Santa Claus is Coming to Town

With Thanksgiving in the bag, the Christmas season is officially upon us. Benji visited with this Santa at the Boar's Head, where he asked for a Wii(!):

Not so sure he wants to talk to Santa

Ok...maybe I will do this

Get on Santa's lap? Sure!

Berenstain Bears Live!

Almost every single day of first grade, Benji has brought home a Berenstain Bear book from the school library (as did Abby her first grade year). When we heard this show was coming to the Paramount, we asked Benji if he wanted to go and he jumped off the couch pumping his first with excitement. The show was an amalgamation of three of the books and Benji was excited to recognize the plot:

Harvest Feast

Benji's first grade class held their annual Harvest Feast, complete with hand made place mats:

Hot Cocoa Afternoon

As the days get colder, Benji and I often have cocoa after school  Here, he wanted to make it himself.

Girl Scout Campfire 2014

Of course, we chose the coldest day of the year. Since the weather was below freezing, we decided to have the girls over to the house for pizza before the campfire, rather than heading out there to picnic. Which was very loud:

I did not take any pictures out at Sugar Hollow. It was just too cold. We gobbled up our s'mores and headed home as quickly as we could.

Times Long Ago

Benji's class just completed this unit, which we remembered fondly from Abby's first grade days. They took a field trip to Ash Lawn as the culmination of their study, where Benji made this tri-cornered hat:

And this is what his hat head looked like after he took his hat off (and was resting in our bed waiting to be read Harry Potter:

A Trip to Israel: Brownies and Brochures

Last week was Abby's family program at CBI. We ended up having a busy Saturday and did not get around to making a snack to share with the class. Kevin and I told Abby we would just bring a box of crackers or pretzels to share, but she had other ideas. I woke up on Sunday morning to this scene:

Mommy...we're baking brownies!

Abby was kind enough to let Benji help

The brownies were a hit, and Abby teamed up with her friend Hannah to do our group project, which was to create a travel brochure for Israel. Here they are presenting it to the group:

Walker Bingo Night

The cards were in our favor -- both kids won multiple times:

Abby of course deserted us immediately to sit with her Walker friends. They had some sort of a crazy system where the person who won gave their card to someone else to redeem and pick out a prize:

Strike a (silly) Pose

I asked Benji if he would pose for me so I could get a good picture of him with his two front teeth missing. Close enough:

Outdoor Homework

Snapped this last week, while the weather was still mild. Abby loves to sit on the front step and do her work. Think we're inside for a while now. Brr.

Build and Grow: Science Lab

Kids really like these free building clinics at Lowes:

Rock the Vote

Both kids accompanied first Kevin, and then me, to the voting booth.  Abby was trying to collect as many "Future Voter" stickers as they would give her:

Abby's Oral Traditions Project

For Abby's honors program, they are preparing projects for their oral traditions unit. One option was to make a recipe that is a family tradition and document it with a poster. Abby chose Grandma's Irish soda bread recipe and I took pictures of her at each step:

I forgot to snap a picture of the finished poster (or bread), but it looked great!

Double tooth gap

Second front tooth finally came out during morning assembly at CBI:

Crozet Fall Festival

Just a quick stop during our errands, but Benji really liked the hay mountains:

Relay for Life Kick-Off

It was basically just a big Halloween party, but it gave the kids a chance to wear their costumes:

Benji chatting with Iron Man (i.e. Patrick Daly)

Halloween 2014

We waited until Halloween proper to carve our pumpkins:

Abby's Cat

Kevin's classic

Ruth's first attempt with the dremmel

Benji's frowny face guy

All the pumpkins lit up

Halloween dinner

Ready to trick-or-treat

Abby meeting up with Bess and Jadie at Bess's House

Benji meets up briefly in the 'hood with Abby and her friends: Jadie, Bess, Emmelia, Sarah (with Michael Kromkowski in the front)