Recapping the last two weeks

I never got around to updating the blog last week, so this will cover the past two weeks, mostly with pictures and just a bit of text thrown in for good measure.

Wearing his kilt to school

Bowling with Daddy

A little over a month ago we took our cat to the vet as she had lost weight and wasn't eating.  Two weeks ago we knew it was time to have her put down.  She had lost even more weight, she wasn't eating, she was having diarrhea daily, and was having trouble jumping onto the bed and couch.  We brought Bennett with us so that he could say goodbye, and also so that we could maybe explain things a bit better rather than him coming home and wondering where she was.  When we got back from the vet he said to the other cat, "Tony, Brit not here.  She still at the doctor."  We drive past the vet daily, so we've had a few more conversations about Brit and we just keep explaining that her heart stopped beating and she stopped breathing, and that means that she died.  And when you die, you go to a cemetery.  Pretty sure he doesn't fully understand the cemetery concept, but we can explain that one more another time.

On Saturday we continued the weekly trips to OSV.  They were baking down at the Freeman Farm, including a pork & apple pie.  Here Victoria measures molasses for a gingerbread.

Lance and Henry in the snow

Bennett discovered our Legos, or more precisely, Daddy built the Grand Emporium, or "the mall" as Bennett calls it.  He loved looking at everything and moving the people around.

Inspired by OSV, I made my own pork & apple pie.

On Sunday we celebrated Auntie Hanna's 19th birthday!

Naps have been a bit wonky these past couple of weeks.  One week he only napped two days, the next he napped 3 days.

Watching a parade.  Or were they in the parade?

We finally upgraded the cardboard barns from Bennett's barnyard to the wood ones.  This also meant the big barn got a roof.  It's a little snug, but he's doing ok with it.

The sheep were given some hay.

The chickens laid eggs. 
When we next went to OSV we told Dave about this. 
Dave asked where they laid eggs and Bennett said
"In the chicken coop, in the nesting boxes." 
Hmm, do we really need to make nesting boxes?

The pigs are eating toast. 
Previously the toast had been electric blankets for the cows and chickens, a la Click, Clack, Moo

More playing with the mall.

This past Friday Bennett was sent home from school with 102.9 fever.  After nap we checked again and even after some Tylenol it had gone up to 103.1.  We took him to the doctor but since there were no other symptoms, his ears were fine, and the strep culture came back negative we just needed to wait it out.  By Saturday morning the fever was gone and he was feeling fine.  We skipped skating but then went to OSV where we went on sleigh ride around the common, saw the stagecoach in the parsonage barn, and helped fill the parsonage wood box.  We're getting used to these quiet winter days at the village.  The crowds of summer are going to be a shock to us!

On Sunday Daddy went to work to make up for the time he had lost on Friday when Bennett was home sick.  Bennett turned his toy workbench into a forge and played "blackmsith".  He watched a bunch of Curious George and then played in my craft room while I tried to do some sewing.

Wearing one of his capes.

More pie baking this week.  On Monday since I was home for MLK Day I baked a cherry pie.

My weekend pie was a quiche for dinner on Sunday.

So what's this sewing I've been working on?  I'm making an 1830's outfit to wear to OSV for a couple of their upcoming Dinner in a Country Village events that we are going to.

Corded petticoat.  3 sections of cording. 
Bottom section has 35 rows, middle has 20, top section has 15 rows.

Here's my shift, stays (I will be remaking these), corded petticoat, and 2nd petticoat. 
I still need to make sleeve supports and likely a small bustle.

And the mock-up of the bodice.  Need to change a couple of things.

Birthday, naps, skating and OSV

I guess the lack of napping last week was a fluke.  This week he was back to napping every day, although on Sunday it took him quite some time to fall asleep.

Monday was my birthday.  Bennett had lots of fun opening my cards and presents.  And yes, my presents were mostly Legos.  Why do you ask?

Then it was time for cake.  Or more specifically, cupcakes.  I did have to bake them myself, but they were quite tasty.

And apparently when you have a three-year-old in the house, hats are a necessary accessory.

On Friday night Bennett went to Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry's while Mummy and Daddy had a date night.  This took a bit of tricky coordination due to daycare closing time, train schedules, etc but we made it work.  And the adult time was nice.

On Saturday we had skating.  Bennett is being his typical self and not wanting to do things on his own- instead wanting help to stand up, march, etc.  Apparently the allure of toys, other kids, etc isn't quite enough.

Then after skating we headed off to OSV.  This weekend we consulted the weather forecast in advance and Saturday was the much nicer day! 

When we got to the farmhouse Ryan remarked again about how she really liked Bennett's Halloween costume.  Guess we really made an impression.  :)  Also while we were at the farm Bennett had been busy watching the animals.  Then he looked over and saw Dave.  Bennett ran over saying, "Hi Dave.  Whatcha doin?"  Nope, Bennett doesn't feel comfortable there at all.  Nope, not at all.  Ha!

In the tinshop he got to help Phil make more tin biscuit cutters.  Phil didn't seem to remember that we had made one the week prior.  Maybe at this rate I'll have a whole collection!

Here Phil is soldering the ends together.

And then Sunday was errand day.  Chris and I split up in the morning (Bennett going with Daddy) to go to stores in different directions.  I got back just as Chris had put Bennett down for nap and then he went off to work to strike the set.  After about two hours of chattering to himself I finally got Bennett to go to sleep!  If only it weren't such a struggle.

The non-Halloween parts of our week

Most of last week was prep for Halloween, and as you may have seen, there was a separtate post about that.  But this is the rest of what happened last week.

One morning Bennett and I had a conversation in the car about whether or not Doc and Blue (and Lance and Henry) eat manglewurzels.  I was pretty impressed because he picked up this new word on the first try.

And continuing with Bennett in the car, here's a couple of pictures of him looking extremely grown up this week.  Maybe it's the longer hair and the sweaters, but he just looks so much older to us all of a sudden.

 

And then on Sunday we went to Secret Lake to celebrate the various fall birthdays.

The first thing Bennett did when we got there was climb on Rosalind.  (Named after the Rosalind mentioned in Romeo and Juliet.)

Then we went outside for a walk and Grandpa had Bennett climb a big rock.

We later went for another walk and encountered a tree that had been partially cut down by a beaver.  We tried to get Bennett to pretend to be a beaver, but he wasn't interested.

Here we are enjoying our Fall birthday pumpkin cinnamon rolls.  (There were 5 of us with birthdays in Sep-Nov.)

And that sums up the rest of our week.

It's starting to feel like fall

Thanks to his birthday, Bennett now has some new games to play with. The first one that we opened was Zingo Bingo.  They have this at school so Bennett was familiar with it already.  Two chips with pictures on them are revealed at a time and you have to match them to the images on your card. 

This week Bennett also spent lots of time working on his new puzzles.  The 24 piece puzzle he can practically do with his eyes closed but he still asks for help with the 60 and 100 piece puzzles, although I'm sure he'll master those soon enough. 

We also played some Memory.  This one will take a little longer for him to get the hang of.  He likes to turn over more than 2 cards at a time.  One thing that's nice is that at the moment he doesn't seem to get upset if he doesn't win.  I'm sure this will change soon enough, but for now it's nice.

Doesn't everyone do headstands on the couch?

Friday was Daddy's birthday.  Bennett was very excited to help open presents and blow out the candles on the cake.  He also said that he had a big birthday but that Daddy had a little birthday.

And blowing out candles (after making sure the lights were out first)

Sunday was WGBH (public broadcasting) Member day at OSV.  Because of this Curious George (and Clifford) were there!  We got our pictures with George and then went inside.

We spent some time in the Fenno House where Bennett made a "quilt".  Normally he just zips through this building, if he goes in at all.

Interestingly none of our favorite people were working, not that we dislike many, but some are better than others about interacting with us. 

We went down a different path than normal and saw the backside of the potter's shop. Mystique ruined when I then peeked in through the windows and saw the thoroughly modern workroom.

After Sturbridge we headed off to Lynn (with Bennett getting a decently long car nap) to go to Fiona's birthday party.  They had a camp theme and all the kids got matching camp T-shirts.

Bennett loved running around and diving into the tents.  I'm surprised he didn't hurt himself!  After making s'mores in ice cream cones, everyone headed off on a nature walk, eating their snacks along the way.

My "baby" is growing up!  He knows to get in line and wait his turn.

On Sunday we went apple picking.  There was an event for the Children's Hospital Miracle Makers as a way of saying "thanks" for raising a certain amount of money.  The orchard was PACKED!  The elements that were organized by Children's were well done, but the lines, misinformation, having to ride the train, etc (all issues related to the orchard) were very frustrating.  We were able to pick some peaches and apples, had lunch, and did some playing, but it's not an orchard I would recommend- really overpriced (luckily we didn't have to pay admission, just for the extra apples we bought) and way too crowded.

And on a housekeeping note, I now have ads on the sidebar of the blog.  It probably won't amount to anything, but I figure if it gets me even the tiniest bit of revenue, it's better than nothing, right?  So if you feel inclined, please consider clicking on the ads.

A Curious George Party: Bennett's Third Birthday Recap

I'll be the first to admit it.  I didn't come up with most of these ideas.  Hey, that's what the internet is for, right?  We just took a couple of things to the next level.  I think a friend of mine hit the nail on the head when she said, "It’s what set designers do when they need a creative outlet. Plan elaborate parties to make us feel um… well too low key."  True, we're not set designers, but a Technical Director and a former Costume Designer wannabee are close enough, right?

Let's start with the invitations.


I decided to put a picture of George on the envelope just in case people couldn't figure out the theme from the invitation.  It's obvious to me, but we're a little obsessed with Curious George in our house.

This is the first idea that I got elsewhere.  The wording was probably pulled from a bunch of different places.  I've looked at so many CG invitations over the past few months that I can't keep them straight.

We used spray adhesive to adhere the cardstock with the wording to the back piece of felt.  Then I used fabric glue at the bottom to hold the top piece of felt on.  Then I added a bit of brown ink to the bottom to make it look more authentic.  I actually had a happy accident with these. The spray adhesive had gotten on the edges of the cardstock so it lightly held the top piece of felt in place so that they didn't shift around too much.  Random question: do you typically peel your bananas from the stem or from the bottom?  I know at least one person tried to open their invitation the "wrong" way.

For those of you who are familiar with the PBS cartoon, you are likely well aware of the Doorman.  We found the original idea here, where they had the doorman on a piece of posterboard.  We kind of joked around about Chris getting one of the grad actors to dress up as our doorman, but then we abandoned that idea (lack of costume) when Chris got a CNC router at work.  Perfect project to learn on!  We were going to have a life-size doorman!

The doorman's dog also is a fixture of the lobby, so naturally we needed a Hundley as well, which Bennett was holding and "petting" in this picture.

From the same site where I got the doorman idea, I got the idea of turning our dining room into Chef Pisghetti's Ristorante.  Since we weren't planning to serve a full meal I figured that our dining room table wouldn't really be needed.  Could we move it out and bring in some smaller tables to make it look like a restaurant?  I think this was the main element of our party that made our friends think we are nuts- we turned out dining room into a restaurant!

Again, Chris put his CNC to work, creating the sign.  We had originally talked about converting the whole wall to look like a building exterior (brick wall, sign, door, windows) but time and money constraints proved to be too great.  You can't really tell in this picture, but the letters and the Chef, as well as the black frame, are raised up higher than the white background.

I sewed strips of fabric together to create the awning (don't look too closely from underneath as I left lots of loose threads), which hung on our existing curtain rod.  Then I made a sleeve at the front in which we slipped some aluminum angle iron and then hung it from the corners using monofilament to a could of nails on other walls.

I had the last minute idea to get some vases of flowers to put on the restaurant tables, but when we were at the grocery store I saw these ornamental pepper plants.  They were perfect!

So what did we serve at Chef Pisghetti's?  Since the party started at 3 we didn't need a full meal.  We stuck with snacks and desserts.

For Bennett's first birthday I had Chris make a few food stands.  It allows me to fit a few more dishes into the same space since they overlap a bit, plus it adds visual appeal.  So every year they get a new coat of spray paint in whatever colors I'm using that year.  Then I just put my food on white plates and put them on top.  Easy peasy.

The cake was another idea that I "borrowed".  There were lots of fun ideas, but this one looked fancy enough but it also looked like something that I might be able to do on my own.  And I got to try using modeling chocolate.  Everything was edible except for George, who was a purchased figurine.  I ended up not putting all of the vines and flowers on because at 11:30pm the night before the party I decided sleep was more important than practicing my piping skills and possibly messing up the cake.

 

I was afraid that there wasn't going to be enough cake (turns out there was more than enough), plus I needed a treat to send in to school on Monday, so I also made monkey cupcakes.

For additional decor, we also had Curious George and The Man With The Yellow Hat.  After all, it wouldn't be a Curious George party without him!  I was inspired by this and this, but ultimately we went with what you see below.

Balloons!  I tend to think of them as being overpriced and unnecessary, but I do love them and find myself getting some every year.  We had the bunch in the photo above, plus the ones below.  I had hi-float put into the latex balloons, so they last about a week.  (Except for 2 that had deflated in less than 12 hours.)

And it wouldn't be a party without games!  It's a little tough to plan some things out since our younger guests range in age from 3 to 11.


Again, borrowing from the internet, we had Yellow Hat ring toss.  These were just sports cones with some electrical tape for the hat band.  And then since they had a tendency to fall over, Chris attached them to a piece of plywood.

We also had Pin the Tie on The Man with the Yellow Hat.  Unfortunately The Man was a bit too tall for Bennett, but he still seemed to have fun.

Since we had such a large range of ages, for prizes I got a selection of books, trying to have something for every age/interest, and let the winners pick which one they wanted.  (Thanks Mel for this idea!)  And the books that weren't chosen will get added to Bennett's collection for when he's a little older.


As we sent our younger guests on their way, they had Curious George favor bags.  (Inspiration from here.)  These were filled with Curious George fruit snacks, a Barrel of Monkeys game, a banana pen, and stickers.

Overall it was a fabulous day. We hadn't told Bennett in advance that he was going to have a Curious George party because we wanted to surprise him.  Grandpa took him out of the house for a few hours in the morning while we decorated and we were expecting him to be really excited when he returned.  He wasn't as excited as we thought he would be, but later in the day he had his George say hi to the cutout George.  And every day when he gets home now he says hi to Hundley, the Doorman, etc.


And of course, Bennett received numerous wonderful gifts!  To name just a few, he got books (both Curious George and others), toy farm animals, a fife, and then this... We have one family who every year create an elaborate gift/packaging.  How awesome is this hot air balloon?

 And to make it even better, inside the balloon (there was a slit in the back) was this photo of a Curious George sand sculpture that they had made for Bennett.