Flood alarms, horses, & rocks!

I promised a while back to write about Amanda’s special night with Ben…so here it is, along with Benjamin & Kirby’s special night excitementJ

I mentioned in one of my “Mondays” posts that Benjamin loves science projects. He got a book out of the library with a bunch of ideas & was begging me to do one. I don’t do enough of them with him, I know that, but the one he wanted was also more up Ben’s alley…so I suggested that he could do it with Daddy on his special night. He was very excitedJ. They had fun together building a flood alarm & then played some xbox together.

At first we were stumped about what Ben should do with Manda…but quickly decided that it didn’t need to be complicated. She loves going to the park & riding her bike…as well as going on picnics. So…I packed them a picnic supper & they rode their bikes to the park. The park by our house is right across from the rodeo grounds & Manda was very excited to see horses there. She told Ben that she should go ride one so that she could come home & tell me that she rode a horse! (Funny part about this…about a week later we were at a friends house who has a horse & she offered that the kids could ride if they wanted. I looked at Manda & her face was GLOWING!!! She was absolutely tickled pink & didn’t want to stop! Instead of coming home & telling Mommy, she got to tell Daddy that night that she had gotten to ride a horseJ!) Once they finished at the park they dropped their bikes off & home & went out for ice cream cones. Manda was thrilled to have Daddy all to herself!

Kirby just had his special night with Ben tonight. They picked up some A&W & headed down to the river to throw rocks. He had a hootJ. Kirby has always loved throwing rocks in the river & it seems we spend enough time on bridges for him, so he was thrilled. Ben taught him what it meant to skip a rock & Kirby was soooo proud to tell me he got his rock to bounce up & down 3 times! J They got home just as we were leaving for soccer. Kirby had the choice to go with us or stay home & help Ben shovel dirt for the garden…he chose to stay home. He helped for a bit, but had tons of fun playing “house”. He LOVES to talk about his pretend Mama and how they went to the city that was over there…and he had to ride his bike to do such & such…etc. He had each part of the yard labeled as a different place. When we got back from soccer he was explaining it to me…so cute! J He had my gardening gloves on & told me very solemnly that he had to wear them or his Mama wouldn’t be happy that his hands got dirty! No that didn’t come from meJ.

Anyways, Ben & I have really been enjoying doing these special times with the kids. It’s been really good to have one on one time with them!