Ben has had this dream to blacksmith for months. His grand master plan is to build a blacksmith shop under the barn. Wade has created a baby step by procuring some lead and promising to “blacksmith” some items with a sand mold. Wade used an old cauldron and a propane stove to heat up the lead. Then they poured it into the sand mold (they tried a lego build, a circle, heart, square, and the letter B) and then cooled it off with the water hose. Ben loved every second of it!
While Kaitlyn was at camp, one of her favorite board games popped up on our local Facebook free site. I put my name in and my name was picked. I made sure to pick it up and have it waiting for her when she got home. Kaitlyn loves to play Life every time we are at Granny and Pop’s but we have never owned the game. She couldn’t wait to play.
Today the big boys wanted to go back to Chuck E Cheese. Ben wasn’t sold on the idea. I didn’t care either way, but I was adamant that homework had to be done first. Teague decided to try and help Ben with his homework, which was adorable. He was really good about truly helping and not just telling him the answers. We got there and the big boys played through their play points pretty quickly. Teague was only too happy to help Ben quickly spend the rest of his play points. Then we made the last minute decision to take home pizza for dinner. Everybody wins.
Ben has loved adventure camp. (I had a sneaking suspicion that he would.) He talks about the fort building, canoeing, fishing, but his favorite the last two days has been the water wars. Today he was so excited because the little kids won. Here’s a before camp picture and an after camp picture. Today he specifically asked me to pack him a towel and extra socks in his backpack.
Ben loves to color and draw. He recently drew all kinds of pictures and wanted to give one to our mail person. He even wrote a note, put it in an envelope, and left it in the mailbox. He checked the mailbox the next day or two to see if there was a response and then moved on. Today when I checked the mail, there was an envelope addressed to “The Artist at 12 Oak St.” Our mail lady had written the sweetest note to Ben and told him that his drawing was hanging up at the Post Office in the back so that everyone could enjoy it. He smiled the rest of the day!