A new low...

Well, it's official- I totally neglected my blog this month. How tomorrow is December 1 is beyond me (well, not really. I mean, I know that December 1 comes directly after November 30 and today is in fact November 30th, but you know...).

In case you've forgotten what my children look like, see below:

Cutie Ben in a little hat, cutie Ben in a little hat (sing to the tune of Chris Farley's famous skit)

I thought the timing of this was so funny. Ben was posing with the hat on and Oliver walked by just as I snapped the picture. His tail perfectly frames Ben's face. Totally unintentional- but a little creepy or something right? If you didn't know the story, you'd be like "um, why is the little boy content to have a cat's tail framing his face?"

Finally Oliver "Don't call me St. Nick" Claus. he looks thrilled, right?

Wait! You realize there's no picture of Addie right? That's cause I'm going to post a video of her in a few! Stay tuned.

Ben's 5th birthday party

We celebrated Ben's 5th birthday on Saturday with a hayride and bonfire. The weather was gorgeous, about 60 degrees and sunny. Just perfect.

Ben was lucky enough to have both sets of grandparents, Uncle Teb, Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Amanda, Aunt Wendy, Uncle Scott and Keri, plus two friends from school and their parents join us.

This is Ben and Autumn on the hayride.

Aunt Wendy was at the head of the hay-throwing.

That's Aaliyah, Ben, Autumn and Addie.

That's Uncle Scott, Keri, Aunt Amanda, Uncle Jeremy and Aaliyah's parents.

The smores were a huge hit...

I made Ben's Mario cake.

The after-damage. Looks very Picasso-esque.

Heading back to the car, Uncle Scott carried Claire and Addie in the wagon.

Saying goodbye to Autumn. Now Autumn is the girl who loves Ben, like seriously loves Ben. She is all over him any chance she gets. I love this picture of them. Note her tiptoe stance. Note Ben's casual hand on her waist. Autumn is really into the hug and Ben is not so much. Makes me a proud mama.

Five years ago....tomorrow

The little piece of joy we call Benjamin was brought into the world. What an awesome journey its been.

Forgot something from Day Five

Ben was so excited to watch "60 Seconds or less" which is the way around trademarked "Minute to Win It" on the ship. We watched it anxiously. One audience member had to do the "eat the oreo" off his forehead without using his hands game. Another lady had to carry a bunch of stuff all around the theatre without dropping it. Another man had to blow up balloons and sit on them to pop them within his minute. Ben anxiously raised his hand for each stunt and didn't get chosen. Finally Eric, the assistant cruise director, said "I need a little person" and Ben's hand was going to fall off his wrist, I swear. Watch below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmP8sYpnDTQ

I LOVE how excited Addie was for him, chanting the whole time. I also love the big screen camera showing her cheering him on in the background. Just overall fun. Ben was so cute.

Day six on the cruise

Day six was in Freeport, Bahamas, which for all intents and purposes, is a waste of a port. We tried to make the best of it at the public beach.

Not quite as clean as yesterday's beach. And that was the extent of the beach- it was about 15 feet deep from water's edge to the fence.

On the cab ride back to the ship.

When we got back to the ship, we tried out the waterslide on the back of the ship. Very cool.

My new favorite picture of them.

We went back to our room to take a little nap. I woke Addie up, we showered and then got ready for the last formal night. She and I headed down to the lounge for karaoke one last time.

waiting patiently. No one was in the lounge, so we were sort of flabbergasted. I noticed Melvin, the karaoke host was chatting with a couple off the side. So Addie went over and nicely asked Melvin if karaoke was going to happen. Turns out that couple came down specifically to listen to karaoke but no one else had shown up. So Melvin gave Addie the songbook and the man from the couple offered to "warm Addie up" while she chose her song. Addie agreed, while we chatted with his wife. He started singing his song (and he clearly was a karaoke guy) and then the screen froze. While Marvin tried to fix it, the man ad-libbed some song to his wife. Addie was so impressed with his song writing skills. His wife was so nice and so happy to talk with us. Addie was her usual self and the lady was so praising of Addie. As time dwindled away, Melvin announced that he couldn't get the screen to work, but he had background music still. Addie said she was confident she could remember the words well enough, so she'd give it a try. The man was shocked, telling Addie there's no way he could even attempt to do what she was going to do. By this time, the room was filled with people bustling about what was going on.

Video will be loaded on Youtube momentarily....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cA8ts5BOZkY

This is afterwards, with Addie signing her first autograph. She printed and wrote her name in cursive. The woman who was known as the Diva of Karaoke of the ship shook Addie's hand and told her she was willing to share the spotlight with Addie. Each person who talked to us afterwards was saying that they expected to see Addie's name in lights one day.

The handsome boys.

waiting for the show to start that night

At the comedy show that that night. It was funny, Ben was exhausted and falling asleep in my arms eventually. The comedian was doing a shtick about how parents used to be allowed to hit their kids (Addie wanted nothing to do with sitting there listening to this topic, which is reassuring). So Ben is laying in my arms, nodding off when the comedian says, "clap if your parents ever hit when you were little." Many people in the audience start clapping. Ben's hands start clapping! Then the comedian says, "clap your hands if your parents used to beat you til you cried." Again the audience claps and sleeping Ben's hands are clapping too! It was unreal and hysterical.

Here's a video of the waterslide on the ship. Brian and Addie and Ben must've gone up those stairs at least 30 times each!

Cruise interruption for a Ben funny

Sorry to mess up the blog flow, but this was too precious to not write down or else I'll forget it.

Benjamin went into the bathroom this evening, while I was in the living room. He started doing his "Mommy, I'm scared" calling, which I'm trying to have him get over. But he kept saying it over and over and over again. I didn't respond. Ultimately he said, "aaaaahhhhhh" and then I heard, "Mommy, when I scream like that, you're supposed to come running!" So off the couch I went to save my poor son. He was standing in the bathroom with his pants pulled up. I said, "Ben, you screamed like something was wrong." He said, "I need help with my button." I said, "You were scared because you needed help with your button?" "No, I'm also scared of Cookie Monster stealing the Cookie Jar looking through the window." (This has been a long standing fear of his, long story, it doesn't make sense, but it's very real to him). So I said, "You know, I'm going to call Autumn and ask her if she is scared of Cookie Monster stealing the Cookie Jar." He said so eloquently, "Mommy. It was just a dream. A very powerful dream." Then he proceeds to explain that Cookie Monster can only walk on soft stuff, like carpet and grass. I pointed to the tile floor and said, "well, good because that means he can't come in here." Ben said, "but he can go on the towels" as he gestured to the hand towels. Remember everyone, it was a very powerful dream!

Day Five of the cruise

This day was to Half Moon Cay, Carnival's private island. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. We would stay there for a week if we were allowed.

There's no dock at HMC, so we had to take a tender boat to HMC.

When we got to the island, this is what we saw....

That's PopPop, Brian, MomMom, the kids and Keri in the water. Just to the left of this were two waterslide that dumped the rider into the ocean. Awesome. The hut behind is a private cabana for 25 that came with a personal chef, it's own waterslide, a hot tub and other goodies. We didn't register for it. Later on Keri, Ben and Graham swam over and the people let the boys play on the waterslide.

That's our ship as we were in the water. Doesn't that look fake?

Me and the kids in the crystal clear waters.

The clouds started rolling in, but it only sprinkled rain.

This actually happened! Ben was walking backwards talking to us and I warned him to watch out behind and he literally walked into this sand hole that someone had dug. I couldn't have created the moment if I tried!

HMC was also where Addie found a real star fish, which she held as she got her hair corn-rowed.

It didn't really hurt too much until she got to the top of her scalp and then the tears flowed just a little.

The finished product with her hairstylist. There were 30 total corn rows.

I thought she looked so cute!!

Ben was equally cute at dinner.

A little blurry, but this was waiting for the dance lesson in the Taj Mahal theatre.

We didn't plan on it, but the theatre filled up with people who watched us learn the dance moves to Michael Jackson's Beat It. It was really fun. Addie was such a ham the whole time and as is typical, afterwards people were stopping me to say what a pleasure she is to watch and how I should get her involved in dance/drama/movement.

Ok so before you watch the video below, I need to explain it. Addie's favorite dessert is pumpkin pie made by Muddy. That night when it came time for dessert, the menu had "diet pumpkin pie." Addie decided she'd like to try it, knowing it wouldn't be as good as Muddy's. When the waiter came by to take our order, Addie explained that pumpkin pie is her favorite dessert and that she gets it on her birthday as her treat. The waiter asked her when her birthday is and she said "May 17th." Next thing we know....

We were all so embarrassed. Clearly in the moment, Addie couldn't turn the celebration down, because that would be awkward. So she was a good sport. By this day, the dining room knew Addie well, so all of the other guests were singing to her too. It was really funny. The rest of the night anytime someone did something she didn't like, she'd say "hey don't do that to the birthday girl!" All I can chalk it up to is that the waiters' native language is not English, so he didn't understand. Addie very clearly said when her birthday was, so who knows?!