rachel needed someone to watch Isaac and asked if we could entertain him for the morning.  We kind of decided to keep him longer :)  It was a fun day.

The boys played Star Wars with light sabers.  They played a bit of Wii.  Conversation between Ben and Issac:

Ben:  Have you ever played Mario Kart before?
Isaac:  Why no but I'd love to learn!

They are growing up.  :(

Then we went to Chiawana Park with our neighbors, Claire, Nathan and Elizabeth.  It's awesome!  It's shaded, the kids could ride their bikes around this great loop, plus it's far enough away from the river that I felt comfortable to let the kids roam.  It was also close enough (oxy moron right?   But it's true...) to the river that this pregnant momma could march myself down there when the kids wanted to throw rocks in the river.

There was also this awesome play area with swings and rope climber things and this weird tilt-a-whirl round thing that was way fun.  Just a fun day.  Hence the reason we wanted to keep Isaac longer than just the morning.  It was fun to have our friend back and the kids really had fun together!

The boys playing Mario Kart.

Nathan, Isaac, Ethan, & Ben throwing rocks in the river.

We kept having to tell the boys to make room so Elizabeth could throw rocks in too.

Nathan WAS riding his bike...he doesn't just wear it for no reason :)

Lots of close calls on the rock throwing...a few almost hit someone else's head.  But they had fun and no one was injured.  Always a plus!

Nathan:  That's a big tumbleweed.

Dirty face means happy kid/fun day!

This is that tilt-a-whirl round thing.  Pretty fun and the kids liked it.  Except Elizabeth who thought she wanted to get in, would get in and then quickly get out. :)

A kid with a metal detector on the playground.  He was nice enough to let the kids search for treasure too!

I love these kids!

Their daddies would be proud!

Family Expo - January 25, 2013

This is a fun event that we all love to go to.  It's fairly expensive to get in at this event but if you bring a can of food or something it's cheaper.  They have all types of fun stuff for the family, like FREE samples of everything: we stock up on toothbrushes at this bad boy...LOTS of dentists offices, antibacterial gel, pens, etc.  And we all know I love free stuff!  There's bounce houses for the kids and places for parents to sit while the kids bounce their hearts out.  There is crafts for the kids and lots of good info for parents.  It's just fun.  We may not go on family vacations and what-not, but we are hard pressed not to miss one of these events at the TRAC!

Last year Ben got to get his face painted completely and he was Iron Man.  This year, Ethan decided he wanted to do it as well, so he chose Spiderman.  The good one and the bad one I guess?  But the red and black thing.  He didn't want his entire face painted but the lady did a really good job on it.  Then we let Ben do a little face painting as well.  Highlight of the event.  Kind of bummed that it comes off that night but the kids enjoyed it while it lasted.

Easter - Beckley Style 2013

Every year we always spend the weekend (or so) before Easter with Beau's family in Ritzville.  We do Easter egg hunts, sometimes just for kids and sometimes grown up ones too, as well as an annual "Let's shoot Uncle Rick's guns into an open field and attempt to hit balloons" game.  So far, it's literally an annual thing.  But it's fun.  This year, Ben got to shoot a gun for the first time and technically the baby in my belly got to as well because I shot as well.  The kids had fun playing with balloons and watching from a safe distance away from the guns.  Nothing says Easter like shooting balloons out in the country!

Easter Sunday we spent at our old church at Columbia Community Church because our good friends came to town from CA and were going to that one.  So my boys got dressed up in their handsome ties and off we went.  Then we went to my mom's house for Easter dinner.  In the afternoon, we dyed Easter eggs of our own, only to eat some of them.  The boys like hard boiled eggs!  It was a good weekend of entertaining family fun! :)

The boys' Easter baskets

29 weeks pregnant and Beau says, "Here, hold this."

Happy daddy...

Beau shooting balloons in an open field.

We put the kids to work blowing up the balloons.  It was great fun!

Beau and Matt having fun.

Kristi shooting.

Beau said he liked this gun best.  No...you may not have one...

Easter Sunday!

My handsome boys.

This is more of how they are.  They are definitely Beau's children!

Loving on mommy.

Dying Easter eggs!

Ethan was letting this egg soak really well so it was REALLY green.

Beau looks so happy.

Ethan was writing his name on the egg with the invisible crayon.  When you drop the egg in the dye water, it won't dye whatever you wrote with that crayon.  Pretty cool!

And we're done...