January 2018- Ben's Birthday!

Alright, so this month went by really fast. Jon has had at least one audition and hopefully will be doing more auditions in the future as we both would like him to get back to performing. Sundays are filled with church, nap time, family time and then choir rehearsals (we had two stake choirs this month- one for Stake Conference and one for a Regional Conference and now we have rehearsals for Lamb of God).

So Jon has been teaching- 2 mornings at Pepperdine, 2 afternoons at Acacia Elementary, in our home and I think that's it. Then evenings are filled with rehearsals. Upcoming performances (in case anyone wants to come visit us in California):

March 10th: Lamb of God 2 shows at 5:00 and 7:30
March 11th: Princess Ida 2:00
March 16th: Princess Ida 8:00
March 17th: Princess Ida 8:00
March 18th: Princess Ida 2:00 and Musical Fireside at LA Temple Visitor's Center at 7:00
March 22nd: Princess Ida 8:00
March 23rd: Princess Ida 8:00
March 24th: Princess Ida 8:00
March 25th: Princess Ida 2:00


And now onto my favorite part of this last month: Ben turned 1! I wanted to throw him a birthday party, so I started thinking of things he liked to do. Well, he really likes going through the trash. Here's a picture of him doing it for the first time in Huntington Beach.


So, we did a Fan-TRASH-tic party for him! The theme was trash so we had to use Oscar the Grouch (which then led to a few appearances of other Sesame Street characters in the decorations). Unfortunately we did an activity based off of this picture that I didn't get ANY pictures of. We saved Christmas wrapping paper trash and bought mini trash bags and filled them with trash and a little green monster who was hidden inside. So everyone had their own bag to "dumpster dive" or take everything out of to find the prize.


Then we had a "trash toss" where at least the older kids could help clean up from the dumpster dive. Slam dunk (walking up to the trash can) got one point. Two points from anywhere else. Parents were told they could keep score for their kids but most of the kids helped out happily without keeping score.



Then we had a playlist inspired by Oscar the Grouch. He has quite a few good songs including "I Love Trash". We also did "Trashin the Camp" from Tarzan. I laid out egg shakers in an egg carton (rotten eggs) and then just things Ben likes making noise with.

Then the next activity we had was digging through "dirt", because, well Oscar likes "anything dirty or dingy or dusty". Ben has been known to try to eat dirt, rocks, sand and more, so I made edible dirt which I think was a hit. We hid plastic frogs in the dirt for the kids to find. I don't know if Ben found a frog, but he liked eating the dirt- both as I was making it and after. :)

The last activity was a new splash table where they could rinse off their frogs, hands, or just play.

In the end, Ben wasn't really acting very hungry, so he didn't even try his cake (and we hadn't been good, so we know he likes cake). Ben loves chocolate and chocolate chip cookies to the point where there were cookies in a TV show and he became upset when he reached for them and we didn't get him one. :-D Anyways, so when people left he still had a few presents left to unwrap and he took a nap. We ended up giving him his cake the next day after church.

Saturday when we sang to him.

As of the end of January- he's pretty much walking (still falls occasionally), babbles a lot, does the signs for "all done" and "milk" though for a little while those two meant a lot. Like "all done" he still sometimes associates with "pick me up" because when he was all done, we'd clean him off and pick him up; and "milk" meant more like "I want" food, you, nurse, water, book again, light.... he's getting better :). He also will bolt for the stairs at my Mom's house and you know when he reaches them because he starts laughing! Well, here's to February!