Christmas Stuff

The annual star placement.

Derrick and Jack did the cookie house this year.  Very elaborate and colorful.

We also went to a lantern walk to celebrate the solstice at Ipswich River Wildlife Sanctuary.

First, we each made a lantern.

 Then we listened to a story about the solstice and went on a short hike.

We got to have some hot chocolate after the hike.

Jack likes the music for the Nutcracker.  Not wanting to spend $200 for us to go to the ballet and take the chance of Jack not liking it, we instead went to the Urban Nutcracker in Boston which uses a lot of Duke Ellington's version of the Nutcracker music and has different types of dancing other than ballet.  Jack remained interested until almost the end, but I think all of us were ready to go after two hours.

Jack had most of the week off from school and Derrick had time off work, so they got around to baking.

Jack decorated these ricotta cookies and was pretty proud of himself.

- S.

Lego Discovery Center

A few weeks ago we finally broke down and took Jack to the Lego Discovery Center in Somerville.  It was Star Wars weekend, so that was further motivation to go.  (Jack is into Star Wars now which is actually my fault because I got Derrick a Star Wars graphic novel which Jack took to immediately and things snowballed from there.)

Anyway, we spent the afternoon at the LDC and it was fun, but basically an expensive indoor playground with Lego.

The Lego displays of Boston are pretty cool.

They are also somewhat interactive which Jack enjoyed.

There was a section to make vehicles...

and then you could race your creation against other peoples.

There was a little movie theater which showed Lego movies that were 15-20 minutes in length which was perfect for Jack.  This was his first movie theater experience and I think he was a little weirded out by the 3D aspect, but seemed to enjoy it overall.

Making a giant tower on the earthquake table.

 I don't know that we will be rushing back here, but it was a good experience this time.

- S.

Leaf Jump

Catching up on some old stuff before the Christmas glut.

Click on the square in the lower right corner to make it full screen.

- S.

Thanksgiving and The Tooth

Derrick and I attended the Thanksgiving All-School Meeting at Jack's school on Monday.  Kids sang songs or read poems or said what they were thankful for.  Jack's class did a silly poem about turkeys which they all recited together while wearing turkey hats that they made in class.

Tooth update!  Jack lost his wiggly tooth tonight.  You can see the new tooth has already almost taken over in the back.  Also, the tooth to the right of the now missing one is loose as well and he has another new tooth poking through.  Double the fun.  

Happy Thanksgiving!

- S.

Halloween

Halloween was a bit haphazard this year, so there aren't many photos and the ones that exist aren't great.  Jack wanted to be a gorilla this year and the costume was obtained well before Halloween.  He was eager to get in costume and get to the trick or treating after dinner.  

 Jack was much better this year at saying "trick or treat" and "thank you" at the houses we went to and was more confident overall in going up to the houses to ring the bells on his own.

We covered slightly more neighborhood than last year, but after 30-40 minutes Jack was done and wanted to go home.

 Jack took some time to sort out his candy and enjoyed passing out candy to trick or treaters that came to our door.

It was even kind of warm enough outside to run off some of that sugar in jammies, and pose with the jack o lanterns for five seconds.

- S.

Thanksgiving #1

A couple of weeks ago we drove down to NJ for our first of three Thanksgivings.

Jack got in some construction work.

 Derrick passed on to the next generation the task of making mashed potatoes.

We went to a pumpkin patch and Jack gave us his best pout-smile.

That's a little better.

- S.

Dr. Teeth, Round Two

When I picked up Jack from school yesterday the first thing he said was, "Guess what!  I have a loose tooth!"  

For some reason, more so than Jack turning five, or growing one full inch in the month of September, or starting Kindergarten, this elicited feelings of, "My baby is growing up!" 

Wiggle, wiggle

Yes, you did need a close up view of Jack's mouth and The Tooth.

The now wiggly tooth first made its appearance way back in early 2013.

A good run!

So, Jack has been feeling a bit crummy and eating more carefully the past two days which we are attributing to The Tooth.  But at least now he can communicate what hurts and will willingly take Tylenol if needed, unlike the teething days.  And there is no drooling this time around.  Yet.

- S.

Fair

The Topsfield Fair has come and gone.  Jack got to go twice this year, once with us and once with Nana while Derrick and I escaped to celebrate our anniversary for the weekend.  We all went together on the first Saturday to see monster trucks, but got to do a few other things as well.

We viewed some interesting poultry.

Jack was very patient waiting for the monster truck show to start.

It helped that dad got popcorn and cider to share.

Monster trucks.  

Jack got the panda this year.

Pew, pew!

Favorite pumpkin

Nice pose in front of the giant pumpkin.

We did not attend the parade at Great Nana's like usual this year because Jack had soccer in the morning and we also wanted to attend the monster truck extravaganza which wasn't until late in the afternoon.  But we did not miss out of fried dough because Nana saved us some to eat after we retuned from the Fair.  

Here is Jack at Great Nana's enjoying his dough and watching Nana fry up some more.

- S. 

Checkup

Jack had his year five checkup last week.  He weighed in at just under 51 pounds and is now 3' 10.25" tall.  He had to get his polio shot which he was not happy about, but when the time came he did great and he got a cute band aid with dogs on it which he bravely ripped off himself that night.  The doctor's assessment was, "Keep doing what you're doing, he's doing great!"

Here is Jack at his year one checkup when he weighed half what he does now.

- S.

Apples

We went apple picking recently at Brooksby Farm.  We went on a hay ride, picked lots of apples, got a cider donut, and Jack fixed up the pumpkin patch putting any wayward pumpkins back in their rows.

 - S.

Airport Touch a Truck (and Planes)

A week and a half ago Beverly Airport had a "Family Fun Day" which included a touch a truck area and some airplanes too.  Because you've not seen nearly enough photos of Jack in various vehicles, here are some more...

Checking out an army helicopter.

Buckled in the jump seats.

Wheel loader

Slightly excited.

 Ready for off road.

There was even a giant slide.

Current favorite, the skid steer.

Pilot Jack

 Ice cream treat after.  

Jack has been expanding his ice cream repertoire and this time he got mint chocolate chip.

Coming up soon: Jack tries soccer, and we go apple picking.

- S.