Bennett's Christmas Play

December 14th, Bennett was in Sts. Peter and Paul School's K-grade 2 Christmas play! He was an angel, and had a line to say in the play. Much prep and practice went into the performance, and it was a huge success.

Here's Ben, when he first spotted me in the crowd. It was so cute to see him searching through everyone for me when the curtains opened.

Singing with Mia and Jacob.

He said his line perfectly (and loudly) into the microphone. "The baby is the Son of God, sent to us from above." (so proud, I was. :-)

Bennett's pensive 'waiting' expression.

Here he is, getting ready for the evening show. Unfortunately, I had to work, and only got to see the afternoon performance, but at least I got to see him in action once. :-)

I know the next pictures look very similar. But I love the "varying expressions o'Bennett" showcased in them.

He looks like he's taking off in this one.

The whole K-grade 2 gang.

Bennett is beside Mary (aka Lillian ;-)

Again, he looks like he's about to fly (this time up to the microphone for his line.)

(He's growing up so fast...)

The Itsy Bitsy Spider

Xavier loves this timeless little ditty. I've sang it with him since he was born, and it's stuck. He smiles and 'sings' along with you nearly every time.

One of his creative, thoughtful teachers (Mrs. Kerr) took this fact and ran with it. She made him a little activity board for him to act out the song. There are white puffy clouds to feel, and a spider that can move up and down the spout, which is cleverly made out of a bendy straw.

HE LOVES IT.

We play with it all the time...it never fails to capture his interest instantly and bring a smile to his sweet little face.

He can move the spider up and down the spout...

Singing along -

I don't know for sure, but I think Xavier and his buddy at school helped draw the house.

Thank you, Mrs. Kerr, for being the special person you are to Xavier and our family. We appreciate you daily. :-)

On a rather unrelated note (other than the pictures were taken on the same day...), here's Benny, lining up his cars in what he calls, "the Kitchen Garage."

And he calls this - "the overhang, so they don't get wet." Ha!

W-I-N-T-E-R !!

YEEEEEEEESSS! I have made the leap in my blog from Fall to Winter. Fantastic. :-)

This picture was taken in early December, and you'll notice - Ben is ready to go outside...but there is NO COAT. I can't tell you how happy I was to have a longer Fall this year. I would hang onto a 50 degree Winter all season long if I could. (Btw, he's quite the picture poser these days, isn't he?)

As is Pandrea tradition, our tree was up the weekend after Thanksgiving. Ben was especially taken with decking the tree out with ornaments this year. Crazy excited about it. We turned up the Christmas tuneage (which Xavier LOVED) and let him go to town. An hour later, the bottom 1/3 of our tree was heavy with doodads, and Ben was very pleased with himself. We told him they needed to be spread out, so Nick lifted him so he could reach higher spots when redistributing the 313 ornaments he had put in 5 square feet of tree.

And then the moaning about "the Christmas train" began. "Now we nneeeeed the Christmas train." We ran out of time to put it up that night, and everyday thereafter, we heard about it. Its sort of a pain to put up, and we knew that it wouldn't really fit around where we put the tree this year, so I was avoiding it.

On a day I was being bombarded with begging, I told Ben, "Listen, your dad's not here. And the box is too big and heavy for me to carry up from the basement by myself. We'll have to wait." That smartiepants looked at me and said, "Well, duh, Mom. You and I can just open the box and carry it up piece by piece."

Huh.

Dangit! My kid is getting smart! Last year that would have sailed by and he would have accepted my explanation as gold.

He did accept my alternative excuse though, because it was true...I had no idea how the train track would fit around our tree...So he decided to use his Geotrax set to temporarily. Again, smart, clever child :-)

Thanksgiving

So I lied, there's one more Fall 2009 post. This one is about Thanksgiving. I only have one picture...but I like it. Its of Ben and the turkey he made at school.

To celebrate the day, we had dinner over at Nick's parent's house, relaxed, the boys played and decorated the Christmas tree with Grandma and Auntie Meam. I fell asleep on the couch for about an hour, and then went to work. Not bad. :-)

Raking leaves

Question: What better posts are there to make on the week of Christmas, than ones about raking leaves and a Halloween party?

Answer: Many multitudes of different wintery/Christmasy subjects, of course! However, I'm still committed to catching this blog up...so deal with it, my friends. Deal. With. It. Tonight, I will finally work on some winter/Christmas style posts, and I will therefore feel at peace with life. ;-)

Okay, so I'll get on with the final posts of Fall 2009.

Raking leaves is not something we're especially fond of, but its a necessity, so we try to make the best of it. We have oak trees in our yard, which means that we are STILL raking leaves mid-November.

Here's me and Xavier prior to Leaf Fest 2009. I had Nick take this to prove Xavier is giant (compared to me, anyhow.)

T-shirt weather in November is soooooo terrific!

The leaf tarp...oh, the leaf tarp. The only effective way to take leaves from the back to the front for pick-up.

This picture I'm sure will someday horrify poor Bennett. But I have to remember the times when he tells me, "you are the best mom in the whole world, and I love you with my whole heart, forever and ever." :-)

Ben was so pleased that the leaves he threw landed right on my head.

Xavier was not amused with the leaf festivities this year :-( ...

...but Bennett was. :-)