Christmas 2011

A visit to Santa

Nick was very brave! He told us that "He no cry" this year, and he was right. Unfortunately, Ben did not make any such promises, and promptly burst into tears as soon as he hit Santa's lap. Not sure Ben's outburst did anything for Nick's confidence, but he held it together. Maybe next year they will "both no cry", but by then we'll have a third potential crier to deal with, so I'm pretty sure the odds aren't in our favor!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Morning.

Love, love, love matching pajamas!

These sweet men were spoiled rotten by Santa and everyone else. It's a full on toy explosion at our house, but they loved every minute. Nick exclaimed "It's just what I needed!!" every time he opened a present. Apparently, he really "needed" a lot!

Fun Fall Pics

Nick has been learning about leaves, acorns, all kinds of fall stuff at preschool the last few weeks. He has been so excited jumping into the leaves every weekend as Brian rakes them up. Ben, who is walking everywhere, loved the leaves too!

Picking apples at Carter's Mountain

It took a while for Nick to realize that you don't pick one off the tree, immediately take one bite, then toss it in the bag. Lots of Pink Lady Apple picking to be done there if you can manage the hike. Which was approximately the exact same steepness of Mt. Everest. Approximately.

Ben's First Haircut!

Before

During

After

So handsome!

Typical sweet Ben, no tears, just happy as can be to be playing in the police car!

Halloween!!!!

Our little pirates in their fancy pirate ship, "The Scurvy Dog".

It poured the whole time during trick or treating, so good thing we had a boat!

Big Weekend!

We kicked off the weekend by going to "Touch a Truck" on Saturday morning. There were all kinds of trucks that the kids could get in, touch and learn about. They also had helicopters, and they were a huge hit as well.

Sunday we headed to the pumpkin patch at Chesterfield Berry Farm. It was pretty much freezing, but it was still fun feeding the bunnies, goats, chickens, cows, etc., riding the tractor train, checking out the "spooky stuff", corn cannons, pig races(A fan favorite of big city folk Mike and Siobhan who were with us. Turns out you just can't get these in NYC and Boston!) and going on the hay ride to pick out the pumpkins. Benjamin really didn't want to leave the pumpkin patch at all, but despite an all out tantrum, we decided to take him back home with us.

First Day of Pre-School

Nicholas seems to be adjusting to pre-school really well! It was a rough first few days, but today (day 4) there were no tears at drop off! This was a huge break-through! ;) He has a great teacher, and he loves all the painting, play doh and recess at pre-school. It's going to be a great experience once he gets the hang of his new routine.