Wesley skating

So for the past six months or so Wesley has been skating around in the backyard. It started when the other boys would play hockey and he just wanted to do it, too. When Charlie would take off his skates Wesley would put them on and he figured it out. It was an everyday thing to us, but when people would come over to the house and see it they always seemed kind of amazed and asked if we had video of it. So here it is.

Ryan has been taking the boys to their hockey class, and Wesley always wants to watch. Sometimes he puts on Charlie's ice skates and once even tried skating on the ice. I guess he's pretty good, but I haven't seen it yet.

school art show

Our school district has an art show at the end of the year where every student gets to display something. Here are Alex's and Ben's offerings.

Ben was determined not to blink. I think his class all did owls because his school mascot is an owl.

I think Alex's was supposed to look like stained glass. It was fun wandering the halls and trying to find their pieces.

Florida

Ryan earned a company trip to Florida this year, and invited me to come with him. It was a nice excuse to get some couple time in before the baby comes. Besides, who wouldn't want to go to Disneyworld and Universal when they are seven months pregnant? We didn't get a lot of pictures but we did enjoy our few days away and I even found a couple rides I could go on.

 At Universal our group had Hogsmeade (the Harry Potter village) all to ourselves for a few hours.

Hogwarts at two different times of day:

 Just boozing it up with a little Butterbeer.

While we were gone a tree split in our backyard during some heavy winds and landed right on our garden. Ryan had just dug up all the grass and re-seeded the week before, too. There doesn't seem to be too much damage, though. A big thanks goes to Ryan's parents who took care of the boys and everything else while we were gone.

checking out the ducks

While my parents were here for Ben's baptism we went to visit the duck pond one day.

The big 8 for Ben

It was a big birthday year for Benjamin. He turned 8, which meant he was baptized and he got to have a friend party. All of his birthday celebrations were stretched out over a two week period. Party planning isn't my forte, so it was a little exhausting for me but I think everyone had fun and I don't have to plan anything like this for a while!

We got to have our own private baptism for Ben (usually we have a combined one with other kids from church who are turning 8) because I assumed it was happening on one day when really it was supposed to be the next weekend. So it was mostly a small family affair but it turned out really nice. Both of his Grandmas gave talks and Grandpa Baer sang some songs with the guitar. Ben, his brothers and cousins also sang "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus."

For his party Benjamin wanted a Superman cake but I kind of wimped out and just did some basic cupcakes with a Superman emblem stuck in the tops. Don't know if I even got a picture but they weren't my most impressive attempt. He invited some friends over and we played a bunch of games in the backyard.

A minute-to-win-it game where you have to get a cookie from your forehead into your mouth without using hands.

This was right after he got drenched with the water from the cooler.

Easter

Spring Break 2012

Once again we headed down to San Onofre for Spring Break this year. Fun to see old friends and hang out on the beach for a couple of days. This might be the last time we do this trip for a while since next year we won't all fit in the truck.

 Ben was excited to take this picture of an anemone eating a crab.