Twinkle Lights

For the past several years I've been wanting to take the boys to see a Christmas lights display, but we never seem to make it.  This year, however, I was determined.  So, one Saturday night, we drove about an hour down the road to visit Lights on the Neuse.  We stopped for dinner on the way and arrived at the lights place as soon as it opened.  There was a lot of standing in line involved, but it actually turned out to be worth it. 

First, Evan had to visit Santa.  Ben wouldn't have anything to do with him, but Evan had to get up in the sleigh with him and have a discussion.  He first asked him where he was bort to which Santa replied "the North Pole, of course".  Then, he discussed the real light saber that he wanted for Christmas until the lady that was taking pictures said he had to get down.

Next, we got in line for the light display.  It took us to the biggest hay ride we had ever seen.  We and about 50 other people piled on and the tractor pulled us for about half an hour through forest decorated with over a million lights.  There was a building filled with lights and a bubble machine and snow machine, and lights representing every other Christmas item you could ever think of.  The boys were entranced.  During the ride Evan looked at Ian and said that it was the "best day ever".

After the hayride we made smores over their fire pit.  I thought this would be an activity the kids would love.  Turns out the kids like the smores when separated into their distinct pieces and not when actually cooked.  Oh well, Ian and I had some delicious smores and the boys enjoyed their chocolate, marshmallows, and graham crackers. 

I love the holidays with my boys!

 (Ben starts the holiday fun at dinner.)

 (My boys on the hayride)

 (oooh, pretty lights)

(Benny B and I)

(Before Evan realized he didn't like smores)

A Christmas Concert

I hope everyone has been having a wonderful Christmas holiday!  We certainly have, and you've been hearing bits and pieces of it already.  Well, our wonderful holidays continued on December 8 when we went to the boys' preschool for their Christmas concert.  It was early in the morning and followed by cider and muffins.

We arrived at preschool at about 9 in the morning and the kiddos went to their classrooms dressed in their finery.  They had been singing the songs that they had learned for their concert for weeks at home, but I didn't quite know what to expect because Evan has never really been willing to sing in any concerts up to this point.  we sat down in the sanctuary and waited for the show to start.

The kids started walking in and filing on to their bleachers.  Immediately, I saw Benny in his little green Christmas tree sweater with his lip quivering.  He got up to the bleachers and busted out into tears.  He ran to mommy and spent the rest of the concert helping me videotape Evan.  Oh well, maybe next year.

Evan, on the other hand did a great job.  He sang a few of the songs and was great at doing all of the arm motions that went along with the songs.  It was such a cute performance.  Some kids sang at the top of their lungs with complete disregard to the tune or tempo of the music, but that just added to the charm.  To top it all off, every single student from the preschool was there to join in the fun.

The kids had a great time, and at the end they stayed with some of the teachers at preschool for a couple of extra hours so that we could go do some Christmas shopping and have a brunch to ourselves.  What a great morning!

 (the adorable Christmas choir)

 (Evan sings and dances)

 (Ben and I watch the performance.)

(Evan and his friend Nathan celebrate a successful performance.)

Towels on the Floor

One of our favorite bath time activities has always been "towel on the floor".  After bath, the boys disappear under their towels, and Ian and I comment about the "towels" that have been left all over the floor.  Of course, there are threats to throw them in the hamper or downstairs or all other sorts of places, and the boys love it... 

(You'd think these are just a couple of normal towels left on the floor, right?)

(Maybe not!)

Trimming the Tree

In the last post, you saw that we went and picked up a lovely Christmas tree.  Well, later on that weekend, we made it beautiful!  I always love pulling each ornament out of storage and remembering where and when we got it.  I don't love the huge mess of bags, tissue paper, and Christmas goodies that I don't know where to put that always results, but it eventually all gets cleaned up.

Anyway, the boys were really excited to decorate the tree.  Evan couldn't wait for Ben to wake up from his afternoon nap so we could get started.  (If you look at the pictures you'll see that he didn't even have a chance to change out of his pj pants that he was wearing to sleep.)

We got out a bunch of the non-breakable ornaments and ones that had their names on them so that they could put them on themselves.  Benny really didn't know what to do.  He wanted us to help him with all of them and didn't really want to put any on the branches himself.  He thought the tree was pretty but quickly lost interest in the whole process.

Evan on the other hand was much more involved than he ever has been.  He wanted to hang as many ornaments as he could.  However, he really only had two different techniques for hanging the ornaments.  One was to cluster all the ornaments he could on the same branch.  The other was to perch himself up on the chair as high as he could and try to reach over and put an ornament on the tree.  Fortunately for him, he never reached too far and toppled the tree, but I thought he came pretty close sometimes.

So now the beautiful tree is sitting in the living room making everyone happy with all of its twinkly lights and decorations.  The boys love to sit around or under it and just look at all of the ornaments and lights.  Oh, and they still haven't found the pickle!

(Benny poses in front of the tree while Evan gets into trouble in the background.)

(I get ready to hang Ian and I's first ornament.)

(Really mom, this isn't dangerous!)

(Evan hangs an ornament.)

(Benny gets festive.)

(My big boy and our beautiful tree)

(Some of our Christmas ornaments from a few years ago--always have been a cute couple!)

Oh Christmas Tree...

It's that time of year again.  Christmas is on its way and with it come all of our little family traditions. The first among those is always to get a Christmas tree. Some people get their tree right after Thanksgiving or even before that, but our family's little rule is to wait until at least December 1.  So, of course, one December 1 we were in the car on our way to get a tree.

We usually just went to a regular Christmas tree lot, but this year we heard about an actual Christmas tree farm not too far away, so we decided to check it out.  Quite a few people had the same idea we did, so it was pretty crowded, but we had a great time anyway.  I had an idyllic image of finding our tree, cutting it down, and taking it home, so when we first got there we headed straight out to the trees growing in the ground.  Unfortunately, those trees were pretty popular.  I found several that I liked, but they were already sold.  We all had fun wandering around among the trees though.

Even though we didn't find a tree growing in the ground we had a great time playing in their bouncy castle, at their playground, and eventually picking out a perfectly wonderful tree from their precut selection.  We tied  it to the top of our car and headed home.

Our first Christmas tradition was successfully accomplished--now we were ready for the season!

 (My boys enjoy the Christmas tree farm.)

 (They found one!)

(Quite a mission for a perfect tree...)

The Best Day Ever

Fridays are our days when no one has preschool, so we like to go out and have a little fun.  a few Fridays ago, we went on what would be most kids best morning ever!  We started off the morning at a place called Defy Gravity.  It's an indoor trampoline park. That's right, a whole complex filled with trampolines to jump on and even a foam pit to land in in one corner.  Our tickets bought us one hour of jumping time during a time when big kids weren't even allowed to be there yet!  Our little group and our friends Quinn, Jonas, and Abby and Jenny and Ryan couldn't stop jumping from the time the clock started until it was time to get out.  Even the adults joined in.  I even tried a front and back flip into the pit which I haven't done in ages!  Benny's favorite was the slanted trampoline walls while Evan loved trying to swim down to the bottom of the pit.  We will definitely be back!

Oh, but once we were finished at Defy Gravity our fantastic day wasn't over.  We headed over to a new donut shop that just opened up around the corner from our house called Rise.  I had been looking forward to this opening for a long time and it didn't disappoint!  There was quite a line because the donuts were delicious.  Our little family tried a vanilla bean with sprinkles, a chocolate, and I had a pimento cheese biscuit.  The boys loved their donuts.  Evan polished off his while Ben just ate the sprinkles off the top, in traditional Ben form.  The pimento cheese biscuit was one of the best things I had ever eaten!

Trampolines and donuts: We will be hard pressed to beat that day again! (But I'm sure we will)

 (jump, jump, jump!)

 (A little family time in the pit)

(They're climbing the walls!)

 (Fun for moms too!)

 (The donut menu)

(Yum, Yum, Yum)

He's One

So, after a minor diversion to discuss some duckies, I had one more tale to tell about our Thanksgiving before we moved on to December.  On the Saturday before we headed back up to Durham, we headed over to the Henault family house for a first birthday celebration for little cousin Walker.  It's amazing that he was born just a year ago at around 4 pounds.  Now, he's a healthy chubby growing baby boy with a beautiful smile and the big Davis head and brains to match.

We were happy to head over there and celebrate on this wonderful occasion and get a chance to get together with the whole family again.  We talked, we ate, we watched the birthday boy enjoy his first birthday cake, and watched him open presents. (We'll, more accurately, he watched while the big boys ripped the paper off for him.)

Here's a few pictures of the big day...We can tell that Evan and Ben are going to get Walker into all sorts of trouble as they get older!

(Ian, Gram, and Ben bask by the fire.)

(The cake)

(The proud parents-Melissa and Jake)

(The birthday boy anxiously awaits his cake.)

(Walker's view of the festivities-I wonder what that boy was thinking!)

Non sequitur

Lately, Evan has been very focused on the age of six.  When he's six, he tells us, he'll invent a car that can go the speed of light.  He'll also invent a machine that can make him into a greyhound.  We keep trying to encourage him to start on these projects now, or enjoy the age he is, or whatever.  But none of it stops him from wishing he was six.  So tonight as they brushed their teeth, I heard this priceless exchange...

EVAN:  I wish I was six...

BEN:  I wish I was made out of ducks...

I'm still laughing about it as I sit here typing.  Crying, in fact.  We followed up with him afterward, and yes, he did mean ducks.  He even specified that he would use his feet to help him swim.  I would give anything to know what he thinks being made of ducks would be like.  What an imaginative little pair we have!

Sleeping Beauties

So, Evan was always a fantastic sleeper.  Sure, he went through brief times when he was a little harder to put down, but for the most part, we just read him a story, said goodnight, and then that was it.  Benny on the other hand was a bit harder, he's always been a lighter sleeper and it's really hard to figure out how to get him to go back to sleep when he wakes up in the middle of the night.

Well, over the past couple of weeks bedtime has gotten a bit harder for both boys.  Evan's imagination has been going crazy and he keeps worrying about having bad dreams when we're about to leave the room at night.  Ben on the other hand will scream bloody murder if we even try to walk out that door, especially when it's mommy that is trying to leave.

The past few nights I've actually figured out a fairly effective solution to this problem, and it's one that I have to say, I don't mind very much.  If I just sneak in bed next to them for a few minutes, not only do they let me leave in peace when I try, I get to have a few precious moments to watch them fall asleep, give them a few extra hugs, and sniff their clean little baby hair.

One night last week, Ian went out for the evening so I had both boys at bedtime.  I put Evan to bed quickly and rushed out of his room so I could rush into Benny's room and put him to sleep before he got into anything in his room.  I lay down with Ben, cuddled, sang a few songs, and instead of screaming when I got up to leave the room he said "I love you" and "see you in the morning".

Then, I went back into Evan's room because I felt bad about how quickly I had said goodnight earlier.  I snuggled into bed next to him and said I loved him.  He said "Mom, you say the nicest things."  Then, a few minutes later, he said "I feel so safe when you're with me."  Of course, he melted my heart.

So, turns out the solution to some of my little boy sleeping problems was a little easier than I thought.  They just need a few extra hugs and kisses, and turns out...so did I.