April 28th - May 4th

For this week of catch-up we go back to the end of April/ beginning of May.  It was a week with very few pictures.

Monday
Proving that he has an active imagination, Bennett told me the story of Mr. Smee's closet, which is downstairs next to Captain Hook's closet.  It has sweaters (Smee was cold) and shirts.

Tuesday
Again with the active imagination, as we were about to leave for school Bennett started talking about how "hola" was in the garden.  It was only when he mentioned a snowman that I realized that he meant Olaf from the movie Frozen.  And then he talked about Frozen all the way to school, and again on the way home.

Wednesday
Grandpa picked Bennett up early from school.  The weather was kind of icky so they went back to Grandpa's house where Bennett created an art project entitled "house".  When we got home from work Grandpa brought Bennett home and stayed for dinner.  Bennett was quite the fan of the Papa John's garlic dipping sauce.

"House"

Thursday
Tonight Bennett gobbled up his steak and potatoes.  He tried asparagus and said he liked it, but then wasn't a fan of his second bite.  We'll have to try it again later.

Friday
Tonight was the Good Shepherd rummage sale.  Due to timing we ate dinner in the car and Bennett surprised us by how neatly he ate and also how much he ate.  Guess a growth spurt might be coming.  We picked up lots of good stuff at the rummage sale- some Duplos, movies, a Skippy John Jones book, a vintage Fisher Price stove, hose reel, and a puzzle (unfortunately it's missing a piece).

Saturday
Chris' Great-Aunt Elsie passed away so we went to her funeral in Connecticut on Saturday.  Bennett was a little unclear on what exactly was happening and what things were (what was the casket, what were the people doing with it, etc) but overall he was pretty well behaved.
Grandma and Grandpa Tedford had come up from Georgia for the funeral so since they were so close, they came up to our house afterwards.
Bennett napped on the way home and then for a little longer once we got home.  When he woke up we all went outside and did a little bit of yard work- putting in some edging around a couple of flower beds and started spreading some mulch.
For dinner we made one of our OSV recipes-- friccassee chicken white.  Not as good as when we went to the DCV, but still pretty good.

Sunday
Grandma and Grandpa came with us to Sturbridge for our weekly visit.  Bennett continues his now weekly habit of drawing in the dirt with a stick.  At least he's happy, right?

With Grandma and Grandpa in the Tavern after lunch.

Back at home, after nap we worked on spreading mulch but of course almost as soon as we started it started to rain.  I think it was a short-lived rain, but by the time we were cleaned up and inside again we had lost motivation to go back out and work some more.

Advent, week 3

 Quite a busy week for us!  I'll be happy when things quiet down a bit.  Wish I had some time to just sit at home and relax.  I did take Christmas Eve off, but I think the morning will be willed with last minute errands and wrapping presents and then Bennett will be home in the afternoon.

Monday's Advent activity was to watch Frosty the Snowman.  I don't think Bennett was very intersted.

On Tuesday we opened this magic growing Christmas Tree that was supposed to grow to 6x its size.  (May take up to 72 hours.)  It's now been over 6 days and it has barely grown at all.

Tuesday night we got lots of snow, so when we got home from work/school on Wednesday Bennett got to help shovel the snow.  I stayed inside where it was nice and warm and took horrible photos through the window.  :)

On Wednesday Bennett also got to make Santa's beard out of cotton balls.

Thursday we brought Brit to the vet.  She's been loosing a lot of weight and isn't eating.  (She now weighs only 5 lbs.)  The vet took some x-rays.  She's constipated and likely either has irritable bowel or a tumor, but without further testing he can't say which.  We switched her to some different food which she hungrily ate the first day and has now grown less interested in, and also gave us a laxative to give to her twice a day.

As a somewhat related question, how do you decide how much testing to do for a pet who is 13 years old?  We can't spend too much more on testing and treatment.   I don't think she's in pain, but we also know she isn't healthy. 

When we got home Bennett watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

On Friday Bennett got to color one of those $1 craft packs that comes with a little coloring book, some crayons, and stickers.  I think after about one minute he had lost interest in it.

Saturday was a busy day.

 And not the best video, but it does show Bennett standing up and marching on his own.  He had been doing a lot more marching just before this, but of course I was late getting the camera ready.

After skating we went to the mall for the official photo with Santa.  It was definitely a popular day for visiting Santa and we ended up having to wait in line for about an hour.  Luckily everyone seemed to be in good spirits about it.

And here's a collage of the past years.  I love that it's the same Santa/backdrop in all of the pictures.

And as if our Saturday wasn't busy enough, we had friends over in the afternoon for the annual graham cracker house decorating.  It was a smaller group than usual this year as a few friends couldn't make it and others got sick en route and had to cancel.

Sunday morning we ran some errands doing some grocery shopping, etc.  The afternoon was full of baking.  I made 3 batches of fudge and Bennett made some cookies with Daddy.  Then later I made some Chewy Noels.  Another batch of Chewy Noels and another batch of cookies are still planned.

And that wraps up our week!  I hope this week will be a bit more quiet, but we will see.  The elves are busy in our house trying to get some gifts finished up.

Advent activities

Dinners for the past couple of weeks have felt very rushed.  We try to think of what we can make quickly so that we have time for whatever our Advent activity is.

Monday wasn't too bad.  Bennett got to watch Rudolph.  I tried watching with him, but he was really fidgeting and asking too many questions so I had to get off the couch.

On Tuesday we made birdseed ornaments to give as gifts. Some of them turned out better than others.  Later in the week I made some more since we didn't have enough from the first batch.  I've read some negative reports about these, so hopefully they don't crumble too much or grow mold.

Wednesday's Advent item was some winter pencils.  Kind of lame, but Bennett liked them.  We asked him to draw a picture for Santa of what he wants for Christmas.  He drew "a red present with a bow".

On Thursday we made a cotton ball snowman.  I made the face but Bennett did the rest.

On Friday I had my work holiday party so we enlisted Grandpa to babysit.  At 3:30 I got a call from school that Bennett had a fever.  Grandpa still watched Bennett but since Bennett was under the weather I don't think they were able to have much fun- pretty much dinner and bed.  

On Saturday we had planned to go take the "official" photos with Santa but Bennett was still not feeling well so we ended up watching lots of movies/tv-- Cars, Toy Story, and multiple episodes of Curious George.

Saturday night it snowed.  On Sunday Bennett went to Nana's house.  He helped shovel the driveway and then they went for a walk in the snow.  Later on Auntie Hanna came over and they all went to pick out a Christmas Tree.  They came home in time for nap and then later we ran some errands.

That wraps up the 2nd week of Advent!