These Make Me Laugh

C'mon, Get Happy!

If only it were that easy!

For these innocent little babes it is:

It was a fun day in the sun, and Uncle Greg caught it all.  Thank goodness.  :)

The Shirt-tus!

One of the perks of Josh's new job is that his company has a suite at almost every major venue for sporting events, shows or concerts.  They invite their customers to attend these events, and there always has to be an employee present to host it.  Well, Josh got a phone call a couple weeks ago asking if he would like to host the circus at Philips Arena Saturday.  He called and asked me if I would want to go and take the boys, because he'd get 4 tickets.  Uh..... yeah!

I was quite excited about it.  I mentioned it to Mama on the phone.  She thought it was great, and that Bennett was going to have a ball.  I talked to her again later on that same day and she said, "I told your Daddy about y'all going to the circus.  He wants to go!"  She was laughing, but totally serious.  I asked Josh if there was any way to make that happen.  He said it was fine, but there could only be 4 of us since he gets 4 tickets.  If Daddy went, Cannon would have to stay home.  Now, before you get to feeling sorry for Mr. Cannon Man, remember that he is 9 months old.  He has no long term memory, loud sounds and bright lights would most likely scare him, and his bedtime is 7:30 and the circus starts at 7:00 and lasts until 9:00 or so.  So I told Mama that it was up to her whether Daddy got to go or not, because if he went, she had to keep Cannon. Of course she was happy to keep Cannon, and Daddy was excited to get to go.

We would have had fun with both boys, but truthfully, it probably was so much better that Mama wound up keeping Cannon because I would have had my hands full.  Josh didn't really have to do too much, but he was the host and had to make sure everyone was comfortable and happy.

He had to be there an hour early, but it was nice because we were able to go down to the floor for the pre-show.  There were several different entertaining shows going on, wardrobe stations where you could put on big, sparkly circus coats (that Bennett wouldn't have anything to do with although it would have been a really cute picture), and they were giving away big red clown noses.  Josh and I went up to the suite to greet the guests as they arrived.  Daddy stayed down there with Bennett a little while longer, and right after they decided to come on up, a big elephant came out.  That's all Bennett really cared about; the animals.  He saw it from the suite, but it would have been pretty cool to be down there, up close.  Oh well.

In the suite we had chicken nuggets, hot dogs, chips, macaroni and cheese (that was so good), a veggie tray, fruit tray, cookies, brownies, and popcorn.  It was pretty nice.

Josh spent some time wining and dining his guests:

Poppa and Bennett enjoying some grapes, waiting for the show to start:

Bennett enjoyed seeing the motorcycles ride around, but I don't think he quite understood how crazy it was that they put seven (SEVEN) motorcycles in this little cage at once.  And since he didn't understand it, that means he wasn't feeling as nervous and uneasy as I was.

He also enjoyed seeing the clowns and all the glitz and glittery stuff going on down there, but what he wanted was an-ee-mals.  And he finally got some:

And this is what happened when he saw that cage full of big tigers.  He took the camera from me and started snapping away.  He got very excited, and I guess he wanted to capture the moment.  :)

 Intermission time.

This is the look we get when we ask him to smile these days: 

He's not really into getting his picture taken.  So Gigi, I tried to get some pictures, but it wasn't very easy, as you well know.

The show started back up, and this was my view for the remainder:

 We attempted to get a smile out of him after the show, but this was the best we were going to get:

Headed back to the car on Poppa's shoulders:

We had a really fun time.  Thanks to Josh and Georgia Crown for the treat!

Privacy, Please!

So here's the deal.  This blog is about to go private.  I'm not exactly sure how this is going to work, because I've never made it private before.  I imagine it may be a little less simple than it has been in the past to catch up on your Bennett and Cannon tidbits.  And Marcie and Josh moments; let's not forget the ones that made it all possible.  ;)  But, it has become important to me lately that not just anybody should be able to read about my life and my family.

So if you are a friend, family member, or just a fan that wants to continue reading about our little moments, please let me know in the form of a comment with your e-mail address and I will have to send you an invitation to continue reading (if you've already done this on facebook, obviously you don't have to do it again).  And if I don't know you, I'm going to need you to make a case for yourself (how did you come across my blog? do we have a mutual friend? why are you interested in continuing to read my blog?)

So that's that.  Let me hear from you.  :)

My Little Sweetheart

Bennett's Montessori class had a Valentine's Day party Monday, and I attended. I dropped him off as usual at 9:00, then came back around 10:30 to join the party. When I got there they were all out on the playground. I went out to find Bennett, but couldn't find him. I finally saw him playing by himself in this little house. He was sitting in a chair at this little activity center, carefully putting pine straw and sweet gum balls on it. I stood there for several seconds, and he never looked up at me. I decided to let him be since he was content. I went back inside and helped his teachers prepare for the party.

The party was a bit chaotic (this is the first time I've ever seen anything remotely chaotic at this school), but I guess sometimes it can't be helped when you have a classroom full of 3, 4 and 5 year olds. It was fun helping them pass out all their Valentine's, and then we got to eat some yummy pizza. Actually, I can't stand the pizza they get. Have y'all had the Pizza Hut "Pizza Mia?" It's the pizza that's supposed to be made with "real cheese." I don't like it at all. I guess I prefer fake cheese.

After lunch they went back out to the playground. I went out with Bennett this time, and this is where he becomes 'my little sweetheart.'

When we got out onto the playground, Bennett turned to me and said, "My doh det you a chair, Mama. My be wight back." He ran down to the lower part of the playground where he had been earlier that day, got the little chair he had been sitting in, and carried it back up to where I was standing. He said, "Dere, Mama. Dere's a chair wor you." My heart melted.

Later on, we were on a different part of the playground and I was standing, watching Bennett play. Bennett noticed that some little girls had added a few chairs to the one he brought for me and were sitting in them. He went over there and said, "Hey! Dat my Mama's chair!" He was fine after I explained to him that I was no longer using the chair.

Then when it was time to go in, we headed for the door. He went ahead of me and said, "My will det duh door wor you, Mama." He then opened the door and let me inside. My three year old son. On Valentine's Day.

It doesn't get any sweeter than that.

Experimental Cake

So I saw a cake in a recent issue of Martha Stewart Living and decided I wanted to try it. It just so happened that Josh's birthday was the next day, so I had a great reason to try it out.

It kind of didn't look nearly as great as the one in her magazine (did I really expect it to? No.)

It needed to be much bigger, and it would have been cooler if I had some of those custom-colored m&m's. Do you know how much those things are?!? Yeah... we won't be ordering any of those... ever.

Anyway, here is the cake for Josh's big 3-2:


Doesn't really leave much to the imagination.

Happy Birthday, my main man!

Hats

aka "A Little Something to Put a Smile on Your Face." :)