Happy 4th of July Week

The week was a little wonky with the 4th of July holiday on a Thursday.  Bennett wrapped up school for the week on Wednesday.  Lots of patriotic crafts were made this week!  They made fireworks (painted the tips of Q-tips and glued them on black construction paper), foot/handprint flags, and colored the Statue of Liberty below and also Uncle Sam who is further down this post.

On the 4th we decided to go to Sturbridge.  It was HOT, but still a good time.  Visiting the cooper shop seems to be a new tradition of Bennett's and he always wants to sit down on this bench to give it a try.

While we were in the cooper shop we found out more about the "save the sawmill" fundraising campaign.  We are all for saving the sawmill, but none of the information really said what exactly we were saving.  (unlike last year's gristmill project which was to repair the water wheel).  Turns out the roof and some of the rafters are pretty rotted and need to be replaced.  With a deadline of October we keep wondering when they are going to get started on the repairs.

When we were down at the farm Bennett pet a chicken!!! This is huge for him because he normally doens't want to pet animals.  He could have pet the calf but he wanted nothing to do with that.  One of the women was holding the chicken though so I wonder if that had something to do with it.  Maybe she was much more approachable (and cat-like) that way?

We made our way back to the center village and noticed Rhys (the employee) heading into Doc and Blue's pen.  He hitched them into the yoke and then started brushing them.  Once they were good and brushed he started walking them around to tire them out a bit before the procession

We decided to have a picnic lunch out on the common.  As we were eating Bennett kept asking where Doc and Blue were.  Luckily they were usually somewhere in eyesight.

We also got to meet Lance and Henry.  Ever wonder which is which when you hear the names of a pair of animals?  Well, when they are hitched up, the first name always refers to the one on the right (when you look at them in this direction.)  We also were wondering how we would be able to tell them apart when they weren't hitched up and we discovered that Henry has the horns that stick out like a Longhorn.  (With Doc and Blue, Doc's horns point down.)

Sturbridge is a fun place to visit on the 4th because the families of the employees are welcome to come and be costumed.  This is a great way to get some extra kids in costume.  A small group of kids went to the school, and this group became a mini-militia who got a crash course in musket handling.

Finally it was time for the procession!

Please excuse the jitteriness of the video, especially at the beginning.  Lots of waiting around for a procession that took less than two minutes!

And then afterwards Bennett kept talking about Doc and Blue in the parade.

When the procession had made its way back to the common it was time for a Naturalization Ceremony.  How neat!  (There had been increased security and bag checks to get into the village because of this.)  Unfortunately it was about nap time and Bennett didn't want to stay still and be quiet so we missed most of the ceremony.  But imagine our surprise when we ran into Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry while on the way to the bathroom!  We chatted for a bit and then headed out.
 We made a quick stop in the playground area because they have more cut-outs.

Back at home it was a continuation of a car nap and then when he woke up we went outside to cool down.  Befitting the holiday, Bennett had a patriotic swimsuit in his pile of hand-me-downs.  We went outside and played in the pool.  I'd given him some balls made of cut up sponges as well as some shower poofs and he had lots of fun playing with those.  (The next day he learned he could thrown them at Mummy and Daddy to get them wet.)

There's a saying that when growing corn on the cob it should be "knee high by the 4th of July" so I had to climb onto my garden bed to test this out.  Perhaps for the 1st time in the 4 or so years I've tried growing corn, it's actually higher than my knees!

And to wrap yo the holiday, here's a blurry Uncle Sam costume from school.

This summer Bennett will be spending some extra time with Daddy.  This gives them some extra bonding time but also helps our budget out a bit.  So on Friday Bennett stayed home with Daddy and played.  (This is his Duplo "house".)

And here's Bennett reading a circular and telling Daddy about all the tools that he should buy.

On Saturday we decided to go to the Children's Museum.  Our membership expires at the end of the month and we haven't used it nearly as much as we should. 

Once of the features of the museum is a 3-storey climber.  We thought Bennett would love it.  We were wrong.  The first time he tried it there were a bunch of other kids around so we thought that was the problem- he didn't want to push past them.  So we tried it again later, but nope.  Not sure what the problem was.  Usually he's a pretty active and adventurous guy.  Maybe he just didn't understand it?  Still too many people?  Who knows.

Instead we checked out some other areas such as creating power by riding bikes or walking around in a circle.

Then we went upstairs and he got to play in the store.  Using the cash register was lots of fun.

In the construction room he got to check out the Bobcat.

Daddy got to be a construction worker.

And Bennett was a welder.

In the gift shop Bennett discovered the selection of Curious George toys.  He even took one of the stuffed George's around to show him some of the other toys.

On the way back to the car we stopped at the Fire Museum.  It's just a small place with a couple of engines but Bennett was allowed to climb up on this one.

And speaking of fire stations, on Sunday (which we spent at home) Bennett played with some of Daddy's Legos.  This was a set that Bennett had gotten Chris for Father's Day.  Not only is it a big firestation, but it also has a couple of trucks and a helicopter.  Bennett's still a little young to play with this, but he had fun.

And I'll wrap up this post with a video of Bennett directing Doc and Blue around the house.  It's mostly him (at the end) saying "Doc, back".  This is because while we were watching the oxen Doc kept trying to move away and Rhys had to keep telling him to back up.  I guess Bennett picked up on that because all of a sudden we noticed him on Friday night with an imaginary stick (whip) saying, "Doc, back".  It took us a bit to figure it out, but once we realized what he was doing we thought it was pretty cute.