Trick -or-Treat

Once again we had a Peter Pan halloween at our house except the roles have changed. This year Liam was Peter Pan, Connor was Captain Hook/ Jack Sparrow and Brooke was Wendy. Tinkerbell showed up again in the form of Mallory. Richard Simmons heard I needed a good work-out so he dropped by as well. As you're looking at the pics pay special attention to Richard's chest hair - it is very nice indeed!

Peter Pan, Wendy & Hook aka Jack Sparrow

Tink dropped by for a while

And here's Richard - how about that chest hair!

Bragging a Little

Last night Dale and I went to the parent/teacher conference with Brooke's 1st grade teacher. She really seems to love Brooke and enjoys teaching her. She told us that Brooke is doing well in her subjects and that she is very helpful and compassionate to the other students. Of course Dale and I were glad to hear that Brooke is doing well because usually all we hear about is the warnings she receives at school. The moment she gets off the bus she tells me how many warnings she received that day! It's pretty funny how honest she is.

However, I think what Dale and I are most proud of is that Brooke truly is a friendly and loving little girl. She may barely know you but you will get a big hug from her if you engage her at all! As we were leaving the school last night one of the janitors walked by and Brooke yelled out his name and waved at him. His reply was, "You are really good parents. You have the nicest little girl." We said thank you and smiled and he said, "No, really, Brooke is the nicest child in this school."

I was so proud that he would say that about Brooke. He's not one of her teachers and she doesn't really see him that much but the way that she is warm and friendly to everyone really made an impression on him.

You are a Benson!

The other night during devotions Dale was talking about the ten commandments and the commandment that night was, "Thou shalt not lie." Dale explained to Connor and Liam what lying was and he gave them a few examples. At the very end he said, "We are Bensons, and Bensons do not lie."

Well several days later Connor and Liam were in my room and Liam apparently did something that Connor didn't like. I heard Connor say to Liam, "You are a Luke and Luke's don't do that!" Liam has no idea that he really isn't a Luke - Connor's middle name is Luke - but it seemed to do the job where scolding was concerned so who cares about the details anyway?

All about boobies

I knew the day would come that my youngest would embarrass me in public as my older two already have. That day was today. We were at church early tonight and so Liam and I were out in the foyer area dropping some coats off for a coat drive we are having. Well, we have a Haitian congregation that meets in one of our smaller sanctuaries and one of the boys was walking by. He looked to be maybe 13 or so and he was maybe a little chunky but nothing anyone would notice and stare at except my child.

Liam craned his head around as this poor, unfortunate boy walked by and he very distinctly said, "Mommy, he has boobies just like you!" (Have I told you before that Liam is obsessed with boobs?) Well, this poor fellow turned around and said, "HUH?" and once again my sweet little Liam said as clearly as ever, "Mommy, he has boobies just like you!"

Why, oh, why does this NEVER happen when Dale has the kids?!?! This poor pre-teen/teen who is probably just now going through puberty is going to have major issues from now on with his self-esteem and body image thanks to my 2 year old! I'm sure he'll never forget the Sunday night in Nashville, TN when some toddler pointed out his "boobies"!!

Cat Booty

We have this cat, Chicago, named so because of his white socks. I'll digress for a minute and tell you that when we got him Dale came up with this name before the kids could name him something like Stripey. Incidentally, that was Brooke's suggestion when she saw him.

Anyway, he has grown up thinking he pretty much owns this house. I just wanted to share this photo with you that I took last weekend when Mallory was over. She was laying on the guest bedroom bed talking to me while I was working on the computer. Chicago jumped on the bed, plopped himself down and made himself right at home. I'm glad she likes cats because his cat booty was all in her personal space. Now that I think about it, I think he just cleaned that booty before he went to sleep!

Camp-out

Brooke's fall break started Wednesday and ends Monday. Because we had several things going on we couldn't take a trip out of town so we decided to just do some fun things around home. Dale took the day off Thursday and we went to the Adventure Science Center in Nashville. They absolutely loved it and it was so fun that we decided to buy a family pass so that we could go anytime that we want. Thursday night was a wonderful, chilly, fall night and so Dale brought the tent (our big, 5 adult person tent) into the family room and Dale, Brooke and Connor camped out. Before bedtime we read a book, watched a movie and ate cookies in the tent. The chocolate chips were gooey so we had chocolate everywhere - inside the tent that is. Campouts are messy anyway. We had such a fun family night. The kids loved it!! We kept the tent up Friday as well and so we had popcorn the 2nd night of our campout and watched the newly released Sleeping Beauty - which is my favorite fairy tale by the way!

Buzz Lightyear came by our camp and decided to stay the night.

Now these two boys are just too cute!

The chocolate chip cookies were really messy but extra yummy!

Connor is a little obsessed with cleanliness so he had to clean up

the mess that Liam made on his sleeping bag! I'm not sure that
real camping would be much fun for him ;)

I love this bunch!

The 2nd night of the campout.

Connor found a comfy seat.

These Buzz slippers are hand-me-downs for Connor

but Liam attached to them very quickly and I
think he might own them now!

Neighborhood Fall Fest

Last Saturday our neighborhood had a little fall fest which was lots of fun for the neighborhood families. We have a fire department right around the corner, well in the back of our neighborhood and they were friendly enough to bring one of the big engines and lead the parade to the fall fest. They started at the street behind ours and as they passed each house the kids joined in. Connor dressed as a pirate, Liam was Peter Pan and I'm not sure what Brooke was - I think just a glamour girl. She just had fun getting into make-up and doing her own hair.

Here's wittle Peter Pan! Isn't he just the cutest?!?

And Glam Girl and Peter Pan. I'm thinking those
Isotoner looking slippers just make the outfit!

And Peter Pan and the Pirate! How about that
do-rag under the pirate hat?

The parade making it's way by our house.

Brooke, Brooke's friend, Mary Everrett (R) and
Mary Everett's cousin in the middle.

Liam found this little Pumpkin in a hay stack hunt.

Here's our little mummy.

Cousin Mal and Connor - he's not really wanting

anymore pictures taken!

My littlest Fireman!!

My Junior Fireman!

And Ms. Franklin TN Firegirl :)

Brooke bobbed for an apple- in very
sanitary water I might add...ugh!!!

And Connor got one too! I wonder how germ-filled
that bucket is?Let's not think about it!!

A very proud little Connor.

Brooke's 1 Mile Run

Today marked a 1st for Brooke at school. She had her 1st mile run which she has been "training" for since school started. This is part of their PE program and so this is something that is mandatory. Well, we showed up at Pinkerton Park and watched her class line up to start the run. Now, this wasn't a race but the kids were told to pace themselves, to run without stopping - well, as much as possible, and to not let anything or anyone slow them down.

(This is a pre-race picture of Brooke and one of her friends Incidentally, this little girl came in first with a time of 8:26.)




Parents were encouraged to run with their kids but since I had Connor and Liam and my camera in tow I didn't plan to run. Dale had two meetings in the morning so he wasn't planning on being there. At the last minute he decided to dash back to Franklin between his meetings. He took Liam to the finish line to cheer for Brooke and I headed over to the middle of the "track" which made several hair-pin turns so that I would get some great shots of my little girl running her little heart out.







Well, after the exciting start I learned two things about Brooke. 1) Competition of any sort does not motivate her! She could care less about it! 2) It offends her to have her mother yelling at her to run instead of moseying along the track!!

Now to digress a moment. I had kind of gotten a little bit of a hint this summer about the whole competition thing not being Brooke's cup of tea. I tried to entice her with the YMCA swim team (I wanted her to learn her swimming strokes better) by telling her that she would get to race against other kids and it would be like a contest. Well, when she heard that she said, "Yeah, don't sign me up for that." So we didn't.

Here's the story....the start of the race was great and all the kids were excited so once they passed me I cut across the park to about the 1/2 mile mark. I'm waiting and waiting for Brooke and then I spot her way down the trail and she has stopped to talk with some girls and she has actually turned around and started walking the other direction. She probably saw a pretty flower she wanted to pick - I'm not exactly sure what sidetracked her. Anyway, at this point I start yelling at her to run. After all, this is not recess and this is being timed! Do I sound like one of those out-of-control hockey moms?

Well, once she gets to me I decide the only thing for it is to run with her. So me, my camera and Connor all join in the run. Of course I feel like I'm herding her instead of running with her and she is getting quite perturbed that I won't let her stop to smell the roses! I felt like I was encouraging her but she didn't really see it that way. At one point she said to her friends, "My mom is usually nicer than this." Ha! She'll thank me one day!! I think it was just the hungry tummy talking because she also said her stomach was getting really angry with her! I fed her a breakfast of eggs and bagels - you would think that would be the breakfast of champs!!

So as you can see there are no pictures of her crossing the finish line because I was running with her across it. By the way - did I mention that I didn't come dressed for the run meaning that I didn't have everything restrained properly? I'm sure it wasn't a pretty sight!

Here are some pictures of the boys playing in the park before and after the run. It was the most gorgeous fall day!!