Staycation Week

This past week Grandma and Grandpa Tedford were here and we had a staycation (stay at home vacation).


On Monday we went to Kimball's.  We started off all taking a spin in he bumper boats.  Bennett excitedly shrieked each time he got splashed.  It was awesome.

We then moved on to mini golf.  At the beginning Bennett would put his ball down at the start, hit it, and then carry it closer to the hole before putting it down again and pushing it in.  But by the end he was just taking it down to the hole.  Interesting method, for sure, but he was having fun.

After mini golf we did the bumper boats again.  In the end Chris and I went on them three times with Bennett.  Grandma and Grandpa only did the boats the first time.  But that worked well, because then I was able to get this photo.

We had ice cream in lieu of lunch.  Bennett helped me with a scoop of chocolate and a scoop of butterscotch.

And then we wrapped up the day at the arcade.  We were having fun, but then Chris accidentally stepped on/kicked my foot.  This exacerbated an old toenail injury.  It hurt quite a bit, and when I looked at my foot a few minutes later I noticed there was a pool of blood.  The teenage employee gave us a few meager first aid supplies to patch it up.

When we got home we took a closer look and I realized I needed medical attention.  I called my doctor's office and they sent me to urgent care where the doctor removed my toenail and gave me this stylish shoe.  If you want to see what it looked like on Thursday when we changed the bandage, click here.  Now, a little over a week later, it's healing well and I don't really have any more pain.  I'm still wearing my special shoe mostly to protect my foot from myself.  (I have a tendency to stub my toes a bunch.)  We were very thankful that Grandma and Grandpa were here because they were able to keep an eye on Bennett and make dinner while Chris took me to the doctor. 

On Tuesday morning I started the day with some cuddles with Bennett.  This is most unlike him!  He'll sit still (mostly) for a story or to watch Curious George, but that's about it.  Maybe he knew I wasn't 100%, because he snuggled in bed with me for at least 15 minutes or so.

For fun and excitement we went to the Ecotarium in Worcester. 

I liked this tribute to Kenda who was a beloved polar bear of those in the area in the 80s.

After looking at the various exhibits in the museum and looking at the animals outside, we went on a train ride.

Then it was time for lunch before heading home.  After nap we all went outside and did yard work.  I trimmed the extremely overgrown forsythia bushes while others bagged up the branches. And Bennett ran around alternately trying to help and playing.

On Wednesday we went to the Higgins Armory Museum.  Higgins is slated to close at the end of the year so I knew I wanted to take Bennett.  He wasn't interested in most of the museum, but he did enjoy the interactive children's wing.  In fact, I think we all enjoyed that wing!

Daddy tried jousting

Riding a horse

Threatening to knock down the arch.

Nope, it's harder from this side.

Crash!

And then Chris and I built a castle, which Bennett quickly knocked over.

After lunch and nap we all went out to weed my flower beds.  They were overgrown with crabgrass, to the point that some of the other plants were hidden.  They look so much better now!  I'm extremely thankful for all of the help that I got with this project.

On Thursday we went to the Franklin Park Zoo.  We should have learned our lesson from when we went a couple of years ago that it's not a great zoo, but with passes from the library it was the most economical choice.  Bennett was a little bummed that they didn't have elephants.

Looking at the prairie dogs.

His new thing to do these days when you ask for a picture is to pause for a second and then say, "cheese, all done" before he quickly runs away.

Watching the gorillas with Grandma.

Feeding the birds

Before we left we rode the carousel.  At least he enjoyed that.

Not sure what's going on in this next one.  The cow seems to be scratching his back?

And then we asked him to milk the cow.

Oh, and then this happened.  My baby turned 35 months old.  It's actually kind of funny.  Sometimes I say that he's 3 already, and then other times I say that he's two. It really all depends on if there's a benefit (such as a kid rate) to him being under 3.

On Friday we had our weekly trip to OSV.  They were offering tickets for $5 (instead of the regular $24 admission)so it was pretty crowded.

Walking with Grandpa

Riding the stagecoach.

Lance and Henry were plowing the field again so we watched them for a while.

Good blacksmith (Derek) was working.  We could tell this just by listening before we went in.  Yup.  It's bad.  We can now start to identify their voices.  Unfortunately it was extremely crowded and Bennett kept announcing, "I want to go now" so we didn't watch for too long.

Since there were so many people the lines for food were pretty long.  So I entertain Bennett by taking selfies while waiting for others to buy the food.  He actually did a remarkably good job of staying with me.

And then as we were finishing lunch we saw Doc and Blue! They were just finishing up their cart practice so we got to watch Head Animal Guy (Rhys) have them back their wagon up into the barn.  That was a bit tricky.

We then headed home for nap.  After nap we headed out to do some shopping for Saturday's Derby.

Which brings us to Saturday.  We had the 10th Annual Pinewood Derby.  Go here for the official photos, winners, etc. In typical fashion we were not only finishing up our cars the night before but also the morning of the race.  Chris got the wheels on our Blast Cars about an hour before people started showing up.

Strawberry = Daddy, Regular = Bennett, Chocolate = me

Chris had the "dump dump truck" and I had Curious George

Curious George also could wear TMWTYH's hat.

Sunday we slept late and relaxed for a while but then we headed out to play some Candlepin Bowling.  Bennett rolled his balls pretty slowly down the lane, but I think he had fun.

And that wraps up our week.  It was busy, but I think if we didn't have activities planned we likely would have gotten bored just hanging around the house.

I know I didn't take it as easy as I likely should have, but I did take advantage of wheelchairs at the various museums.  We quickly learned that not all wheelchairs are created equal though!  Broken footrests, lack of footrests, difficulty pushing on uneven terrain... Ugh!  But I guess I should be thankful that they at least had wheelchairs to borrow.  Not sure I would have managed earlier in the week if I'd had to walk everywhere.

Better late than never

Grandma and Grandpa Tedford came to visit last week which kept us all rather busy.  As a result, I didn't get a chance to update the blog.  So here's what we did August 12 - 18.

There was more basketball playing.

I'm participating in a knitting swap.  We all started knitting a monster toy.  Then we mailed it to the next person who knit a bit and then mailed it along.  Bennett and I got his monster back in the mail.  He was pretty excited about it which is why the pictures are blurry.  In fact, I let him open the package and as soon as he saw a corner of knitting he guessed that it was a monster.

Here's a better picture.

It has undies that come off.  The undies are super cute, but I'm also a little bummed that they hide some of the awesome knitting.

We went out to a local sporting goods store and Bennett had fun playing basketball with a real hoop.

Then on Saturday we headed off to Sturbridge for our weekly visit. Yes, we know it's kind of insane to go this often.  This time I got in on the cut-out fun!

Lance and Henry were out plowing one of the fields.  As we were watching we heard the driver saying something that sounded like "epotame".  We asked what it meant, and it turns out he was saying "haw to me" which meant just go slightly left towards me.  If he had just said "haw" that would have meant to make a sharp left turn.

And then we got to officially "meet the oxen". We like this chance to meet the oxen and hear about them, but we've done it so many times there isn't that much new stuff to learn.  Also sometimes there are just too many other people there.  In some ways, the impromptu meetings like seeing them in the field are much nicer.

I think every day there is a musket firing demonstration.  We've taken to announcing "Musket" when we hear it go off.  Only you'd never know that's what Bennett's saying.  On this visit we stopped to watch the demo for a little while.

Shortly after we got home, Grandma and Grandpa arrived!  Bennett was supposed to still be napping, but I guess he was just too excited.

On Sunday we went to watch the Lowell Spinners.

Surprisingly Bennett did really well.  Sure there was lots of climbing in and out of Daddy's lap, but he didn't wiggle and whine as much as we expected.

The Spinners won.

And then we got to run the bases.

And that wraps up the week.

Basketball, surfing, Curious George, and Sturbridge

Continuing the trend of late blog posts, here's what we did last week.

A co-worker of mine gave us a basketball hoop that his kids have outgrown.  It's perfect for Bennett as he's still using it on the lowest height.  He does ask frequently to go play basketball, but I think mostly it's Chris and I shooting baskets.

The theme for the week at school was "Beach Week" so one day they made boogie boards.  Here's Bennett using it as a surfboard.

One night Kelly texted me a photo of her kids working on their Derby cars.  Bennett asked to see it, and then he wanted to show me his "phone" with pictures of DJ, Davis, and Lydia.  And then we FaceTimed with Kelly and he got to see some of the kids.

We got Curious George Flies a Kite from the library.  (Why it's 3 times as long as the other books, I have no idea!)  As I was reading it one night I noticed the license plate on the car in one of the pictures.  Hmm, was this the 5th CG book that they wrote?  Why yes, yes it was.

And speaking of Curious George, apparently it's very important for George to sit with you while you watch Curious George on TV.

And now for our weekend.

For those keeping track, we've now been to Sturbridge for 8 weeks in a row.  Looking at their schedule for the coming weeks, they have events that we might want to go to every week except for two until November 9th.  So we could potentially end up going 21 consecutive weeks.  That would ultimately put our cost at less than $2 per visit.  And the per person would be less than $1 per visit.  Yup, that membership was definitely worth it!

Daddy got in on the cutout photo fun.

Bennett tried out the stilts.  He needs practice still.  Maybe he needs his own set?

On Sunday we were on our way to Nana and Grandpa's house.  We had a bit of extra time so we decided to run an errand.  I mentioned to Bennett that we were stopping at the store so that I could get something for his birthday party and he got very excited.  And truth be told, Chris and I are getting pretty excited about his party as well.  Hopefully all of our ideas turn out the way we are envisioning.  The invitations are about 2/3 done and I hope to get those wrapped up this week.  When do people normally mail children's birthday party invitations?  This coming weekend would be a little over a month before the party.  Too soon?  Just right?

The Redcoats are Coming!!!!

This post is a little late, but better late than never, right?

The Sticker Monster attacked one evening.  Good thing we have so many of these stickers!  They're "reward" stickers that we got a while back and haven't really used much.

Bennett then removed them from his face, threw them away, and asked for more, some of which went back on his face.

As previously mentioned, Bennett's school had race car week.  So here he is in his car that he made.

"Reading" the paper one night consisted of him strewing newspaper all over the floor in a couple of different rooms.  Messy, but he sure was happy!

Anyone need a cucumber?  I have more plants than normal because I wanted to try making pickles, but this is way more than I can handle!  Bennett and I can only eat so many of them.  I did make some pickles (I'll know in a week or so if they're any good) and then I ended up giving a bunch away.  And then I went back in the garden a day or so later and there were more to pick.  I think I'm growing 3 different types which is why they are all different sizes.

And speaking of cucumbers, here's Bennett "peeling"a knit cucumber that I made.  He doesn't play with them all that much, but I have a basket of knit vegetables that he brought outside one night.

On Saturday and Sunday Sturbridge had an event called Redcoats and Rebels.  We told Bennett that there would be lots of people there in costumes.  He asked if there would be a parade.  Since there was a procession to the battlefield on the schedule we said that yes, there would be a parade.

So when we got there and saw these musicians at entrance, he asked if they were in the parade.  Nope, but he definitely enjoyed watching them and listening to them.

Here he is clapping after a song.

We arrived shortly before opening, so we stood in line to get in.  Once we got in, many of the reenactors seemed to still be getting settled.  Here were a bunch of redcoats practicing marching.

We watched this group for a while as they were being inspected.  Just before they were dismissed, they were told to "mill about smartly".

Bennett a bit confused by everything.  Chris told him, "This is the weekend where Mummy and I are conflicted."  Being Anglophiles we would normally support the British, but when we wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for the Colonists we wonder if maybe we should be supporting them instead.


There were numerous cannon demonstrations throughout the day.

And more fife and drums as well.  Here's Bennett watching the performers.

Uncle Andrew joined us a little later in the day.  Here he is holding Bennett as Bennett plays his own "fife".  We're trying to decide if we're crazy enough to get him a real one for his birthday.

After lunch it was time for the battle.  We didn't stick around too long.  It's hard to understand what's going on, and it was pretty boring for Bennett.  Not to mention it was long past nap time.

Plus our day was going to get even busier as we had a party to get to!  There was a pool which we avoided for a while (it was slightly chilly) but Bennett really wanted to go in.  Luckily Kelly was willing to go in with him.  Of course shortly after he got in the water it started to rain.

And here's a blurry picture of him jumping in, just before they got out due to the rain.

And then on Sunday  we just relaxed at home- mowed the lawn, vacuumed out the car (lots of raisins, cheerios, etc), took a long nap, watched some Curious George, and then a quick trip to Target.