Cutting Down our Christmas Tree

This year we went back to the same place we have been going for a few years, Grace Farms in Central Square.  They are always very nice and helpful and have good prices for the trees.  We have had fun every year we went there, so it was an easy choice to go back.

There were baby trees planted in every spot where someone had cut down a tree previously. Cameron and Leah loved the baby trees and wanted to "pet" each one of them.

Cam with a baby tree

And Leah with one

After a bit of searching, we found a giant tree that made everyone happy - tall enough, full enough, the right type of tree.  Tim crawled underneath to cut it down.

Full length shot of the tree while Tim chops it.

Leah watching Tim cut it down (from a safe distance, of course)

Cameron watched from a REALLY safe distance

There it goes!

Timber!

A picture so we could count the rings

Leah standing on the stump

And Cameron on the stump

The tree in machine that winds twine around it to make it easier for bringing home

It got pretty thin!

After we got our tree into the trailer and went back up to the front of the farm, we went in to get cookies and hot cocoa.

Leah loved the cookie

Cam drank a ton of hot cocoa

Ms. Sprinkle Lips

They also had a donkey and some sheep to pet and feed.  Mama was the only one who wanted to actually pet them.  Both animals were so soft and were very sweet.

Feeding a very soft sheep

The tree in our trailer - it is huge!

The tree was so big and heavy that we knew Tim and I couldn't bring it in ourselves, so we enlisted Uncle Matt to come over and help bring it into the house.  It was a good thing we asked him because even he and Tim struggled to get the tree in on their own, it was so heavy.

Yikes - giant tree!

The tree, unbound and sitting in our family room, ready to decorate.  The kids love our big tree!

First Snowman of 2012

Another good thing about coming home on Saturday night of Thanksgiving weekend is that we avoided driving in the snowstorm on Sunday.  It wasn't much, but it was enough to blanket our yard in snow.  Tim and the kids went out to play in it, but only Cameron lasted long enough to finish up his first snowman of the year.

Tim helped Cameron roll the three balls, and helped put the head on the top since Cam couldn't reach.  Cam did all of the decorating on his own

Putting the final touch on the (slightly off-center) mouth

And the finishing touch - the scarf

It took a couple of throws for Cam to get the scarf around the snowman's neck

The final product, starting to slow list over.  After a couple of hours as the temperature got warmer, the whole thing tipped over and that was the end of the first snowman of the winter.

Lights at LaSalette and Fun in Swansea

On Friday night we met Kim and the kids at LaSalette, a big shrine about a half hour from both Millis and Swansea that puts up a ton of lights every year.  We have gone a couple of other times and it is always very nice.

Ella in a Christmas tree light

Lots of lights

The kids checking out the fountain: Leah, Ella, Cameron, Jack

Smile!

Cameron contemplating the fountain

Cute picture of Ella and Jack

Ella and Jack took turns reading the kids the Christmas story on these panels

Ella with one of the wooden cutouts

Running through the cutouts

Looking inside the gingerbread house

Cute cousins picture

The kids all went on the merry-go-round.  I took a picture of Cam and Leah before it started because I knew Leah wouldn't last long sitting on the horse.  Cam was always the same way - it wasn't until he was four or five that he liked merry-go-rounds.

Sure enough, once it started she did NOT want to be sitting on the horse

Tim tries again

On Saturday everyone came over to Tom and Joan's house to hang out.  The kids played together, colored and did crafts.  Leah wanted Jack to try on some of her barrettes.

Lucia

Ella

Cathy with her beautiful snowflake craft

Jack with the rest of the barrettes in his hair!

Leah with braids

Brinkley

Now Cam has some barrettes in his hair

We left to drive home on Saturday night to try and avoid the traffic.  It was pretty easy driving and we made good time getting home.

Providence Children's Museum

The day after Thanksgiving we decided to do something fun with the kids.  We gave them a couple of options and they picked the Providence Children's Museum.  It was a great choice and we had a blast.  We will definitely be going back!

There was a neat exhibit right at the front of the museum where you put a scarf into a box (which Leah is doing) and a series of vacuums will pull it through the piping.  Depending on which way you put a little lever (what Cameron is doing) the scarf would go one way or another, and come out of different openings in the pipe.  It was pretty funny cause the scarf would come shooting down from the ceiling.  I think the kids could have done this for hours!

Another favorite part of the museum was a big room full of water pools to play in.  There were nice big aprons for the kids to wear so they wouldn't get too wet.

There were strainers, boats, balls and lots of other fun things to play with in the water.

Cameron and my favorite part was the PVC pipes to play with - you could connect them to water jets underwater in order to direct the water into the pipes.  We were trying to see how tall of a tower we could make with pipes and have the water come out the top.

Trying out different piping options

Fun with water

We dragged the kids out of the water room because it was time for a story hour.  This day's story hour was from a Native American story teller.  He told stories, sang songs and taught the kids a dance. Cameron enjoyed it; Leah got antsy after a little while.

More fun - pretending to be construction workers building a bridge

Driving the construction truck

After checking out most everything inside, we headed outside to play for a while.  There was a really cool climbing structure that Cameron climbed to the top of.

Close up of my little monkey

After I took the two pictures above, he requested I take one more because he wasn't quite at the top in the other pictures!

There was a neat outside section that was set up like a anthill with lots of little tunnels to climb around in.  There was a also an ant kitchen and music room.  Leah liked the music room and made some beautiful music on the xylophone: