Buffalo Wild Wings

Tonight was our school's restaurant fundraiser night at Buffalo Wild Wings. I don't think we have been there in quite some time. The last time we've gone there was probably over a year ago. Prior to that, we had gone maybe a few times a year the last few years. Our school would have fundraiser nights each year, plus we would come on other occasions.

Buffalo Wild Wings use to be under different management and Wednesday night (their Kid's Night), they would have $1.99 kid meals with free ice cream topping bar, raffles, and face painting. I believe that manager has since moved to another location. I don't know if he does the same things there, but it was fun.

Benjamin wasn't sure what to get, but he was looking over the kid menu and noticed that two of the chicken tender kid meals were cheaper than a regular chicken tender meal. I know Benjamin would normally want to seem older to everyone, but this is the only time he is thrilled to be young - he still qualified as "12 and under", so he took advantage of it, but one meal would not be enough for his appetite.

Anna, Emma, and Justin received kid menus and crayons in their paper bag, plus a piece of candy. Emma had a Reese's peanut butter cup, but since Anna and Justin had smaller candy, they actually received two pieces. They thought it was nice.

Clinton tried out the hand-held device that they have. You can login and play trivia games that have the questions displayed on their large tv screens inside the restaurant. I think he won one of the games and lost another. There is no real prize except knowing you did well. :)

Everybody ordered a meal, but Clinton asked if we could try a black bean burger that is suppose to be healthy. He heard about it on the Doctor Oz show. Wow, the things you can see and learn from watching shows during the day when you "work" from home.

We had a good time and ate delicious food, but I think I may have to hunt down that other manager and see if he does a special kid's night. I think it would be more worth it to go back for that.

Cameron is Growing Like a Weed

Cameron continues to grow like a weed. He gets heavier and longer all the time. For a kid who was ten days late, he didn't weigh as much as he could have, but he was still 8.04 lbs. and 21 inches long. Not a bad length for a baby.

At his two month appointment, Cameron weighed 12.8 lbs. and grew to 24 inches long. They said that his head was in the 50%, the weight was in the 75%, and his length was in the 90%.

Last week at Cameron's four month appointment, Cameron weighed 15.4 lbs. and grew to 26 1/2 inches long. Just like last time, his head was in the 50%, the weight was just under 75%, and his length was between 90%-95%. It just amazes me that he continues to grow as well as he is and grateful that his length stretches out his weight. I think Justin weighed about as much as Cameron does now when he was only one year old. He wasn't near the height of Cameron either.

He is rolling around more and more. He has learned how to roll from his back to his front, but he has rolled from his front onto his back periodicallym too,

Best of Buds, Tired and Together

Although Justin's bed is the top bunk, he sleeps with Benjamin almost every night in his bed. Justin knows that he should only sleep with Benjamin when it is not a school night, but that still doesn't stop him. He may crawl into his bed before falling asleep or crawl down during the night.

It is important that they both get their rest during the school week and this week it is even more important. ISAT testing started this week for the kids. Anna and Emma started today and Benjamin will begin his testing tomorrow. He also has Jazz band tomorrow morning at 7:00am, so he should be awake sooner than usual.

It is usually hard to wake up Benjamin without waking up Justin if they are sleeping together. Good thing for Justin that Benjamin loves him a lot. Benjamin has told me on more than one occasion that he loves having Justin sleep with him because he is such a warm body. He generally doesn't need many blankets when he sleeps with him. As you can see, Benjamin is actually sleeping without a shirt in the middle of winter (although this winter has been extremely, and strangely mild).

I'm not sure if Justin chose to sleep at the foot of Benjamin's bed or if he was asked to do that. Once I laid Cameron down I went into their room to take a picture. Benjamin's head popped up and he asked me if I took a picture of him. I guess he wasn't quite asleep yet. I told him he was in it a little bit, but that I wanted to take a picture of Justin since he was about to fall off the bed. I know he wouldn't like it if he knew I was posting this picture and blogging about him. Gotta love that boy! :)

"March Forth"

Today is March Fourth and I decided that we as a family would "March Forth" and do good service each year on March 4th, so tonight it began.

I don't recall where I had heard of this idea before, but it had been some time from when I heard it to actually putting it into action. I felt this was a good way to involve the kids in doing good (not like we don't do it already). I had Benjamin, Anna, Emma, and Justin choose 2 families each to deliver cookies to and share our little idea and say thank you.

Benjamin and Clinton had already been involved in service that day by driving around and collecting fast offerings for church. Benjamin was gone for about 2 1/2 hours and Clinton was gone for about 3 1/2 hours. Since our ward started doing this as an assignment for the YM each Fast Sunday, Benjamin has gone on a route with Brother Adam Froerer and Brother Trevor Ricks. He has a blast with them. I am glad he gets to spend additional time with them outside of Sunday and Tuesday activities. I think because of the time he spent with them today, he chose those two families to deliver cookies to tonight.

Anna selected Amelia Korbitz's family. Amelia is in 5th grade and she is in Anna's class. I would say Amelia is probably her best friend at school and she has known her since Kindergarten. She and her family are very kind. They have another daughter who is younger than Emma, but they have a lot of fun playing together. Whenever Anna gets to play with Amelia, Emma gets to go play with Francesca. It makes the playing so much more enjoyable for everyone. The other family she chose was Lindsay Pluister's family. She has known her a long time and has even had her dad as a soccer coach before. When Anna delivered the cookies to them the dad answered the door and she said, "Happy March 4th. I am 'Marching Forth' to do good service". He said he was very glad to have a treat since their whole family had been ill for a while.

Earlier this evening, Lindsay's mom called to see if Anna told me thank you. She said that was the best thing that had happened to them all week. They had been sick since Monday and they haven't gone anywhere, done anything, or felt great. They are on the mend finally and sure appreciated it. She said that whatever made Anna choose them, she chose the right house. I felt very pleased about that and I shared the conversation with Anna. I told her that I was glad she chose that family and whatever made her think of them was the Holy Ghost prompting her to do so, and that I was proud of her for acting on the inspiration given to her.

Emma chose friends from school, too. The first family was Rylan Gaspar's family. She and Rylan have known each other since Kindergarten and are currently serving together as Student Council representatives for their 3rd grade class with Ms. Brackett. Emma has also had her dad as a soccer coach before. Rylan comes from a great family. The other family she chose was Cady Murphy's. Cady was in Kindergarten and 1st grade with Emma, but she skipped 2nd grade and advanced to 3rd grade. When Anna was in 4th grade, she and Cady Murphy had Mrs. Neylon together for the 3rd/4th grade Literacy Enrichment Class. Even though they don't get together regularly since she is not in Emma's grade, she still wanted to do something nice for her.

Justin selected Will Potter's family. Will is a Kindergarten boy that lives in the culdesac behind our house. His family is very friendly and they had been kind to let Justin come and play for a while, especially after I had Cameron. Will is probably Justin's best neighborhood friend. The other family he chose was Peter Anderson's family. Peter is Justin's best friend/church friend.

Tonight was just a small way we could show our appreciation for the friendship and service these families offer to us.

A New Addition To The Family

Benjamin and Justin were having fun with the new addition to the family, Ethan Kinnear. Although he may not look it, Ethan is Benjamin's age and in 7th grade. The two boys were having fun with him tonight while Cameron kept watching all of the action right in front of him.

Ethan's parents called during our dinner with the missionaries to see if he could earn any additional community service hours before Monday, March 5th. He and his family attended our ward Chili Cook Off last weekend and we discussed this topic. He even stayed afterwards for 1/2 hour to help clean up. Ethan and Benjamin are working towards being inducted into the National Junior Honor Society (NJHS).

In order to join, you must attend all mandatory meetings, need to have 20 community service hours per year, two of the total hours must be performed at their junior high doing peer tutoring on a Thursday - one hour each semester, complete and turn in their NJHS application, uphold the five pillars of the NJHS, pay a $5 membership dues each year, and maintain a minimum 3.0 GPA. At least 10 of those hours need to be completed by the March 5th deadline in order to be inducted into the NJHS at a special induction ceremony on March 14th.

Benjamin has no problem achieving his community service hours. With YM/Scouts and church, he has it covered. He already has 40 hours from Thanksgiving until now. They started later in the school year and told the kids they could count their time from Thanksgiving and continuing. If we could have counted hours from the beginning of the school year, Benjamin would have a ton more. The YM, EQ, and High Priests are in a rotation to mow at a Women's Shelter. He has put in several hours over there this school year and will start up again once the mowing begins.

Ethan needed another hour of community service by Monday in order for him to be eligible. We gave a suggestion of cleaning up a park or the grounds of the Woodridge Community Park District building. If he needed someone to work with, we sort of volunteered Benjamin to go. He told us that would be fine. Benjamin didn't mind doing this with his friend. We drove over and dropped him off at the park district building and planned to pick him up in one hour.

Clinton went to go pick up Benjamin, but passed Ethan's dad on the way over. They dropped him off for us and Ethan ended up staying for a while. Justin loves hanging out with Benjamin's friends and he is good about letting Justin hang out with him and his friends, too. Ethan is like a brother, but from a different mother. A picture of him and his three "brothers" was needed, so here it is. Thanks for the fun evening Ethan!

Family Fun Night @ Meadowview

I'll blog about it in the morning.

The Museum of Science and Industry - Jefferson Pride Team Fieldtrip

I'll let Clinton detail this picture since he was one of the chaperones on the trip. He was the chaperone in charge of Benjamin's group.