Today is John's 35th birthday. We celebrated yesterday with cupcakes and presents at lunch time.
Ben photographed the gift opening . . .
and the candle blowing out.
Here are some pictures from Ben's point of view. John showing off his card from Nana and Grandaddy.
One of the shirts we bought John.
The lit candle.
Yesterday afternoon Ben wanted to make oatmeal cookies for our neighbors. Before I would do it, he had agree to follow my recipe. His recipe involved oatmeal, water, lima beans, and the microwave. Then he wanted to do it all by himself. I had to remind him that he can't read and we were following a recipe. After we got all that squared away, we made three dozen oatmeal cookies that we shared with our three closest neighbors and ate the last six ourselves. Since we gave away most of our cookies yesterday, this afternoon we made brownies.
To the people who think we teach girls to be girls and boys to be boys, I disagree. I didn't teach Mollie to carry a purse, but since she learned to walk a few weeks ago she's been carrying things around over her arm. Today I went to the closet and found her a purse. Amazingly, there was a time that I carried this tiny purse every day. That was before I carried two sippy cups, two changes of clothes, diapers, wipes, snacks, etc. Obviously I didn't even carry a checkbook. I'll never go back to carrying this tiny purse, because my memory must have been better then. Now I need my checkbook for the days that I open my wallet in the grocery store and realize that I left my debit card in the back pocket of my jeans two days ago when I got gas.
We still call this the "Benmobile," but Mollie is the one driving it these days.
Ben rides his tricycle. He's finally mastered pedaling.
On Thursday morning, Ben rode his tricycle, Mollie rode in the Cozy Coupe, and I pushed Mollie all the way to the stop sign at the end of the street. Ben wanted his picture taken with the stop sign.
Mollie loves the little playhouse so Ben and I cleaned it Thursday morning. It was very, very dirty. Ben got very, very wet.
Mollie played in her tiny swimming pool.
I've not posted in an entire week, which is completely unheard of for me. We didn't do a lot last week, but it felt hectic because Mollie is cutting back teeth and hasn't been very happy. Napping has been especially difficult. Friday she didn't nap at all. This is a picture from August 5 that I found on my camera. It is Mollie in the locker room at the Y getting ready to go swimming for the first time. I took both Mollie and Ben again on Friday morning so she should have been exhausted Friday afternoon.
On Wednesday our plan was to all visit the new children's museum together. However, Ben woke up at 4 a.m. throwing up so Fran, MV, Janey, and Mrs. Elder went without us Wednesday morning. Ben was very, very disappointed. He was feeling fine by mid-morning and ate a good lunch so Fran and I took him and MV in the afternoon.
Ben and MV enjoyed building a house together.
Ben's favorite activity was shopping for fruits and vegetables at the farmer's market. He filled basket after basket. We returned to this station several times during our visit.
Painting in the art center.
Ben painted his picture purple and pink for Mollie.
The funniest activity was the "Gastro Climber." You climbed through a person's insides as if you were the food being digested. It was complete with chewing sounds, intestinal noises, and bathroom noises.
Fran crawling through the esophagus.
MV sliding out into the toilet bowl with a great big flushing noise, of course.
Just a pic to show how cool this place is.
Ben is microwaving a basket of fruits and veggies from the farmer's market.
Fishing for rubber catfish. I could have taken 100 more pictures and we could have done a lot more activities. There's definitely things left to explore on another visit.
On Tuesday we spent the night with Nana and Grandaddy along with Fran, MV, and Janey. Tuesday evening we swam in their neighborhood pool.
Super Janey -- she is fearless.
MV jumping off Fran's shoulders.
Splashing with Grandaddy.
Hanging out with Nana.
Last night John had to work late and we had time to kill. I also knew that we didn't have any plans for this morning so I decided we could make homemade doughnuts. I found a recipe that you mixed up the night before and let rise in the frig overnight. So last night after supper we mixed up the dough. This morning (after Mickey Mouse Clubhouse) we cut out the doughnuts, let them rise 30 minutes, . . .
and prepared to fry and glaze them. 
Ben creating "doughnut syrup" with the remnants of a bag of powdered sugar.
Don't they look delicious? Unfortunately, they tasted pretty bland. Now that I know that doughnuts aren't hard, I have to find a really tasty recipe.
Today at our monthly zoo class, we learned about what zookeepers do. First, Mrs. Krissy read a great book about a zookeeper, A Sick Day for Amos McGee. Then we went out into the zoo, through a gate, . . .
and behind the jaguar exhibit. We got to watch a zookeeper do tricks with Cody the Jaguar.
Then we headed over to the lemur exhibit where we watched them eat the popcicles we made last month.
Back in the air conditioned education building, we had animal crackers and juice while watching a slideshow about what the local zookeepers do each day. Then the kids "foraged" for candy.
We ended the day petting the newest education animal, Cloud the white rabbit.
Mollie petted Cloud, too. I just wasn't fast enough with my camera before she got distracted by her lollipop.
Ben has had this tricycle for a couple of years, but because his legs are so short he couldn't pedal. Once his legs got longer, he still didn't pedal because he was used to pushing it with his feet. He's been admiring the bycicles at Wal-Mart for a while and on Monday I pulled the smallest one off the rack and let him try it. He was in love. However, I told him he couldn't have a big boy bike until he could pedal his tricycle. He's still got to practice more before he gets a big boy bike. It was hard work and he didn't pedal far.
Mollie has discovered the playhouse. Opening and closing the doors and windows is endless fun.
Ben slept all night inside his pillowcase. He was still stuffed in it just like this when he woke up this morning.
Mollie loves dirt. She dumps it on her head and covers herself with it. The bottom of the bathtub was full of dirt after I bathed her.
