April 21st - 27th

Once again I'm rather behind with my blog posting. This was last week, and I hope to get to the weeks that I missed.

Last week was Administrative Professionals week.  I came in to find some lovely flowers on my desk and later received a gift card.  That was especially appreciated!  Last summer we started using a new budgeting program and we quickly realized that we were spending way beyond our means.  As a result we had to significantly cut back on eating out.  So Friday night we were able to go out since we had some extra money!

On Monday we had three yards of mulch delivered.  Of course that was the last of the nice days so we haven't had a chance to deal with it since it was delivered.  I also need to put some edging in between the flower beds and the lawn, so that needs to get done before the mulch can be spread. 

Bennett had a blast though playing with the mulch pile and finding some clumps of dirt that had been mixed in and putting them into the garden beds.

Friday we stopped at Home Depot and Bennett had to check out the riding lawnmowers.  No idea if he knows that they really are- to him they are meant to be climbed on and sat on.

On Saturday we had soccer but when Bennett decided about half way through class that he would rather just lay down on the field, we decided it was time to go.

By leaving early this did give us a little more breathing room when we got home so that Bennett could play for a while before we headed out to Sturbridge for a family reunion.  We were a little concerned about how he would handle going to the town of Sturbridge without going to OSV and if he would get upset when we turned earlier than normal, but he surprised us by not really reacting at all.

The reunion was for members of the Bennett family.  (Yes, that's where he got his name.)  My great grandmother was one of 16 (or was it 17???) children and this reunion was for decedents of those 16- plus one who came from a cousin to the original 16.

There was a large family tree displayed and at one point Bennett looked over and noticed that his name was on it in multiple places.  Nice to know that he can recognize his name!

And here's a group shot of everyone in attendance.

On Sunday we had our weekly OSV trip.  This time Bennett brought Dolly along.  (Mom, no pictures!)

Apparently we've been going more frequently on Saturdays recently because one of the interpreters commented that we were there on a Sunday.  I suppose it is true that we've been more on Saturdays lately but that's mostly based on the schedule of events and other weekend plans.

In the farmhouse Bennett helped Victoria whisk eggs for a flour pudding.  He also filled the woodbox with very little prompting.  Maybe that will be a weekly task for him?

We also walked by all of the mills and Daddy explained how the water made the sawmill work.

Chip was working in the tinshop on this visit.  He mentioned that he had gotten the wood that he was using (as a backboard for punching tin for a lantern) from Phil and Bennett chimed in, "Daddy has wood at his work".  Yup, that he does.

Anyway, that wraps up the week.  Hopefully I'll get the other posts up soon!

The remainder of Advent and Christmas Festivities

On Monday when I picked Bennett up from school they proudly showed me that he had written his name.  For the lower one, the teacher wrote his name first and then had him trace it in multiple colors.  And then he wrote his name on top.  Yay!

When we got home I didn't have anything special for Advent because I goofed and let him watch the planned movie over the weekend.  (A Curious George Christmas movie.)  For dinner I made pancakes including one that looked like Frosty the No-man pancake, as Bennett calls them since he doesn't pronounce the S.

Tuesday was Christmas Eve.  Bennett went to school in the morning so that we could have time for wrapping presents, last minute shopping, and scrambling to finish his big gift.  More on that later.  I picked him up after lunch and we came home for nap.  Of course it took him a while to fall asleep.

After nap (which we had to wake him from) we put on spiffy clothes and then headed off to pick up Nana and Auntie Hanna before heading to church.  After church we went back to their house for dinner and presents. 

Bennett started to play with bowls, measuring cups, etc and Nana gave him an apron to wear while he "cooked".

Lighting a candle with Nana.

Opening presents.

When we got home Bennett put out milk and cookies for Santa and then got changed into his new Christmas PJs.  While visions of sugarplums danced in his head, the elves were hard at work scrambling to get Bennett's big present (a recreation OSV barnyard) finished presentable.  Last week Chris knew that everything wasn't going to get done in time so he decided to just focus on the walls and fences.  We lucked out and one of his co-workers offered to paint the walls for us.  Woo hoo!  So Tuesday morning/afternoon Chris worked to get the fences finished and painted.  Around lunch time he asked me, what do you think about having buildings temporarily made out of cardboard?  At last, a step in the process that I could work on!  So I spent Bennett's naptime working on barns and after he went to sleep we were up to about 1am working on gluing fences into place and crafting cardboard buildings.  It actually helped the process a bit because we could think through some of the construction process, decide which beams could be eliminated from the design, what needs to be changed for the final product, etc.

Monday night progress

And the end result?  Bennett loved it!  He'd received a few animals for his birthday so we had those set up at the farm-- pigs in their pen, the oxen in their pen, Summer (the calf) in her pen, and the horses out in the yard since they technically don't even go with the farm. 

The farm on Christmas morning

MERRY CHRISTMAS!  Bennett woke around his normal time, 7:00.  He let us lounge in bed for a little while and then we went downstairs.  Here's what he saw when he came down the stairs:

His reaction as he saw Doc and Blue.

And even better, here's his reaction in video format!

Shortly after we came downstairs Grandpa came over to join us for breakfast and watching Bennett open presents.  We started with stockings. Bennett got a couple of cows (dubbed them Lance/Henry) and a sheep and immediately went and put them in the farm.

Next we connected with Grandma and Grandpa Tedford via Skype so that they could watch Bennett open all of his presents.  There were LOTS of presents!  When wrapping we realized that tags on Bennett's presents were pointless as almost all of them were for him.  Plus they were the ones in the Cars wrapping paper. 

One of Bennett's presents was a bin with more animals, all of which had to immediately be put on the farm.  He now has:

• A team of oxen (He got these for his birthday.  We intended them to be Lance and Henry but he named them Doc and Blue.
• A pair of horses, Jim and Pete (birthday gift)
• 2 pigs (birthday gift)
• Summer, the calf (birthday gift)
• 4 cows.  These were intended to be Bonnie, Button, Betsy, and Rainy.  He named two of them Lance and Henry (the oxen).  The other two he named Bonnie and Button.
• 2 chickens, a rooster, a group of chicks
• 1 ram, 2 sheep, 4 assorted lambs

Currently 3 of the cows at OSV are pregnant.  I'm not sure what happens when they give birth.  Do we need to get more calves?  Does Summer graduate to being a full-size cow?  Also, one of the pigs is going to be butchered in a few weeks and the other pig will be going to another farm.  Will Bennett want to remove his pigs until they get new ones?

One thing that was interesting to see was how he immediately put the cows into the milking stalls in the barn even though he's never seen the milking stalls in use (we always left for nap before milking time).  How did he know that's where they were supposed to go.

Cows in the milking stalls. 
Chickens sleeping in their coop. 
Horses in the storage area. 
Mater driving down the middle.

All of the animals in their appropriate pens

Other gifts included PJs, books, puzzles, baking items for his play kitchen, a hand knit sandwich (bread, lettuce, Swiss cheese, tomatoes, egg slices), toy cars (Lightning McQueen and Mater), pattern blocks, a Curious George ornament, Duplos....  They boy definitely had a good Christmas!

The animals are "sleeping" so he covered them with "blankets".

Modeling his new dinosaur hat.  (It's a red present.)

After presents it was almost time for lunch and nap.  Shortly after he woke up, Mimi, Uncle Andrew, and Aunt Gentry came over for more celebrating.

After not wanting to wear his crown, he finally put it on and then wore two more as bracelets.

And that pretty much wrapped up the day.  Shortly after everyone left it was time for Bennett to go to bed.  Chris and I did some dishes and then relaxed for a little while.  One more celebration to go on Saturday!

Pumpkins, Halloween, turkeys, and Marlborough Pudding

In preparation for Halloween we carved a pumpkin.  Bennett had absolutely no squeamishness about sticking his hand in to remove the pumpkin guts.

And here's the final pumpkin. Despite what you might think, that's not a raised eyebrow.  That's an eye and what's under it is a nose.

On Halloween we went to Nana's.  After dinner Bennett got into his costume and helped pass out a couple of pieced of candy before we went out.

Most people didn't know what he was (numerous cow and dog guesses) but they all thought he was cute- especially when he turned around and they saw his tail.  He also had a bit of trouble with walking up and down steps and was a bit overwhelmed when there were lots of crowds of other kids.  But overall he did great and Mummy and Daddy got lots of good candy.  :)

The big excitement for the weekend was our weekly trip to OSV on Sunday.

A few weeks ago we had asked what the butchering schedule was and Sunday it was going to be a turkey.  I'll go into more detail about this later so you can skip it if you wish.

Other things that happened:

• Dave mentioned that he liked Bennett's costume
• As we were leaving the Farmhouse we overheard one interpreter (Rob?) asked Victoria, "was that the boy who dressed up as Doc?"  Which then led us to wonder, when she shared the picture with people, how did she preface it?  "You know that crazy family who comes here every week?"  What adjective did she use to describe us?
• I mentioned to Victoria that we were planning to do a Thanksgiving meal of just pies.  (For all extended family members reading this, we will be in NJ on the 28th, but doing Piesgiving [the name Chris and I have now come up with for a Thanksgiving of Pies] on the 30th.)  She said we should do pork and apple pie, to which I responded that I would be having my brother make that one.  And then she said I should make Marlborough Pudding.  I asked for the recipe.  She had Dave get the receipt for her and then I had her translate it for me.  At the end, she asked, "you have my contact information, right?"  Um, nope.  So now I have her email address for any culinary questions.
• We learned some interesting Turkey trivia.  For starters, there's no such thing as a "wild" turkey.  They were all hunted to the point of extinction.  So in the 50s or 60s domesticated turkeys were introduced back into the wild.  So any turkey you see is a descendent of those.  Also, historic breeds don't have much breast meat.  To get the large turkeys that you find at the grocery store, they have so much breast meat that they are unable to mate.  So all of those birds are the result of artificial insemination.
• After we finished up at the Farm we stopped at the blacksmith shop where Chris taught the smith about sap wood.  
• One of our final stops of the day was at the tinshop.  Phil invited Bennett back to get a better look at what he was doing, and then he had Bennett help pull the lever to crimp the edge of the tin for the lantern.

And that pretty much wraps up what happened at Sturbridge, except for the details on the turkey which are below.

But Bennett must have had a good time, because that evening he started playing "Sturbridge".  First he got in his "car" and drove there.  Then he shot a musket and baked a pie.

Daddy: What are you making?
Bennett:  Apple pie.  Not apple sauce.
Daddy: What did you put in it?
Bennett: Cookies

And speaking of pies and Marlborough Pudding, I decided to give it a whirl.  It needs some tweaking, but it was very yummy.  I later found the recipe on OSV's site, which includes some changes I was thinking were needed.  Chris even liked it so much that he said I should make it for real Thanksgiving in addition to Piesgiving.  One of the ingredients in Marlborough Pudding is applesauce, which is likely why Bennett mentioned it for the pie that he was making.

Now I'm going to warn Mel and other people who are squeamish that you may want to stop reading.   The pictures really aren't that bad, but there is a video that might freak you out.  We personally found it highly entertaining, but we're a little strange.
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THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING!
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The first thing we saw as we approached the barnyard was Victoria walking up the road carrying the turkey.  She had the job of holding the turkey while Dave wielded the axe, so she ended up with some blood on her apron and dress while the turkey had flailed a bit. 

The turkey got to "take a bath".  About a minute in the warm water loosens up the pores which allows the feathers to come out more easily.  The water was too warm at first and would have started to cook the bird, so she removed some and added some cold water.  Eventually it was the right temperature.

Then came the task of removing the feathers.  They were separated into two baskets- wing feathers and all the rest.  The good wing feathers would be saved for quills and the other feathers would be washed and used for mattress stuffing, etc.

After all of the feathers had been removed, the turkey was brought inside to be gutted.  First they removed the feet, and then Victoria removed the organs.  As you can see, Bennett wasn't the least bit disturbed by any of this.

I don't have a picture of it, but when she was done Victoria had laid out all of the organs.  She also cut open the stomach so that we could see inside.  It was full of grass, rocks, and even a bug.

And remember that video I mentioned?  She had a little too much fun (especially considering she's a self proclaimed former PETA kid who cried when the turkey was killed) pulling on the tendon to make it wave/dance.  She also allowed the kids to do this if they wanted.  Bennett declined.

So that sums up our visit.  She kept hinting that we would be doing this to our own turkey.  I think I would be ok with some parts of the process but not others.  Next week they butcher a sheep!

Outdoor fun

This weekend we spent LOTS of time outside.  Luckily the rain held off.  But before we get to the weekend, let's review the rest of the week.

A couple of months ago a friend of mine who lives in Michigan mentioned that she was going to be going to Valpo to meet up with a friend of her's and she asked if I wanted her to pick anything up for me.  At first I didn't think I wanted anything but then I thought a shirt for Bennett might be nice.  So now he gets to show his support for Valpo, even though he has no idea what that means.

We walked down to our polling place on Tuesday to vote in the special election.  Bennett came along.  He even got an "I Voted" sticker when we were all done.

Bennett got to try out paint with water.  Until it dried it looked pretty yucky since we could see through the paper.  I'm glad I tore the page out of the book so that they didn't all get wet.  Of course the picture was of Curious George.

After dinner one night we went to Dairy Queen.  This is the first cone (that we know of) that Bennett had.  Of course it melted faster than he could eat it so Daddy had to help a bit so that he wasn't a complete sticky mess, although he still got pretty messy.

On Friday when we picked him up from school we were talking to the teachers.  Bennett ran off to the preschool room and returned with this stack of puzzles.  Yup, our boy is puzzle crazy!

When we got hom Friday night we put Bennett to work in the kitchen helping to make hamburgers. 

While the burgers were on the grill, he grabbed a cape that I had made last summer (that until this week he's had virtually no interest in) and his broom and went outside to sweep the grass, the stairs, the deck...

Saturday morning we went to Tougas Farm to pick strawberries.  He only ate 2-3 of them (and those I even had to coax him!) but his face would make you think otherwise.  He was covered in berry juice.

After picking we went over to their playground.  He RAN to the cutout to have his picture taken.

After the swings and the slide he tried out the monkey bars.  We're still a ways away from him being able to do these on his own, but I'm sure that day is coming pretty soon.

On our way to OSV on Sunday (we have to call it OSV because if we say Sturbridge he immediately wants to go) he balanced one of his books on his head in the car.

And it wouldn't be a Sturbridge trip without the cut-out photo.  Yup, I do make him be the girl, although on this ocassion he decided which one to do.

It was hot so we went to the pump so that he could put his head under the spiggot.  But then I thought we should fill his hat up with water which he then poured all over himself.  It had the added benefit of helping reshape his hat!

While we were in the shoe shop Bennett looked out the window and saw the horses.  He started saying "hi horsies" so I took him outside so that he wouldn't distract everyone else.  When we got outside I asked him to say hi to the horses.  He instead said, "Hi Pete.  Hi Jim."  I hadn't remembered the names of the horses, but he did!  I was completely impressed.  Unfortunately the wagon they were pulling was full so we weren't able to take a ride.  And the next time we saw them the wagon was full again!

Down at the Freeman Farm Bennett was able to help with chores.  I think he's still a couple of years away from helping Daddy out at work, but he gave it a good try.  And yes, that is Curious George you see on his back.  He had a CG shirt on as well, and at one point someone referred to him as the Man With the Yellow Hat.  :)