Ben's birthday, swimming lessons, and changes

So yes, it's been a while since I've actually done a post here. I just haven't gotten around to posting things.

Ben had his 7th birthday on the 11th. It's crazy to think how fast he's growing up. Since it's an odd year birthday, we were just celebrating with our family and not having a party with friends. Ben decided that he wanted to be able to play the Xbox 360 with his dad for his birthday. He had wanted to go to a movie, but then changed his mind and just wanted to play. He also said he just wanted a chocolate cake with no frosting, so that's what he got. I put the candles in the shape of a 7 for him at least though. He got to pick what we had for dinner that night too. He wanted quesadillas until I came home from the store with some fish sticks and tator tots and pizza rolls, then he wanted those instead. Despite it being a low-key birthday, he said he had a lot of fun.

The boys with Ben's cake:

All the kids and Bryce ready to sing to Ben:

Abby, Chris, and Ben:

Ready to blow out the candles:


Ben, Alex and Chris have been taking swimming lessons last week and this week. Ben and Alex are in the Level 1 class together and Chris is in the Preschool class. I really thought that Chris might be one who refused to participate and just sat on the edge watching everyone else, but he's been getting right in there with the rest of them and doing what his teacher asks. They all seem to really enjoy the swimming lessons. Usually I leave Abby with Katie and bring Daniel along with us and let him play in the water while his brothers are doing their lessons. Daniel tends to watch Chris's class and copies some of the things they're doing, especially when they're blowing bubbles in the water. He really wants to be able to go over and join them, but he's too young.

Ben's and Alex's class. Alex is the one floating:

Here's Chris with his class:


And here are a few more pictures of the kids:






And now for the changes portion of the post today. I'm going to be changing this blog so it's open to invited readers only. I'll be doing it within the next couple of days, so if you want to be invited, make sure you let me know so I can make sure I get the invitation out to you and you'll be able to access this. I'm also going to start another blog that I'll be updating more often than I'll be updating this one. I'm trying to give the kids more structure during the day, and the other blog is going to be my motivation to keep it going and where I'll make myself accountable for keeping it up. I'm going to try to keep that one a little more on the anonymous side, since it will be open to whoever wants to read it. I haven't gotten it set up yet, but I hope to get it up and running at some point today and I'll put back the address to it back on this post. When it's up and running, feel free to post suggestions and comments as much as you would like, I'm sure I can use all the help I can get. Thanks a ton!

Edit: I just got the new one up and running. I will probably change things a bit later, but it's up for now. If you want to check it out, go here.