Fortnightly review

Once again this post will cover multiple weeks.  One of these days I'll get back into regular weekly posting.  Hey, a girl can dream, can't she?

We start off our recap with Presidents' Day.  Chris and I had off from work but Bennett's daycare was open.  We took advantage of that and took a trip to Ikea.  Then in the afternoon I finished sewing a bonnet for my costume.

Bennett and Daddy later had lots of fun racing some cars down a ramp made of Ikea boxes.

One day while in the car Bennett drew a picture of our cat Tony.  We didn't see what he was doing as he was drawing, but he mentioned legs, a tail, the head, a collar, and a heart shaped tag.  Considering most of his drawings are still indiscernible scribbles, we were rather impressed when we saw this.

On the 22nd Bennett had his last skating class.  They gave him a ribbon indicating that he had passed Tot 1, but we're pretty skeptical about that.  We had decided to hold off on signing him up again though because he spends a lot of time on the ice just people watching and doesn't seem all that interested.  So maybe next year he'll be back?

The other exciting part of our weekend was that Chris and I along with Andrew, Gentry, and 9 strangers participated in a Dinner in a Country Village at OSV.  Sturbridge explains it best:

Enjoy a unique opportunity to prepare and eat a meal as early New Englanders did. Participants gather in the Parsonage, where costumed interpreters oversee the preparations, but the guests do the roasting, baking, and mulling. Roast meat using a tin reflector oven, fire a brick bake oven, and mull spiced cider over the hearth before sitting down to enjoy the results, all by candlelight.

Chris and I had gone to one of these events last March and knew we wanted to do it again.  Andrew and Gentry agreed to join us, and Andrew also suggested that I dress up, so for the past two months I've been busy sewing.  I'll get more into my costume at a later time, but for now here are a few pictures from the dinner.

While we were out Bennett spent the night with Nana.  He had lots of fun baking, playing in the snow, etc.

On Sunday we picked Bennett up from Nana's house and went back to OSV.  Yes, it's official.  We're crazy.  I showed a picture of my costume to one of the interpreters and her first thought was that I was Victoria.  (Woo hoo!  My costume was a success.)  She then asked me why I didn't work/volunteer at OSV.

It was a good visit with a couple of baby animals.  Button had her calf, a girl, earlier in the week  Button and the calf were in a mostly private barn but one of the interpreters snuck us in to take a look.  Button apparently wasn't too thrilled because she pushed the door closed on us.  The message was clear- stay away from my baby.

There also was a baby lamb.

Perhaps the most entertaining part of the afternoon though was the running of the sheep.  Typically the sheep are kept in a pasture at one side of the common during the day, and in the afternoon they run down the common to go to their barn for the night.  At first that's what we thought was happening, but then we realized that none of the interpreters were around.  Turns out the sheep had broken through their gate.  Unfortunately the gate by the barn was closed so there were a number of confused sheep milling around.  We thought about opening the gate for them, but soon a couple of interpreters arrived.

Bennett quickly turned a toy cow/ox/calf that he had received in January into Button's calf for use on his farm.  "Shhh, my Button's calf is sleeping."

Continuing with the weekly pie, we once again had a Pork and Apple Pie.

Moving on to this past week...

Here I am rocking my baby while he rocks his baby

On Saturday morning I wanted to make my pie and Chris was busy with other things.  I let Bennett watch Cars, but since I also wanted him to eat some breakfast (he chose cheese and crackers) I set him up on the couch with a tray.  This worked rather well for containing crumbs.  Otherwise he would have been up and down from the couch or would have forgotten about eating.

And speaking of pie, I found a new one in one of my cookbooks called Fruit Salad Pie.  It had banana, pineapple, and strawberries with tapioca as a thickener/binder.  It was ok, but I'm not sure that I would make it again.

After the pie came out of the oven we headed out to Sturbridge.  Knowing that Button was going to have a calf soon we stopped at the gift shop and picked up a toy calf for Bennett so that he would have it when the time came. A few minutes later we learned that Bonnie had had her calf the night before.  And it was a boy!  The hope is now that Betsy will also have a boy so that they can be raised as a pair of oxen.  If Betsy has a girl then this boy would be raised for about a year and then it would be sold.

We suggested to Rhys (the interpreter in charge of all the animals) that this new calf should be named Bennett since we come so often.  We'll have to see if that happens.  As it is, Button's calf still doesn't have a name.  Rhys gave Bennett and I a sneak peek at the calf and later he brought others into the pen as well, but we lucked out with a much longer look.  Since Chris had been in the cooper shop when Bennett and I saw the calf, he joined the line of people to get the quick peek.  I had Bennett go with him and I gave Bennett the new calf.  He proudly showed the calf his Bonnie's calf and Rhys asked if that was the calf for his Freeman Farm.


Bennett had also brought his Doc and Blue with him and of course had to show them to the real Doc and Blue.  Here we have Blue giving Doc a bath.

After Sturbridge we headed out to Agawam.  Luckily Bennett fell asleep quickly in the car, but it was still a shorter nap than we would have liked.  Oh well.  He had a blast playing with the other kids (he excitedly told us about their dance party).  I'm sure he frustrated them a bit given that there's a bit of an age difference, but they were pretty good about it.

On Sunday we had a relatively quiet day.  We visited Mimi and then ran some other errands.

In the News...

Bennett had his picture in the paper yesterday!  There was a photographer at Sturbridge while we were there on Saturday.  Here's the clipping.

But let me back up...
More Daddy Daycare on Wednesday.  They started off the morning watching part of the Curious George movie.  Bennett sat in Daddy's lap and hardly moved.

Then it was time to go on a field trip.  First they stopped at Brandeis to visit Daddy's co-workers (and help Alicia fix her lamp) and then they came to my work and we all had lunch together.

When they got to my office Bennett had his first experience walking through a revolving door.  It was just like on TV/ in movies with the person continuing to walk around.

On Thursday my work had our summer outing at Kimball's.  Bennett LOVED the bumper boats and we went on them three times.  Going again in the future may prove slightly more difficult since the boats aren't cheap and he's not going to understand why we can't ride them multiple times.  Plus we lucked out with hardly any lines.

Friday's Daddy Daycare started off with reading a pile of Dr. Seuss books in bed.

Then it was time for a field trip to Woodcraft where Bennett descided to accessorize with dust collection fittings.

Bennett also picked out his clothes and decided that the shirt made him look like a cowboy.

Other highlights of the day included Chris announcing that it was lunch time, Bennett going into the kitchen, opening the fridge, getting the jam out, and then grabbing a grape.  He then ran back into the living room to announce to Daddy that he had taken a grape.

He also announced that he's had hamcheese at Sturbridge yesterday.  Not sure where this came from since he hadn't been to Sturbridge since the weekend.

But speaking of Sturbridge, let's get into some more details from our visit.  Saturday was their annual "Fire and Ice" day.  (Well, technically they also have Fire and Ice in the winter when they celebrate the ice harvest.)  There were lots of fire trucks and other fire aparatus, a bucket brigade contest, and they would be making ice cream.

While we were at home getting ready to leave, Bennett was playing with some dress up clothes.  We mentioned that we were going to go to Sturbrudge and that there would be firetrucks there.  He grabbed one of his firehats (apparently he has 4 of them!) and asked if he could wear it.  We said sure, but swapped it for a different one with an elastic.  Much easier to stay on his head, and as it turned out, also easier to carry when he wasn't wearing it. 

When we got to the parking lot there were a couple of trucks for kids to explore.  One was a canteen (complete with a mobile bathroom) and then there was also a more typical (at least to me) truck.  Bennett climbed around the seats and up on the back.

Once we got inside there was thsi antique truck, a couple more modern ones, and some handtubs.  He wasn't a fan of the siren on this one, but he did like sitting in the seat and ringing the bell.

We checked out this exhibit with a cow that you can "milk".  He loves to visit this spot every time we come, and the cow has been out of order for a while.  I also gave it a try and sprayed some water on Bennett, and then of course he wanted to keep spraying himself.

A highlight of the day was the bucket brigade contest.  Bennett kept asking to do it, and luckily he had a chance when the contest was all over.  In the first round, there was a 3 way tie with a time of 1:01.  In the second round they narrowed it down to 50 seconds, and then in the final round, I think the winning time was 47 seconds.  Wow those people were quick!  And it was one of the teams of teenagers that won.

There also was a chili contest with various local restaurants supplying the chili.  The Publick House (which is where we had our wedding reception) won!

After the teams finished up the bucket brigade, Bennett and some other kids decided to give it a try.  Or at least they had fun dipping buckets (or hats) into the water, spilling some on themselves, and emptying tiny amounts into the barrel.  Good thing they weren't being timed. 

As this was going on I noticed the photographer taking pictures of the kids.  I think initially Bennett didn't have his Fire Chief hat on, but I put it on him and he kept playing.  After a little while the photographer came over and asked for names/ages.  He mentioned what paper he was with and that there would likely be a slideshow on the website later that day and that he wasn't sure if it would be in the Sunday paper or not.

Sure enough, that evening I found the online slideshow.  Bennett's in there and all of us are in the background of another photo as well.  And then on Sunday I found the article online.  I had meant to look for the paper when I was at the grocery store in the morning but I forgot.  In the afternoon we walked to a couple of local drugstores but they didn't have them.  I guess we were just out of their circulation area.

So after Bennett went to bed I went out to a grocery store in a nearby town and found a copy of the paper.  Sure enough, there was Bennett!  Here's a link to the article which is posted above, but now you'll actually be able to read it.  If you scroll down a bit you'll see the photo of Bennett, and you can click to see it larger, as well as another link to see the slideshow with a few other photos.

The other fun from Saturday was hearing the ice cream truck.  Bennett and I went out and I got him a popsicle.  This thing proved to be very messy!  He had red stained hands, face, legs, and even a dribble down his chest.

Before

After

On Sunday we had friends over for food and games.  We started off with brunch- pancakes, donuts, cinnamon rolls, fruit.  Yum!  Then we headed outside for a water fight.  The goal was to get Jason soaked, and I'd say we accomplished that. (For some reason we always pick on Jason, seen here with the hose.)

Bennett had fun, but he didn't quite understand why people kept taking water out of his pool.

After the water fight we went in to dry off/ change clothes and play some more games.  The kids played with Bennett's toys and the adults played Dicecapades.

At the end of the day we asked Bennett what he liked best.  He said "playing choo choos with 'BJ' (DJ) and Davis"  He also had lots of books read to him by Caitlyn.  Thanks for being such a good sport Caitlyn.  The boy certainly loves his books!

Daddy Daycare and Weekend Fun

Daddy Daycare-
Chris has July (mostly) off from work so is watching Bennett a couple of days a week.  The other days Bennett goes to school and Daddy stays home and works on his etsy business.  One of the benefits of Chris being home is that I get texts throughout the day letting me know what's going on.  Below are some of the texts and photos that Chris has sent to me.  Comments from me are in parentheses.

Friday 7/5

• 99 big yellow hats on the wall, 99 big yellow hats.  If one of those hats should happen to fall...  It takes that many hats to get to the country house.  (This is a Curious George reference.  We find it odd that sometimes they live in the city and sometimes in the country.  The books are this way as well, with no explanation of them moving or getting a vacation home.)
• Now we're doing Legos.  He's building a "house".  Pieces that don't fit are "bad".

•  "my lunch"

• Just read the Sandra Boynton collection.  This was after reading the other half of the bookshelf.
• He's washing the table with his squirt gun.
• Ice cream soda.  Literally.

• Clifford is attacking me.  Just in case you wonder why I'm not here when you get home.
• Bennett would like to go to the store with you.  He wants corn on the cob for lunch.
• I have to make hotdogs outside.  And he didn't mention going outside until I asked if he wanted a hotdog for lunch. (You can't make it on the stove?) Nope.  Outside.  (Have fun with that.  Maybe he'll run around a bit and tire himself out for nap?)  I'm doing them inside.  (Wimp. )  I'm caving. (Ha.  He's whining, isn't he.  "My want outside.")  No. Just politely insisting that hotdogs go outside.
• "I need shoes.  Get those.  Go outside.  I need hat."
• Apparently the leaves all over the deck are the result of "Daddy make mess outside."
• We're using the umbrella.  Cause we also have to eat outside for hotdogs. (which in the next few days prompted multiple conversations where Bennett asked why Daddy opened the umbrella.)
• George is going to Scotland.  To play golf.  At the Uncle with the Green Tam's Castle.  The Man With The Yellow Hat (TMWTYH) has a brother who has to show the deed on the castle every year or pay the back taxes.  400 years worth.  Otherwise he has to move out by 3pm.  TMWTYH was wearing a kilt.  Yellow of course.  No tam.

Wednesday 7/10

• Your son took out his umbrella and held it over his head on the way in to Wegmans.  Then put it away when we got inside.  (He doesn't have an umbrella, so this was all pantomimed.)
• He pinched his neck in the car.  He said "kiss my neck when get home.  Give me big hug and kiss."  I said sure thing.
• (He then sent this photo, which I recognized as being a "house".)

• Everyone is sitting down to watch the movie.  Curious George of course.  That uses all of the Legos.  The ones that don't have wheels anyway.

• Ate half of a hamcheese (this is what Bennett calls it) sandwich.  Left some of the cheese, which is weird.  Took it apart and ate the ham, then some cheese and then ate the bread.
• (@1:40) Went up at 1.  He's still talking.
• (@2:40) He just pooped so maybe now he'll sleep.
• (@3:04) He finally fell asleeo shortly after the poop.
• And we're outside in the pool.  (It's that nice out?) It was kinda nice.  Then the rain started.  He wasn't happy about having to come inside.

Friday 7/12

• Mummy, I waked up.
• (Absolutely GORGEOUS weather!  Cooler temperature and very little humidity.)  Almost let him play in the pool this morning.  But I think we'll wait until this afternoon. (I was wondering about that.  Still a little cool for the pool.  Did you empty it?  And if so, did he freak out?)Nope.  He actually wanted to help.
• Pumping up bike tires. We may need to go for a ride later. (OK.  If it stays this nice, I'm game.)

• He's helping inflate tires.  It's very tiring. (It's good to put him to work.  Hopefully he gets more air in the tires than he lets out.) He didn't help for long.  But now he wants to go for a bike ride.  And I'm not up for that right now. (That was your fault for working on them now.  I could have told you he would want a ride now.) But that's what's been stopping us, right? (Yes, but you should have been prepared to do a ride right now.) Nope.  Teaching him about being patient.  And we don't want to prevent Mummy from having fun.  
• (This photo of Bennett in a pirate hat sweeping around the garden.)

• He's kicking his soccer ball around the garden.
• And now we have a cape and going up the rock wall.
• (after nap) And now for the pool.

When I got home we did go for a bike ride.  He was very excited!

And now for the weekend recap.

On Saturday morning Bennett went to Nana and Grandpas.  He mentioned numerous times how we walked with Grandpa to the playground and his shoes got all wet because he jumped in puddles.

After nap Bennett started working on some puzzles.  These are a couple of Curious George puzzles that he's working on.  He's done them so many times he almost has them memorized.  

We went to Toys R Us looking for some more challenging puzzles.  We weren't thrilled with the selection, but we spent a while exploring the store.  He did really well and didn't get too upset when we had to leave.

On Sunday we went back to Sturbridge.  I'm wondering if we're now averaging 3+ visits a month.  Last year we went about every other week.

In the visitor's center is this display on the wall explaining how to direct the oxen.  I think Bennett may need some lessons.

While taking a ride with Pete and Jim Bennett started waving and saying hi to the horses leading the stagecoach.  So we asked our driver what their names were- Worthy and Barney. (Shown here are Pete and Jim.)

I made a book of photos from the first year of our OSV membership.  Bennett loves looking at it.  I've already started one for his year as well.  I decided that it should have a "meet the animals" page, so I took a number of photos of the animals.  Here's the new calf, Summer, who was born on the Summer Solstice (June 21st.)

On the daily agenda was "Meet the oxen".  Since it was down at the farm we thought it would be Lance and Henry, but instead Doc and Blue came up the road pulling a wagon of teasel.  We told the farmer about how Bennett was directing imaginary oxen around the house and he thought that was funny.  He mentioned that his son sometimes uses these types of commands (gee, haw, ho, etc.) to direct him around the grocery store.

After lunch Bennett participated in the French and English tug of war.  He was on the English side, but unfortunately they lost. Maybe because right before they started pulling Bennett ran off to the water pump.

That's right, filling his hat up at the pump and dumping it on his head was much more fun.  At least it cooled him off a bit.

Here's Worthy and Barney.  (Worthy is on the right.)

Why yes, I do have my son pose as girls.

And that pretty much wraps up our week!

Happy 4th of July Week

The week was a little wonky with the 4th of July holiday on a Thursday.  Bennett wrapped up school for the week on Wednesday.  Lots of patriotic crafts were made this week!  They made fireworks (painted the tips of Q-tips and glued them on black construction paper), foot/handprint flags, and colored the Statue of Liberty below and also Uncle Sam who is further down this post.

On the 4th we decided to go to Sturbridge.  It was HOT, but still a good time.  Visiting the cooper shop seems to be a new tradition of Bennett's and he always wants to sit down on this bench to give it a try.

While we were in the cooper shop we found out more about the "save the sawmill" fundraising campaign.  We are all for saving the sawmill, but none of the information really said what exactly we were saving.  (unlike last year's gristmill project which was to repair the water wheel).  Turns out the roof and some of the rafters are pretty rotted and need to be replaced.  With a deadline of October we keep wondering when they are going to get started on the repairs.

When we were down at the farm Bennett pet a chicken!!! This is huge for him because he normally doens't want to pet animals.  He could have pet the calf but he wanted nothing to do with that.  One of the women was holding the chicken though so I wonder if that had something to do with it.  Maybe she was much more approachable (and cat-like) that way?

We made our way back to the center village and noticed Rhys (the employee) heading into Doc and Blue's pen.  He hitched them into the yoke and then started brushing them.  Once they were good and brushed he started walking them around to tire them out a bit before the procession

We decided to have a picnic lunch out on the common.  As we were eating Bennett kept asking where Doc and Blue were.  Luckily they were usually somewhere in eyesight.

We also got to meet Lance and Henry.  Ever wonder which is which when you hear the names of a pair of animals?  Well, when they are hitched up, the first name always refers to the one on the right (when you look at them in this direction.)  We also were wondering how we would be able to tell them apart when they weren't hitched up and we discovered that Henry has the horns that stick out like a Longhorn.  (With Doc and Blue, Doc's horns point down.)

Sturbridge is a fun place to visit on the 4th because the families of the employees are welcome to come and be costumed.  This is a great way to get some extra kids in costume.  A small group of kids went to the school, and this group became a mini-militia who got a crash course in musket handling.

Finally it was time for the procession!

Please excuse the jitteriness of the video, especially at the beginning.  Lots of waiting around for a procession that took less than two minutes!

And then afterwards Bennett kept talking about Doc and Blue in the parade.

When the procession had made its way back to the common it was time for a Naturalization Ceremony.  How neat!  (There had been increased security and bag checks to get into the village because of this.)  Unfortunately it was about nap time and Bennett didn't want to stay still and be quiet so we missed most of the ceremony.  But imagine our surprise when we ran into Uncle Andrew and Aunt Gentry while on the way to the bathroom!  We chatted for a bit and then headed out.
 We made a quick stop in the playground area because they have more cut-outs.

Back at home it was a continuation of a car nap and then when he woke up we went outside to cool down.  Befitting the holiday, Bennett had a patriotic swimsuit in his pile of hand-me-downs.  We went outside and played in the pool.  I'd given him some balls made of cut up sponges as well as some shower poofs and he had lots of fun playing with those.  (The next day he learned he could thrown them at Mummy and Daddy to get them wet.)

There's a saying that when growing corn on the cob it should be "knee high by the 4th of July" so I had to climb onto my garden bed to test this out.  Perhaps for the 1st time in the 4 or so years I've tried growing corn, it's actually higher than my knees!

And to wrap yo the holiday, here's a blurry Uncle Sam costume from school.

This summer Bennett will be spending some extra time with Daddy.  This gives them some extra bonding time but also helps our budget out a bit.  So on Friday Bennett stayed home with Daddy and played.  (This is his Duplo "house".)

And here's Bennett reading a circular and telling Daddy about all the tools that he should buy.

On Saturday we decided to go to the Children's Museum.  Our membership expires at the end of the month and we haven't used it nearly as much as we should. 

Once of the features of the museum is a 3-storey climber.  We thought Bennett would love it.  We were wrong.  The first time he tried it there were a bunch of other kids around so we thought that was the problem- he didn't want to push past them.  So we tried it again later, but nope.  Not sure what the problem was.  Usually he's a pretty active and adventurous guy.  Maybe he just didn't understand it?  Still too many people?  Who knows.

Instead we checked out some other areas such as creating power by riding bikes or walking around in a circle.

Then we went upstairs and he got to play in the store.  Using the cash register was lots of fun.

In the construction room he got to check out the Bobcat.

Daddy got to be a construction worker.

And Bennett was a welder.

In the gift shop Bennett discovered the selection of Curious George toys.  He even took one of the stuffed George's around to show him some of the other toys.

On the way back to the car we stopped at the Fire Museum.  It's just a small place with a couple of engines but Bennett was allowed to climb up on this one.

And speaking of fire stations, on Sunday (which we spent at home) Bennett played with some of Daddy's Legos.  This was a set that Bennett had gotten Chris for Father's Day.  Not only is it a big firestation, but it also has a couple of trucks and a helicopter.  Bennett's still a little young to play with this, but he had fun.

And I'll wrap up this post with a video of Bennett directing Doc and Blue around the house.  It's mostly him (at the end) saying "Doc, back".  This is because while we were watching the oxen Doc kept trying to move away and Rhys had to keep telling him to back up.  I guess Bennett picked up on that because all of a sudden we noticed him on Friday night with an imaginary stick (whip) saying, "Doc, back".  It took us a bit to figure it out, but once we realized what he was doing we thought it was pretty cute.