Day date with Benners

Today was a very special day.  I got to spend the day with Ben and have a "day date".  Not very often do I get a whole day to spend with my oldest.  I love the time that I get to have with each of my boys one-on-one, and Ben is at that precious age where a day with him is as close to Heaven as I can imagine.  Ben is definitely my sensitive child, and while that sometimes has it's downfalls (tears, hurt feelings, etc), it has so many benefits.  He wears his feelings on his sleeves, gives hugs and kisses freely, is not shy with his "I love you, Mommy", and loves to have conversations about anything and everything.  Today was just a perfect day!

We started with dentist appointments...no cavities for Ben or Mommy, so that was a great start to our day.  After that, we met up with Callie, Ty and Ava for lunch.  We didn't know that they were in town, so that was a nice surprise.  Ben loves any time that he gets to spend with Ty, Blake, and Ava, so he was super excited!

After lunch, Ben and I headed to Hobby Lobby for a quick trip for picture frames (Ben was less than amused at this part of the day, but he was a trooper).  Then, we went to "All Fired Up" where Ben picked out a football helmet piggy bank to paint.  Ben had never been there before, so he was pretty excited to go through the process.  He wanted to paint it like the Boilermaker's helmets and in the middle of painting it, he turns to me and says "Mommy, I think we should give this to Daddy because he works at Purdue."  Oh my, this boy can just melt my heart.  I told him that Daddy would probably love that and he would probably let Ben put it anywhere he wanted in the house (thinking Ben would want to put it in his bedroom).  Ben turns to me and says "Daddy should put it in his room, by his bed, so that he can see it at night."  Again, sweet, sweet boy...

After we were done painting, we took a trek across the walking bridge.  We just walked and talked, walked and talked.  Here was one conversation we had:

Ben: Mommy, do you have boyfriend?
Me: Yep, I do.
Ben: I know who it is...it's Daddy.  Do you have any other boyfriends?
Me: Nope, not that I know of.
Ben: I have a girlfriend, but sometimes we cut up.
Me: You cut up?  You mean like laughing?
Ben: No.  Oh, I think I mean we sometimes break up.
***Insert lots of laughing by both of us!

We grabbed some Cold Stone Creamery after our walk and then headed to our friends' Ashley and Brian's house.  We wanted to visit with them and see their twins, and Ben was excited because Reece and Taylor were also at the house.  Ben played with Reece and Taylor while I got my baby fix (those babies are so stinking cute)!  Ben actually ended up staying the night with Taylor and Reece, and boy was that the icing on the cake.

While I was driving home, I was thinking about the day and I remembered a specific time while we were walking on the bridge, Ben came up and grabbed my hand, and without missing a beat, he said "I love you, Mommy"...yep, this was a pretty perfect day!