Life with Bennett {41 weeks}

Happy Friday, Happy National Donut Day, Happy Last Day of School (to my CMS teacher friends!) and of course, Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!!! We celebrated all of the things today!

Friday:

The end of an era. We returned the Rock N Play that I've had since Ella was born to Target. 

It was recalled, so Target actually gave me over $40 for it! Just a heads up if you still have one laying around your house...it might be worth a trip to Target!

Saturday:

Lucas's last soccer practice of the season!

He was so sad it's over and he can't wait to play again in the fall!

Then we had a birthday party to attend! 

Bennett's little bestie, Benjamin was turning 1!!

Bennett sadly had to miss this party because he was running a fever. It was crazy low-grade and I'm almost positive it was from teething, but still...I didn't want to bring him around other kids if he wasn't feeling 100%!

But my other two kids were super excited to go and see their buddies Mackenzie and Cooper!

Chelsea did the cutest donut theme! Ella was just sad she didn't have a donut outfit (I know!!! Can you believe it?!?!) to wear to the occasion!

I'm pretty sure Lucas thought this was an extension of his birthday party and was entirely too interested in little Benjamin's gifts...to the point that he was actually taking them away from the birthday boy!

{Please note the above tractor and Tonka truck have been added to his wishlist, LOL}

Ella's favorite part was waiting for the ice cream man to drive by!

And don't feel too bad for Bennett for missing the party...he took a monster 3+ hour nap at home and thoroughly enjoyed the "donut seeds" (aka Cheerios) party favors we brought him! (And his fever went away, thank goodness!)

Sunday:

After seeing Chelsea's extremely organized playroom, I was super motivated to organize ours a little bit better! Here's what we started with:

And after a TCBY get together with other future kindergarteners from our neighborhood....

...a trip to Target to get some new storage bins....

...and a quick stop at Dick's to pick up Ella's new tennis racket (for her tennis camp in, oh, August!)...

...I was finally able to get down to business and organize those toys!!!

The new bins were CLUTCH {here and here}. They are a solid 2.5 inches taller/wider/longer than the previous ones I had in there and they fit SO many more toys! Worth every penny. I also took some things up to our bonus room, and moved play-doh and coloring stuff to an empty kitchen cabinet, since my kids do both of those things mostly at our kitchen table.  

We discovered so many new toys in the process, too! Funny how that happens!

Monday:

Now that it's summer, I decided to open up two more morning slots with my tutoring since we don't have to take Ella to preschool. I thought my kids could just play quietly in our newly organized playroom (where I also tutor from)...but somehow this child decided to start army crawling and in less than 20 minutes was clear on the other side of the room. So, whoops. I need one of those big baby jails for him or something!

After we recovered from that, we all went to the library!

We signed up for Summer Reading, which means...free Frostys!

Tuesday:

Our neighborhood pool is dumb and was only open from 1-4 PM (aka, naptime!) this week. But my kids had been begging me to go, so we went right at 1:00, and swam for an hour before coming home for a later nap. It actually worked out well and everyone slept awesome!

Good thing these three little fish love to swim, because we might just live at the pool this summer!

Wednesday:

My friend Chelsea inspired me yet again...this time by telling me that she was potty training her little boy, who is 4 months younger than Lucas. So, I decided misery loves company and maybe if we both potty trained our boys together, then it wouldn't be so bad, right?! Yes, I randomly woke up on Wednesday and decided to potty train Lucas. Such a different experience from Ella! Ha!

Also unlike with Ella, I was not about to be stuck in our house for 72 hours chasing Lucas around. No thank you. (I may have to do that eventually, but I'm only going to go that route if I get really, really desperate). We had a playdate already planned, so I just threw a pull-up on him and off we went to the park!

We also stopped at Target to get some supplies...laundry stuff, carpet cleaner, M&Ms, and of course, big boy undies!

You know Lucas peed in that pull-up when we were out and about. Of course he did. So after nap, I decided to make him go pants-less. And he peed twice in his potty! We were so excited!

Here's where we stand now: he is great at going at home if he doesn't have pants on. When we leave home, of course he has to wear pants, so I put a pull-up on him. He pees in the pull-up while we are out probably 75% of the time (I ask him multiple times if he has to go while we are out, and I also bring a potty for him to use!). I am going to continue this madness through the weekend I think and then on Monday I may have him try big boy undies when we leave home. I don't know. What am I doing. Tips? Tricks? Boys are hard. Especially strong willed, stubborn 3 year old boys. HELP!

Thursday:

Another swim lesson with Ms. Jocelyn!

Also, Bennett started waving on command, so I made it official with his "I can wave" sticker!

And Ella managed to squeak another year out of this strawberry dress. Yep, it's a size 2T and she has worn it every year since 2016. 

The big question: Will it fit next year?!?!?

If anyone wants to send me potty training tips (or just wine!), I'd appreciate it. My biggest question is this: How do you get your kid to TELL YOU he has to pee?! I ask him, but he always says no! 

Have a wonderful weekend!!!