Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Darlington County Corn


is the best :)



note the firetruck napkins :)













Praise the Lord for Darlington County!

Monday, June 21, 2010

Happy Birthday to Lash!!!


I do plan on blogging again one day, but there's been a lot of LIFE going on. But we would like to take the opportunity to wish LASH a VERY happy Birthday. She is, after all, the bomb. :)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

The Three Year Old Pre- Party Party

Benson's third birthday hit during Aunt-Week-in-the-Ville-2010!

We're planning a birthday party for the weekend, but on his real birthday, we ventured into uncharted territory...

A place that has never crossed the threshold of my lips, yet he still knew about it...

A place that (unbeknownst to their parents) sends subliminal messages to children on PBS after Curious George wooing them through the doors....

A place....

Where a Kid Can Be a Kid.

(Sorry, I couldn't resist. )


Oh Yes, my friends, for the first time since his birth, we have gone to Chuck-E-Cheese's.

His Aunts were in town, but Uncle J made the trek all the way from Lexington to Meet us for the Fabulous (read: extremely mediocre-- you don't go to Chuck-E-Cheese's for the pizza) pizza.

He's making a push for Uncle of the Year.


We registered for the kids club online and got some coupons for pizza and tokens.
So we played games.


Alot of games..


Uncle J was Benson's Skee Ball Coach...


And he taught him how to how him tongue just right in order to make the ball go where you want it:


He's working on holding his mouth right:


And if Uncle J ever wonders what his son will look like, all he has to do is look at Benson. I think to myself, aBOUT 12 times daily, MAN, he looks like Jeremy.
I guess that could have something to do with the fact that I have been known to get Benjamin and Jeremy confused with a "Hey Babe" or a hug... Those Ryan genes are STRONG!!


We tried to be Charlies angles, but Lash and Bec, pointed the guns wrong.
I don't think they meant to do that?



He was really proud of the skee ball skills he learned from Uncle J!


And he was THRILLED to have everybody in town!





I mean really... Check out the grill on this mouse... this isn't the camera angle.. it was really that messed up! Wow.
When they brought out the little cake (read: "cardboard and styrofoam" apparently you don't go to Chuck-E-Cheese's for the cake either...
why DO you go there? someone please remind me? :) Oh yeah... Because your child convinces you that he would otherwise be incomplete if you didn't. That's right, I forgot.)
Benjamin was like, "Man, People are looking at us like we are the cheapest parents EVER...
We are having a third birthday party for our child and didn't invite ONE OTHER CHILD?!"


Ash got all artsy with her photography....


This is Benjamin with his attempt at "artsy."
Again, wow. So Subtle. Natural, even. :)
I love this man. :)










Happy Birthday Punkin!


Thursday, June 3, 2010

Baseball...Birthday Songs... CTL+Z

I'm devasted for Detroit Tigers Pitcher,
before Yesterday, I had never even heard of the guy...

And yet today, I can't stop thinking about him.

And his mom.

His poor mom.

That's the thing about having kids who play sports... sometimes they win, sometimes they lose... and once in a million lifetimes, they pitch a perfect game and get ROBBED of the "21st Perfect game in all of history" accolade, by a bad call.

I feel bad for the umpire too. At first I was mad at him, but he's admitted he was wrong, so now I just feel bad for the guy.

It'd be nice if Baseball had instant replay...

It'd be even nicer if we could "CTL+Z" (or command+z if you're mac :) ) life.

I have moments like that, where I'd like to "Edit" "Undo."

There are also moments I'd like to have Ti-Vo'd so I could go back and relive it.
Benson's first birthday party "happy birthday song," I realized at about the second "to you... ", we weren't recording it.

PAUSE! Rewind! Record. Play!

Too bad it doesn't work that way. :(

Maybe the baseball commissioner will overturn it.

You can guarantee I'll be recording the singing of birthday songs from here on out....

Oh life....

We went to the ball field this past week to watch Benjamin's associate's son play ball...


THIS, is an example of a GOOD safe call.


He's a solid kid... his sportsmanship on the field was awesome


Benson, like his mama, is a fan of canteens.


And unlike his mama, is a huge fan of baseball.


Although, I'm sure, despite the fact that I am not necessarily a fan of the sport
(I think it goes back to being Hot... I'm SO not a fan of being hot)
I'll be (Lord willing) cheering at MANY baseball games in my day.



And I probably won't be able to get away with showing up in the 5th inning for a 7 inning ball game like I did for his daddy when we were in high school.

I was a bad girlfriend.

Although, I still contend that you can get the baseball "experience" in two innings instead of 7.

I mean, I didn't even know Galarraga was pitching a perfect game until the 27th batter came up to bat and Benjamin said, "Watch this, this guy's about to throw a perfect game." And in ONE PITCH, the whole game was summed up and I haven't been able to get it off my mind today.

See, I didn't need to watch the whole thing! In this case, I only needed to watch ONE PITCH!

"Pah-leese, Mom... I'm SO not buying it."


Ok, baby, I will cheerfully sit through ALL of your games.
(There are only five innings when they're little, right?)

I guess there's ONE thing that Baseball's better than sitting through...
This little one's affinity for RACECAR driving is NOT something we are encouraging.

500 laps? Around and around and around?

Give me baseball, PLEASE!!