Ben's first day of school

Ben is officially a kindergartner! On Wednesday August 27th Ben boarded the bus at 8:17am and headed to kindergarten. I walked home from the bus stop with Gabe and choked on some tears. He is only in kindergarten, but all of a sudden I see this road before us that doesn't look very long - for the rest of Ben's life in our home he will be in school and will be away from us for a majority of his time. I know that this time will go by very quickly.

When he got home we went over his day. He told me the all the rules that his teacher told them. He is very conscientious about wanting to abide by the rules and avoid getting in trouble. I thought it was very cute.

The only glitch was that I didn't know that they were supposed to have a snack and he told me that all the kids had a lunch box and a snack and all he had was milk. Of course I felt TERRIBLE!! We immediately headed to Target and got him a new lunch box and I let him pick out some snacks. The next day I sent him to school with three snacks and Ben informed me when he got home that he is only allowed to have one snack. I guess I overkilled the snack. I'll get it right one of these days. After Ben's first day of school I made chocolate cupcakes with Chocolate Buttercream frosting. (recipes from America's Test Kitchen - AWESOME!) Ben enjoys the frosting with a little bit of cupcake.

Gabe misses Ben terribly while he is gone. All morning long Gabe will ask me if we can go get Ben. Gabe misses his play buddy. Speaking of Gabe, he caught that yucky Hand, Foot, and Mouth disease (coxsackie virus). Fortunately it didn't go to his hands and feet. It stayed in his mouth and throat. Still not fun though. He pretty much ate only ice cream and drank milk for about 6 days. Every time I would try to give him some normal food he would say, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, I have owies." Kinda cute. He's doing much better, thank heavens. Now everyone at church is paranoid (I think he caught it in nursery) and the nursery toys have been sanitized. That is a good thing.

Mike is taking this week off and we are painting the interior of our house. He has already finished our room and will be moving to the main living areas next. It will look great when it is done. Of course, it won't be all work and no play - that would make Mike a dull boy. We plan on going to a park on Monday and then out to lunch and on Tuesday we are taking Ben out of school and going to the shore - Ocean City. Mike will probably take Ben fishing one day as well. I'll post pictures after I get them!

Love you all!