May 5th - 11th

Monday
Since it was Cinco de Mayo of course we had to have tacos for dinner.  Luckily this is a meal that you generally eat without complaint.

But before dinner we worked outside spreading some of the mulch.  We came up with a pretty good routine.  You and Daddy (ok, mostly Daddy) would shovel the mulch from the pile into the wheelbarrow.  Mummy would hold your hand as we walked towards the street to dump the mulch in the front garden bed.  Then you would ride in the wheelbarrow back to the pile.  While you and Daddy filled it back up again Mummy would spread the mulch and then come to hold your hand to repeat.


Tuesday
Since Tuesday is one of the days of the week when most kids are at school (some of the kids are only in on select days) they held a Mother's Day breakfast at school.  The gifts this year were pretty fun- everyone got a pin, and then each class had a different gift.  Bennett's class painted mirrors.
When we got home I put the mirror on the kitchen counter.  Bennett said it had to go upstairs.  Later I found it on the bathroom counter.  Guess that's where he thought it belonged, but I have since moved it to my dresser.

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After school Daddy had class.  Bennett was quite helpful with picking up toys so that I could vacuum and then he helped plug and unplug the cord for me when I had to move to different rooms.  Who knew someone could enjoy cleaning so much!

Wednesday
After school we worked some more on the mulch pile and then played outside for a while.
The evening was pretty uneventful until dinner.  Bennett took a bite or two and then threw up.  No warning whatsoever.  Other than that though he seemed fine.  I think he was really confused about what happened.  We explained that it meant that he was sick and he asked "where do I have to go to get better?"

Thursday
He woke up saying, "I'm not sick anymore.  I got better."  Considering there was no fever and no other signs that something was wrong we considered the previous night to have been a fluke.

When Daddy and Bennett came home from school Bennett "drove" the car, even buckling himself in.  He then played outside with Daddy while Mummy made dinner. 

Friday
Nothing too exciting.  He took a good nap at school, watched some Curious George at home, and then played with the Lego fire station.

Saturday
After soccer Bennett came home and worked on a Mother's Day craft with Daddy and then watched Peter Pan.  Meanwhile, I was at OSV for a talk about how the costume department recreated a dress from one that they had in their collection.

Later in the afternoon we went to the Bryant's for Davis' 9th birthday party, which was Harry Potter themed.

Cakes- snitch cupcakes and an acceptance letter cake.

Making wands

Playing quidditch

Awesome present- sent by owl post

I also love this photo as it shows how much DJ tolerates Bennett.

After the party we bought Bennett some new pants as all of his jeans had holes in them.  We were going to get the same size he had been wearing but decided to go up a size since with the weather warming up we wanted him to get more wear out of them.  So here he is in 5T pants and shirt- and they don't look big on him at all!  Although the pants do need to have the elastic inside to make them smaller since he has a super skinny waist.

Sunday
On Mother's Day we went to OSV.  Mom's got in free and the first 200 moms also were given a clay flower pot and a packet of seeds.  Bennett also had the chance to plant a seed and he chose an heirloom squash.  Assuming he gets any squash from it, he will be able to enter them in the agricultural exhibition in the fall.

Isaac and Beulah were in one of the fields running around which was fun to see.

And my Mother's Day gift?  Daddy is sneaky and he ordered and then stealthily picked up an OSV tin watering can.  Bennett is very excited about this and enjoys watering my garden- to the point that I'm not really allowed to do it myself.

Walks, wardrobes, and weekends...

We are so close to meeting our goals for the upcoming walk to support Boston Children's Hospital.  In fact, Bennett has met and surpassed his goal.   I met my original goal and decided to aim to be a "Miracle Maker".  I'm just $45 away from that goal.  And Chris is a measly $15 away from reaching the minimum amount that he needs to raise.  Would you consider donating to help us reach our goals?  Pretty please?  You'll receive a lovely photo thank you card after the walk....

In the category of cute things that kids say, we have the following two entries.

• "Trash can truck- dump dump"  Each week he likes helping us bring the trash can to the curb.  And when we can, we like watching the trash truck come and pick up the trash can and dump the contents into the truck.  But Chris and I like how he blended the terms together to get trash can truck.  And the "dump dump" is just describing the action of the truck.
• Happy Birthday Mummy Mumma's Day

For the past couple of nights Bennett has been lining up all of his toys in the tub.  Another one of his OCD tendendcies?

We've been trying to get Bennett to dress himself.  For the most part he can do it, but if we are near him he always says that he needs help.  The only thing we weren't sure if he could do was his shirt.  So one morning this past week Chris picked out Bennett's clothes and left them in his room and asked him to put them on.  Then he left.  A few minutes later Bennett comes into our room completely dressed.  Undies and socks were on correctly, but the pants and shirt were backwards.  Oh well.  We decided to leave him as is and sent him to school that way.  And he was even still dressed that way when we picked him up.

On Saturday night we had a game night with friends.  It's been about 5 months since we've seen everyone.  Schedules are just way too busy!  Proof that it's been too long- one friend commented that Bennett is now speaking intelligent words.  We feel like he's been doing this for a while now!

Sunday was Mother's Day andd we went to Sturbridge.  Moms got in free (not that it mattered to us since we're members) so it was pretty busy.  Bennett continues to get comments from everyone about how cute his is in his hat.  If only he wouldn't smoosh it down onto his head.  It makes visibility a bit tricky.

We also got a picture of him in the final opening of this mult-person cutout.  I'll have to photoshop all of the images together at some point.

And of course we visited Doc and Blue (the oxen) and also looked at the cows.

After nap Bennett gave me his Mother's Day present that he bought with some help from Daddy.  It's a little hard to see here, but it's a "bouquet" made out of a few skeins of yarn with knitting needles as stems.  I had seen the idea and passed along a link to Chris.  I had a feeling this is what I would be getting but I hadn't known which option it would be.  There had been multiple choices in various colors and prices.

And then to finish the day we went outside and did some gardening.  Bennett helped me mix some compost into my garden beds.  I still have a bit more work to do, but need to get some more supplies before I can finish.  Hopefully that will happen later this week or next weekend.