More Birthday Fun

We went to play at Benson's Great Grandma's house for his birthday and for Memorial Day. That is also where we had cake and gave Benson his last present, a bubble blowing lawn mower.

The only problem was it took a minute of pushing to get the bubbles going, and once they started Benson stopped pushing so he could catch them and then they stopped. He thought he could "hit" some bubbles out of it for a little while.


I had this great idea of making a guitar cake since that seems to be Benson's favorite thing these days. But icing a cake in a home with no air conditioning while it is 90 degrees made for a few complications. Also the store was out of the pull and peel Twizzlers so the strings are a little larger than they should be, but Benson said guitar as soon as he saw it, so I declare it a success.


We got a slip and slide to play with but the pouring rain seemed to be enough water fun. Benson loved splashing in this bird bath.




There is a cemetary right by Grandma's house and this group of 20 motorcycles came to visit for Memorial day and on their way out, one of them stopped in the yard to wave to Benson and let him see the 'big bike" up close.



We made a cookie cake for Grandma since her birthday was just a few days before Benson's. Here he is decorating it with Ali.

Of course Benson knows the best part is licking your fingers.

Benson's 2nd Birthday

Benson turned 2 on Memorial Day this year. We celebrated with gifts, a guitar cake, and lots of playing at Great Grandma Gibson's house.

Getting Benson to open the first present was fine. He immediately took the golf clubs out of the bag and used them like baseball bats or swords. Then he pushed the empty golf bag around while saying, "vroom vroom vacuum." We finally got him to put down the vacuum to open some other gifts.

The idea behind the bowling set was something he could roll and not throw, but he immediately started using the pins as swords to hit Grandpa.

Grandma and Grandpa Atkinson got him this fun barn with animals.

Many times he will grab his barn as I grab my purse when walking out the door and say, "bag, go."

I am sure the sleeping bag will become a hit once we go camping...even if it is in the back yard.

The aunts got him some movies and books. But his favorite was......

The singing chipmunk card. He dances to it all the time!

Vandalia

The Vandalia Festival in Charleston, WV, is one of my favorite events. It is every Memorial Day weekend on the state capitol grounds. Vandalia is filled with West Virginia's finest foods, music, crafts, and people. Here is Benson with two of his aunts, Micah and Ali. At first he called them Micah and MicahAli but he's got it down now.


Many people come to play bluegrass anywhere they can find a spot. Benson walked around til he found a group worthy of his attention and then crawled right up into someone else's empty chair, to watch. He got along great with the man next to him. They had a lot in common.

The food is my favorite part of Vandalia.

The fresh watermelon was Benson's favorite. But he also enjoyed ........

fresh corn on the cob......

homemade ice cream.....

WV's own Bluesmoke salsa......

and funnel cakes!

The handcrafted items for sale are always fun to see. Benson loved this little chair.
There is always great jewelry at Vandalia.

Benson loved these wooden trains and trucks and Grandpa thought a small train was a good early birthday present for Benson.

Although we miss Tristan, we were glad to enjoy one of my favorite sights of West Virginia.

A day at the beach

To celebrate Tristan finishing his first year of law school we went to play at Virginia beach. Since it had been storming all week it was pretty cold....but that didn't stop Benson!

He loved to run along side the waves and then race away as fast as he could after the water touched his toes.

Here is the rescue after a "big" wave sent Benson rolling across the sand.

He found plenty of strangers to walk up to and say, "Hi friend."

He also enjoyed being buried in the sand.

At least for a minute.

Updates on the way!

So... A simple scroll of the previous entries on this blog would reveal that we have never been very good about updating it. However, since I am going to be out of the country for two months, Britt agreed to do more of a regular update. So, whereas before the question from our married friends ("Do you guys have a blog?", which I interpreted as, "Is there a cute place with crafty-looking decorations and a scrapbook-like feel where you post daily news of your family?") had to be answered with a no, now we may at least be able to answer with a tentative yes! (Well, to half of the question anyway--and not the crafty half!)