*blink* Ben is 4!

Probably I baby our little boy more than I should, but

Ben...
is growing up!


He is at that stage where he doesn't want to miss out on anything. His latest interests are building planes with Lego blocks, and counting to 100 almost all by himself -- after which, he counts by 100's to reach 1,000, and then, by the 1,000's to get to 10,000!

I especially like how he still catches me by surprise, with a smack on the lips -- his way of telling me, "I love you"!

...with Friends
Over the weekend, we celebrated his 4th birthday with his friends, as was his wish, rather than with mom's and dad's counterparts. Classmates he finally got to call his own, since starting preschool nine months ago.

Sitting down at McDonald's with his friends for a happy meal, and cake and icecream, too!


It would have been a picnic in the park; turned out the teacher had planned something similar for the class' field trip just the day before.

And look what fun under the sun the boys and girls had on their outing, making funny faces at that!


Our indoor party worked out nicely. I didn't have to worry about the food, and entertainment wise, there was more than enough room for the kids to crawl around, climb up and down, and slide away at Mac's Playplace!



Now I also have a better excuse not to do another party so soon, because we've done one already.. hehe! Am I the only mom/parent who thinks like this? ;p

... with Daddy
Besides his friends, Ben always craves one-on-one time with his daddy!

And it was a special treat for Ben, when Vern made time to go along as a parent volunteer for that class picnic. And the couple of times, too, when daddy instead of mommy would show up for Ben's "Star of the Day", his turn for show-n-tell.
Homebaked treats to share with Ben's friends and teachers during his "Birthday Star Day" yesterday. Just about anything with choc chips always works, and I also added rainbow sprinkles and dried cranberries to these cookies!


... with Jon
And even without me saying, you can guess the other person Ben absolutely adores is his big brother Jon, whom he started calling "Jonny" not too long ago!

That same day after the party, we went and cheered Jon and his friends on, in their baseball game!


... with mommy (me!)
It was almost 6 pm when we got home that evening. The boys wanted their daddy to do a BBQ in the backyard, but we've all had a long day.

So I did a simple, indoor version instead -- no need to get the charcoal going, and (yay!) no charred grill to scrub out later!

"BBQ" indoors, quite easily done, with these oven-roasted meat (chicken and beef), frozen vegetables, and garlic bread. And had there been room to fit in more trays, the corn needn't have been steamed.


The next day, on Ben's birthday itself, we managed lunch alfresco during an impromptu outing...

Where were we? More on that in a subsequent post, when I get the chance!

Catch you later, meanwhile...
We just decided to go ahead with some paint works for the house these couple of days. And because the minimalist type we are NOT, there's a lot of stuff we have to put aside and move out of the way. It's quite crazy as it is, without looking forward to how much there is to put back together and clean up after everything's done. But rather now than when school is out, so I don't have to keep the boys occupied for too long.

Here's some food for thought, until I catch up with you after we're settled back down again...

* Read about one-on-one time in this recent post by Stay-at-home Mum:

Motivation for Mums 2
if you haven't already seen it!

* Click on Strawberry Whipped Sensation for the recipe for Ben's no-bake, frozen birthday cake we had at home. It worked alright for us, even with my decorating skills or lack thereof! It's the thought that counts, right? =)

You have a good rest of the week now!