Happy New Year!

We kicked off the New Year with a brunch at Leslie's (Daddy's co-worker) house.  Bennett loved playing a game with a couple of the other guests where they would look all over for Spencer, Leslie's cat.  Was he in the closet?  Nope.  In the shower?  Nope.  What about in the toilet?  Nope.  In the office?  Nope.  Under the bed?  Yay!  We found Spencer.  And repeat...


Down at the play farm, much like at the real OSV farm, the rooster was put in time out "for biting the chicks".  The back story to this?  We noticed at OSV that the rooster was in a cage.  We asked why and Farmer Dave told us that the rooster was in time out.  Apparently the rooster has been acting up, biting the farmers, etc.  So it's time for him to find a new home.  I guess that conversation/punishment resonated with Bennett.

This photo must have been from after his nap because his hair is super curly.

On Thursday it started snowing.  Just a dusting in the morning, but when Bennett looked out the window he announced that there was enough snow to go sledding.  After school we opened up Bennett's new fire station Duplos that he got from Grandma and Grandpa Tedford. He's had a blast playing with these, and was using the people to open the doors, spray the hoses, etc.  I've never seen him play with dolls/action figures in this way before, so that was neat to see.

By Friday the snow was much worse.  Mummy and Daddy still had to work so Bennett went to school but was one of two kids there.  The benefit of not many kids in?  He got to do whatever he wanted!  After dinner we baked cookies.  I had hoped to make this variety before Christmas but we ran out of time.  They were ok, but not my favorite.  One of those kinds that sounds better than they actually are.

Saturday was the first week of a new session of skating.  We definitely should have put Bennett in the next level!  He had passed pre-tot but since he still seemed pretty timid we had thought it might be best to have him stay at that level for another session.  Nope, he did awesome all on his own!  They tried to move him up to the next class right then, but he resisted.  Next week he doesn't get the choice.

Here you can see him in action.

After nape we went sledding at Jericho Hill and got to use the new toboggan.  We weren't sure how Bennett would do because he hadn't been a fan of this hill last year-- too much snow in his face, I think.  Since it used to be a ski hill, it's fairly steep.  No problems at all this time!  Bennett loved it and kept asking to go again.  And the snow in his eyes issue?  Well he solved that problem by covering his face with his hands.

Blurry video, but you get the gist.

When I asked Bennett about why his animals were all lined up I was told that they were in a parade.

Sunday we went to Sturbridge.  We're not sure if we will once again try to have weekly visits.  We kind of want to but also think that it's a little crazy.  But since we want to have the option of weekly visits, we needed to go.  Bennett really does love it there and gets excited when we mention that we are going, so I guess that means it's worth it to go, right?  It only becomes an issue when it's pouring rain or we're sick or something like that and I insist on us going so that we don't break our streak.  So far we haven't run into a situation like that (really cold and/or light rain doesn't keep us away) but I imagine we could have to make those decisions this year.

On this particular visit all Bennett wanted to do was go sledding behind the cooper shop.  I don't even remember us mentioning that we could do that, but he knew it was something we could do.  But first, it was time to help the farmers with seasonal work.  We were the only ones there so they decided that feeding corn husks to the cows would be a good task. 

It was awesome!  We started off just tossing the husks over the fence but quickly moved on to them eating out of our hands.  Really neat to feel them pulling the husks out of your hand.  This is another one of those occasions where we wonder if "normal" visitors would be given this opportunity or were we given this chance because they knew we were familiar with the cows and that we should look out for Lance and Henry's horns.  (Which admittedly I did kind of forget about in an effort to get husks to one of the girls being pushed out of the way.)

Finally we got to go sledding.  Bennett started off going down the hill with Daddy.

After that first run we decided that we should have him try on his own.  He loved it and did great.

But the best part?  He even pulled his own sled back up the hill!

Here's one of Bennett and Chris going down the hill together.

Back at home, Bennett decided that his oxen needed to pull sleds.  (He had seen Lance and Henry's sled, used to haul logs and such.)  Bennett found the sleds and I obliged by making a pipe cleaner yoke and hooking up the team.

And that pretty much sums up our week.  Feels so long ago now, since it took me almost a whole other week to finish this post.