Snow Day

Here is what I am feeling like on this wonderful snow day!!!!

Any Given Day

On any given day this is what you can find my daughter looking like....

Or this...

And this....

On any given day this is what a Minnie Mouse leotard wearing butterfly two year old girl looks like when she eats broccoli with dill dip. :)

Say "Cheese!"

Basketball Boys

The boys started basketball a couple of weeks ago. They LOVE it! And with Daddy helping with the coaching, it is really fun to watch them together.

They have only practiced and scrimmaged so far, but this coming Saturday is their first GAME!

Tyler was taunting his sister from the floor. :)

Jacob said that he was sooo tired and needed to catch his breath. Can you imagine all the running those little legs had to do!

Starting guard (imagine booming voice) Number 5,....Jaaaacccoooob Benes!!!!

Or, as their coach calls them...."Give me the Twin Towers down here." Gotta love it!

So you might have been wondering what is going on with Haley lately. Well, she is very, very into dressing up (in the middle of winter.) I have been cleaning closets and she loves trying on everything. And we found this Belle costume with red shoes. :)

Haley also does alot of twirling in all her dresses and tu-tu's.

And that is about how long she will stand still for pictures. The End.

Send Snow!!!

After some much needed snow this week, the boys got a chance to try out their snowboards in the backyard.

Tyler is in the black coat and Jacob in the red coat.

It is pretty cold outside but they wanted to try and brave it. Here is Tyler after a wipe-out, he just decided to stay there....frozen. :) He has been pretty funny lately doing anything that will get a laugh.

Jacob made it down the hill successfully! Kinda reminds me of the movie Rocky, can you hear the music in the background? ;)


As I write this, Brian took the boys to a real sledding hill to let them try out their boards. The temperature is currently -8 with the windchill so Haley and I didn't go. But, for some reason, 7 year old boys don't seem to get cold and have been begging since Christmas to go.
Expect to see more pics on that sometime soon! Also, crossing my fingers for no broken bones or trips to the er!

New Year's Ice Fishing

Happy New Year!

On New Year's Eve Brian, Tyler, Jacob and Grandpa Andy headed out to the ponds to try out their special Christmas presents...ice fishing poles and tip-ups! The temperature was a very windy chilly 20 (which is why the smart girls stayed at home!) Layered up and bundled to the max they headed out to find some fish.

Brian and the boys waiting for a fish.

The boys were very intrigued with the process of digging into the ice.

Tyler's first try at ice fishing....waiting for a fish.

Jacob scooping out his spot.

Tyler getting it ready.

The waiting for a fish to bite got to be a little too much for Tyler who either fell over frozen or is making a snow angel on the ice :)

I think the boys are smiling under there! They did not catch any fish, but they did survive the elements and had lots of fun!

Meanwhile, this princess stayed home.

On another note, Brian and I spent the New Year's Eve with friends doing a progressive dinner and a litttle snow sledding and riding the ice luge. Brian's trips down the luge took him into the trees and has the sore bones and tree rash to prove it! As he popped two Advil this morning he said it was well worth it!!!!!

Big, HUGE Thank You to my parents for spending the night and watching the kids for us! They had a wonderful time and we enjoyed a specially made breakfast by Grandpa Andy!!

THANK YOU!!!

Another Day, Another Adventure!

Today started out bright and early. We even had to set the alarm clock during vacation!!! Again, we did not tell the boys where we would be heading for the day. But as we exited towards the public museum they were on to us! But little did they know that they would be experiencing their first IMAX movie. Wild Ocean was spectacular to see and even kept the 2 year old entertained with the humongous screen and loud music. After the movie ended Jacob told Brian that "that was the best movie I have ever seen!" We will definitely be going again! After the movie we headed into the public museum to see our favorite exhibits, which of course includes the butterfly exhibit.

Jacob was a pro at making friends with the butterflies.

We all took our chance at hoping a butterfly would hop onto our fingers.

Tyler was the man of the hour as four butterflies took hold of his hands!

Haley was quite happy with observing everybody butterflies.

She kept her hands pretty close to herself whenever we tried to give one to her :)

After the museum we headed out for lunch at a surprise restaurant. It's called The Safe-House but it's a secret agent cover restaurant so it goes by a different name on the outside. We figured that our super spy agent 7 year olds would love this! So, here is how you start your adventure...we found the door to the restaurant only to be all squished into a little room, with no door! Then a woman says "Welcome agents, do you know the password?" "Uhhh, no" we answered. Then, we had to prove that we weren't double agents so she said, "I will need you to form a circle and very loudly sing Ring a Round a Rosie." So we did and then a wall slide back and we walked down some stairs to the super spy agent restaurant. Cool stuff and the boys were VERY impressed! As we went to our table a family pointed at us and said "there's the one's that had to do Ring-a-Round A Rosie." Yep, you guessed it...we were on video camera upstairs and down in the restaurant you can watch everyone come in and do the same silly stuff!

After we ordered we went exploring. The kids loved the silly mirror.

This door said it was the "men's room" but Tyler soon found out that was a trick. There was all sorts of fun things like two-way mirror, secret camera, and to top it all off...a secret exit!

After all piling into a little room with a pay phone we put in a quarter to receive the secret exit code. After we punched it in a door slid open to a dark hallway, which all the boys made me go down first!

Here is the dark exit hallway exclusively for super spies!

Down another dark corridor....

And finally to the exit!

We had another fantastic day filled with family laughs.

The Benes Bowlers!

Brian and I wanted to make sure that we didn't just let the boys' Christmas vacation quietly slip by this year. So we have made an extra effort to pull them away from the normal things we do and slide in a few fun family treats here and there. As we were brainstorming what to do on a Tuesday, came the wonderful idea of bowling!!!! By the way, we never tell the kids what we are going to do or where we are going till we are at the place, just to give them alittle extra anticipation! As we pulled up to the bowling building, my now 1st grade readers shouted out "Bowling!!!!!"

Did you know that even a 2 year old can bowl!!! Haley and Tyler liked their new shoes :)
(After we had finished bowling, Jacob commented on how funny his feet smelled.)

Tyler (in grey) and Jacob (in black) were extra excited when they discovered that this wasn't any old bowling alley....this was Rock-n-Roll Bowling! There was dance music playing, no lights on except for the black lights, disco balls, and colored strobe lights. What a FUN time we had!

You can see the colored lights that danced on the floor to the music. So much fun to try and catch them!

Daddy and Haley patiently watched as her ball slowly rolled down the alley to hit the pins.

She was always very excited when she hit the pins. The whole day was about giving "high fives!"

Little did I know that Brian was taking this oh so flattering picture of my backside ;) but, (no pun intended there either) I wanted to say that after bowling a Turkey in the first game, I think I got my moms fantastic bowling form! Thanks Mom! :)

The trip to the bowling alley was only topped off by eating hot dogs and soda while waiting for your next turn to bowl.

Stayed tuned for what comes next! :)