July 25, 2009 - Ice Skating Party

Today was Ben's birthday party, it was a HUGE success, everyone, including the parents had a great time. The party was at San Jose Ice Arena, where the San Jose Sharks practice (ooooooh!)

All the kids and parents skated, despite this been the first time on the ice for all the kids, they all did a great job, they were fearless. In no time most of them were zipping around the ice. Ben wore his ice-hockey jersey (even though it's an adult size)





Even Mom managed to wobble on the ice (what you can't see in this photo is I'm holding on to a pile of upturned buckets for balance)



The birthday cake (courtesy of Safeway) was Ice Age Dawn of the Dinosaurs. Notice Jonathan's little face watching Ben blowing out the candles.



Jonathan had a blast at the party (even though he didn't skate), one of the highlights for him was the cake.

Notice the band aid on his finger, that was the only casualty - before the kids even got on the ice, they were all running around the party room in their skates. One of Ben's friends accidently stepped on Jonathan - he ended up with a gash the size of the skate blade - ouch. Amazingly, Jonathan got over it within a couple of minutes; unfortunately, Ben's friend was heartbroken, it took a lot of hugs from his Dad before he would calm down.

July 23, 2009

Happy birthday to you
Squashed tomatoes and stew
Bread and butter in the gutter
Happy birthday to you

Well, I won't be giving up my day job, cake decorating is not for me....








Oh well, who cares what the cake looked like, it tasted sweet and completely unhealthy - just like a cake should...

July 23, 2009

Today was a sad day.....the last day Ben will "Walk Around the Sun" at school. He picked out his best friends to help set up the sun, then (because he was the birthday boy) he turned of the lights (which apparently is a huge deal when you're 6 years-old, then everyone sang the song while Ben walked.....Benjamin walks around the sun, around the sun, around the sun, Benjamin walks around the sun and now he's 6 years old.



Before he blew out the candle he had to say something he wanted to achieve now he's 6 - his response "to practice riding a 2-wheeler", then I had to say something (which I managed to do without crying), I said we are all very proud of Benjamin and we will always love and support him. Then it was time to blow out the candle.



Last night we had to bake cupcakes for all the kids at school - all 75 of them - it took forever, but was worth it in the end.

Ben helped hand out the cupcakes (he gave himself 2).



Before the kids can eat, they have to wait for the teacher to say "bon appetite, now you may eat"....I was amazed watching Jonathan waiting patiently.

July 22, 2009

The eve of Ben's birthday, once he was in bed we started to set up all the presents on the dining table. The plan was for Ben to wake up on his birthday and have a pile of presents waiting for him. Like all great plans - it failed. About 15 mins after Ben had gone to bed he decided he needed to get up (no clue why), then he saw the presents.....so....he opened everything a day early.



Jonathan also got a present from Nana and Poppa



Oh, and what did Ben like the best.....a musical birthday card.

July 13, 2009

We thought Jonathan was fully recovered from the croup - wrong - 5 minutes into the drive to school he started coughing, by the time we got to downtown Los Gatos he'd thrown up 3 times....I turned the car around and headed back up the hill towards home.

Once he was cleaned up he was fine, but, he couldn't go to school - so - we had an impromptu stay at home day.

Last week at school the boys had made pine cone bird feeders - so - during a walk in the woods with Bill, Benjamin found an armful of pine cones. I added strings to them and the boys painted them with peanut butter and stuck bread to them.

The dogs were very interested in the project....



Jonathan was very proud of his pine cone (yes, that is peanut butter on his shirt)




Once they were done we hung them on the nectarine tree.



We filled the pool with water and added a bottle of baby wash - the boys had a blast playing in the bubbles and having bubble fights.

July 11, 2009

With 2 boys, you never know what the day will bring. Jonathan has been sick since Wednesday night, yesterday a trip to the pediatrician confirmed croup - talk about a scary illness, we really thought we'd be taking a trip to ER. He was miserable, barking cough and a rough time breathing. He spent hours and hours sat on the sofa feeling sorry for himself.



Thankfully Benjamin didn't come down with the illness. This morning as I emptied the washing machine I heard "hey Mom, check it out", I turned around to find this....Ben had been transformed into a Ninja, complete with underpants on his head. Yes, his shorts and T-shirt are both on backwards.

Rika

Sunday at the beach Rika had a blast chasing and retrieving the ball for Ben, I managed to snap a great photo of her, which is a first. Normally getting a good shot of the dogs running is close to impossible, not only are they extremely fast, but, they don't run in a straight line, they're all over the place. of course, I've yet to be as successful with Jasper.

July 5, 2009

Because the pool was closed yesterday, we decided to go today. Once we were signed in Ben immediately jumped in the water.



It was a first, I had to force him to have lunch (normally he starts asking at 10am how many hours it is until lunchtime), he didn't want to get out of the water. Jonathan on the other hand had no interest in getting wet, he was very happy to sit in his deck chair and eat lunch.



Even though each time he was asked if we wanted to go swimming he replied "no", we did manage to get him in the pool for a couple of minutes (which he was not happy about). I was surprised how miserable he was in the water, normally he loves water.



Even after we gave Ben a 10 minute warning before we had to leave, we still had to almost drag him out of the pool. He had so much fun, as we walked to the car he said "Mom, thanks, that was the best surprise ever".

Sunday, July 5th, 2009

We're going on another Ross family adventure....




We headed to the beach with the dogs. Ben insisted on taking the "throwy thing" for the dogs, which Rika was very happy about, she loves when Ben throws the ball for her.

Saturday, July 4, 2009

After walking the dogs at the reservoir we had planned to spend a couple of hours at the pool, but, the pool was closed today (which we couldn't believe, what community pool closes on July 4th)

Instead, we made a picnic and headed to one of the local parks.



After lunch was playtime...

Golfland July 3, 2009

Ben has been nagging to go to Golfland, today we told him we had errands to run, Safeway, etc., he was moaning and groaning about it, little did he know, we'd planned a trip to Golfland.





Jonathan had no clue what we were doing, all he knew was he had to wait for his turn while holding a 'stick'




When it was Jonathan's turn Bill tried to help him, "no, I do it myself"





Thankfully we only signed up for 18 holes - it took close to 2 hours to get around the course, it was a long 2 hours - "Jonathan, stop throwing the ball....no Ben, wait until it's our turn....do you really need to go to the bathroom now....Jonathan, stop throwing the ball....I think the ball went behind that bush....Jonathan, stop throwing the ball"

At the end of the course we had planned (as another surprise for Ben) for Bill and Benjamin to spend an hour at the water park and go down the water slides, but we discovered, Bill could not go down each slide with Ben, nor could he wait in the pool for him to come down each slide...and the slides are big, very tall, and fairly fast. We told Ben it would be better to wait until next year, and instead we went to the amusement arcade.