2010 Polar Bear Jump

February 20th, we knew 5 out of the 393 nutty (yet chariable ;-) people who jumped in the frozen Portage Lakes to raise money for the American Cancer Society. And, everyone actually lucked out...we had one of the best weather-days of 2010 so far, nearly 40 and sunny.

It was quite an event - 393 jumpers and about 4000 spectators. Nick, Bennett, and I came out to support the 5 crazies we knew who were going for a swim : Lisa, Lesa, Dr. Dang, Crissy, and Dale. Parking was insane...here we are waiting for the bus to come shuttle us from the parking lot to the jump site.

Before the jumping even started (but after an incident that acquainted me with the fact that Ben is petrified of port-a-potties)...Bennett was whining about the cold. (Even though it was so warm, that at some point I took my coat off. And this fact alone, I'll have you know, means it was NOT that cold out.) I believe in this picture he just got finished saying, "I'm cold. Hold me."

Here are my friends - Lisa, Lesa, and Dr. Dang, waiting for their turn to jump...

jumping...

...and Crissy and Dale jumping.

Look at what a good sport Lisa is...Bennett wanted to take her picture with my phone (his latest fun thing to do.) She hadn't even changed out of her cold, wet clothes. And the wind was picking up! What a trooper!

Proud popsicles.

Just a popsicle. (waiting for the bus back to the car.)

Nick and Ben raced to our car (the white one...so they've got quite a long way to go yet...) Nick was showing no mercy that day, and pulled ahead full speed. Ben stopped and performed his "cowardly lion" impression. Real, this time.

See? He's saying, "Dad's not supposed to be able to BEAT ME!!!"

So, it was a fun day. No one died of hypothermia, cardiac arrest, or the like (although the Metro LifeFlight was on standby). However, there was some excitement. Some dude stripped down to nothing, was wrestled to the ground by my friend Mel's husband who is a cop, and was arrested. Several 30-something year old guys jumped in the lake in their white boxer briefs. Looked fine jumping in, ba-a-a-ad coming out. And a spectator standing on the frozen lake fell through the ice. Wonder if anyone sponsored her retroactively, since she technically took a dunk...?

c. 1982

My jacket, when I was 5/6 years old.

For those of you who aren't from Doylestown, our school mascot = "The Chipps". As in the "Chippewa Indians." He thinks its so cool that this was my jacket at his age. Its VINTAGE! HA!

Me and Bennett. I'm not sure why he was wanting to showcase this movie. It IS a really good one, though. ;-)

Here are some recent fun tales, courtesy of Bennett. (I beg your pardon if you are one of my "Facebook friends" and you're reading this for the second time...)

Dinner conversation:

Me to B: "Hey, what do you want people to call you? Ben, Bennett, Benny...?"

B: "What about BenBen?"

Me: (smiling because I call him that a lot) "Well, that's cute and all, but what about in someplace like school?"

B: "I like Bennetta"

Me: "Bennetta?"

B: "Yes, Bennetta. Because it rhymes with Canada...well...not really, but it sort of does. And I'd like it to be spelled with only one 'n' just like Canada."

******

Bennett (which he eventually told me he prefers to be called) is constantly being doted on by the girls in his class. I think its because he's got a sort of 'hard to get' personality. Not on purpose, its just his nature, he's a pretty quiet kiddo, but funny, cute, and sweet...and kids having to work to get his attention to get reaction out of him is magnetic, I think. Anyway, the little girls are frequently touching him, hugging him, talking to him. We're always working with him on using words instead of action to make people aware of his feelings. So, when a friend told me she had witnessed Ben having had quite enough of the attentions of one sweet little girl, who was tousling his hair, I was so proud to hear that he looked right at her and said, "I wish you would not do that." (I laughed for about 10 min when my friend told me this, because I guess he said it with an inflection of quiet annoyance in his voice, and then walked away. So funny.)

*****

"I can't lift it!!" grunted in effort when trying to lift a 35# toddler out of his way. (LOL)

*****

I have learned that Bennett has an intense fear of port-a-potties. (But don't we all.) For the sake of not being too graphic, I will spare you the details. However, lets just say, when you gotta go, you'll figure out a way to make things work.

*****

He has acquired new nicknames - "FratBoy" (I feel he has some of the habits of a college age boy at times, save for the appetite...) and "Cowardly Lion" referring to his particular brand of sobbing (both real and fake.)

*****

And lastly (for now, I need to write more of these down to remember...he comes up with some real doozies...) he has taken to calling me "Mommy Salami." For which I have returned the favor, and am calling him "Bennett Bologna."

Happy Valentine's Day 2010!

Ben's card to me (made at school). He gave it to me, and then said, 'Are you gonna eat that lollipop on the front, Mom? I don't think you really like lollipops. How 'bout I just eat it for you?"

This has nothing to do with Valentines day, but its sort of cute, so here it is. This is Ben's grass plant. He has named him "Billy". We water Billy every day, and take notice of his longer hair. I keep asking Bennett if he wants to give him a haircut, but he always refuses, saying, "Billy doesn't want his hair cut, just like I don't want mine cut."

Here are some of the Valentine's Day projects o' love that came home with the boys this year.

Bennett's most recent spelling test (Feb 12th)!

Here's the back of the card Ben made me. Apparently, he came up with these things himself, and I feel very happy that he notices some of the things I do, that I thought went largely unnoticed. :-)

LOOT! (When we were kids, didn't just a few little folded cards come home with us?)

Another card from Ben :-)

Happy Valentine's Day, to all the people who are special to me. You know who you are. :-)

100 days of Kindergarten

Xavier and Bennett both celebrated their 100th day of Kindergarten recently.

Ben had homework for the day - to count 100 of something and bring them into the class to share. He chose fruit loops, and blazed through the activity as if he'd been counting to 100 for years now. He checked his work by arranging them in groups of 10 and counting by 10's to 100. (His idea, not mine.) He definitely has an aptitude for math type things...he can sort of just glance at a group of items, circle them once with his fingers, and tell me correctly how many are in the group. Its pretty cool.

And on Xavier's 100th day, he came home wearing this hat. He loves hats, and was very pleased with himself that day. He usually hates coming home from school (he screams and yells at me EVERY DAY for 10-30 minutes, complaining that he is no longer amongst his friends). But this day, he was happy.

He also cannot keep his hands out of his mouth lately. His 6 year molars are coming in AND, big news - he has his first loose tooth! Its the front, bottom right, and he has a finger or his thumb in his mouth half the day, wiggling it around. See?:

Q and U - married!

Together with the rest of the Alphabet,

the letters Q and U request your presence

as they are united in marriage,

January 21, 2010 at 9am,

in the gymnasium at

Hazel Harvey Elementary School.

How clever is this?! The Kindergarten classes where Xavier goes to school, held a ceremony to marry off Q and U together. It was a big to-do, very elaborately planned, and was the culmination of the kids learning that Q must always be paired with U in a word.

The kids walked down the paper aisle runner to traditional wedding marches, and took their seats on the stage. (Parents sat behind them to watch the ceremony). I, showing not much self restraint, giggled through most of it. Because, lets face it, this is pretty funny. The kids/teachers were all dressed up in wedding attire! There were actual wedding cakes! I'm telling you - elaborate!

This is Xavier, and his beloved paraprofessional, Lauren, waiting for the ceremony to start.

Below, is Mrs. Garbinsky (Xavier's teacher), officiating. The letters were united in "qwa". They took vows...my favorite one (which I couldn't stop giggling about) was:

Mrs. Garbinsky to the girl that was "U": "Miss U, do you always promise to stand by Mr. Q in every word he appears in."

little girl ("Miss U"): "I do."

Mrs. Garbinsky to the boy that was "Q": "And Mr. Q, do you promise to understand that sometimes, Miss U will need to appear in words without you?"

little boy ("Mr. Q"): "I do." (I swear there was a tone of disappointed resignation in his voice.)

HA!!!

After the ceremony, the kids put on their coats, and went outside, so that they could give a big send off to the happy new couple, bird seed and all.

Then, on to the reception. (Elaborate!) There was a lot of dancing (the chicken dance, the hokey pokey, the twist, etc.), and cake. Here are Lauren, Xavier, and his friend Jordan getting ready to twist. (Look at Xavier looking up at Jordan and Lauren. ;-)

Lauren said, during the rehearsal the day before, Xavier was so excited about the dancing/music, that he was coiled up into a permanant, ecstatic little ball. Fists clenched, shouting glad tidings of happiness. He loves dancing :-) I get kind of sad, knowing my days of being able to hold him while dancing are in short number. He's huge now (45lbs, 45in. - or as we like to say, 45-squared.)

Xavier and the ever-present friend, Jordan. As an aside, Xavier has quite the entourage. When I bring him in to the classroom every morning, he is immediately surrounded by no less than 4-5 kids, waiting to attend to his every need. There are actual struggles over "who gets to take his coat". He's like a little magnet, this kid of mine. :-)

Chicken dancing with Lauren.

Can't say enough about how wonderful Lauren is to Xavier. He's SUCH a lucky boy.

Happy New Year

Wow, I'm only a month late on this one! Awesome!

This is something Ben wrote, ALL by himself, January 1st. You can click on the picture to see it larger, if you'd like.

I like how he wrote '2010' as '20010'. Wrong, but cutely wrong. :-)

Christmas 2009

HoHoHo! Merry February! I'm catching up, don't judge! ;-p

Here's Bennett, Christmas morning, pausing right before he opened his first present. Nick and I got our first present before the boys got up...Xavier slept until 9 and Ben until 10. What a Christmas miracle!

Nick, opening his gift from me, a weathervane for our shed. Before you go thinking this is really a strange gift, I'll have you know, Nick really wanted one of these, and was totally surprised and happy about it. I was laughing, because the opening of this gift was akin to the opening of the leg lamp in "A Christmas story" (see previous post)...Nick exclaimed (stealing a line from the movie), "Well, there could be ANYTHING in here!" :-)

Xavier with a few of his gifts - a favorite was the Mickey Mouse toy sitting front and center on his lap. It plays short little Mickey songs. :-)

My Dad got us a Wii. That's right. Our first game system in 15+ years. Ben was ecstatic. The picture below shows Nick and Bennett getting his "Cars" game started for the first time.

And finally, here are several of our family members, exchanging Christmas gifts after dinner (we had everyone over at our house this year.) Pictured are - Nick's sister Michelle, his brothers, Mike and Eric, his mom, our sister in law Vicki, and our nieces, Alyssa and Kathryn.

That's it! I realized when I was making 2010 calendars back in November, even though I take millions of pictures every year, I never take many Christmas pictures. Anyway, we had a great Christmas, and at this point, were really looking forward to our vacation in Disney World...where, of course, I DID take millions of pictures.