A Burger-Burger Birthday for Ben

To start off Ben's birthday celebration, he had a cream filled chocolate donut.  Though there are three donuts pictured... I assure you he only had time this morning for one.  Since we missed parent-teacher conference week, we met with Ben's teacher before school today and got a great report on Ben's progress at school.

When asked what he wanted for his special birthday lunch, Ben asked for a Big Mac.  Done.

Ben's friends were happy to come and hang out with Ben after their own lunch... since Ben was sweet enough to sit and have lunch with his parents!

Ben's only request was to go to Color Me Mine after school.  

And after painting, he wanted... another burger.  No one complained though; we all love Five Guys.

And no birthday is complete without something sweet... and Ben's birthday wouldn't be Ben's without some kind of Star Wars element.  

And Legos.

It's been quite a day... I think we covered it all and as you can see, Ben was all smiles all day.

Yay for Independent

We have never done this before... but we decided to take the kids out of school and go to Kauai to celebrate Grandma and Grandpa being condo-owners. 

Because the cheap airfare coincided with an already planned trip to Northern California, the kids ended up being on Independent Study for two weeks.

We flew into Lihue and it was the beginning of a great trip.

While on Kauai, we have fun doing simple things... going to the beach, looking for good food and we are always on the lookout for KBJs on the island.

For the first time, we visited the Lawai International Center, where we silently walked the path of the 88 shrines, which replicate the 88 temples in Shikoku, Japan. 

We drove up to Waimea Canyon to see the view...

We still enjoy shave ice in Hawaii, but we definitely are much more discerning!  I don't know Grandma and Grandpa managed to keep their white shirts clean.

We were at the beach every day... snorkeling, making sand "malasadas", building forts and just enjoying the perfect weather.  Uncle Todd was always game for playtime at the beach.

In between beach trips and food excursions, everyone had work to do.  Grandma helped Jason with his sight word flash cards.  He has quite a few of them down and he's doing a great job with his reading.  Jason said his favorite part of the trip was snorkeling.

Kara has always loved the water and has never been afraid to snorkel with all of the fish.  She loved all of the beaches... on our last full day, we managed to go to all three of our favorites - Poipu Beach to snorkel, Glass Beach to search for colored glass in the sand and Baby Beach for lounging and building sand castles.

Kauai has tons of roosters and chickens roaming around and Ben brought his own stuffed animal version home.  His new friend is named Happy Fatty.

On our last snorkel, Ben was able to swim with a sea turtle.  As we were swimming together, holding hands and watching the sea turtle, Ben squeezed my hands several times in a row, which is our non-verbal way of saying I love you... It is a moment that I will always cherish.

As part of Ben's Independent Study, he had to write about a topic each day using spelling and vocabulary words.  Here are a few of his journal entries...

We had such a great time in Kauai... Ben asked if he can be "Independent" every year.

We came home in time to celebrate Thanksgiving with both sides of our family.

And on our last day before the kids head back to school (after being out of school for 3 weeks!) we decided to enjoy a little bit more of the island magic.  

Ben is right... Yay for Independent!

Back to... Halloween

It just so happens that Picture Day at preschool followed Halloween.  So our (Mc) Fly guy decided to wear one of his favorite outfits for picture day.

Jason was told he could bring one item to be photographed with... and he decided to go to with the guitar 'cause that's the Power of Love.

So he didn't have the suspenders or white tennis shoes... but our Marty knows this character (and movie) inside and out and we couldn't pass up the chance to have him photographed in his outfit.  Fortunately it was a cool day... I don't know how Marty wore all of those layers!