Mom Bennett has been threatening to have a Bennett Band Night in their back yard for at least a year. We finally did it in August. Denise and new hubby Arnold, Dave and I and some family friends all got together for dinner, swimming and jammin' on the instruments until dark. We brought our keyboard, dusted off Tori's drum set and mostly listened to the guys play their guitars. The kids had a great night playing and swimming with Uncle Sam and friends.
The annual Bennett camping trip to Pinecrest was a little different this year. Mom and Dad Bennett were in Philadelphia that week and we missed them. We bought Gram's tent trailer so we could take it up for a long weekend while Uncle Mark and Aunt Lita were there. Denise & Arnold, Marci & Donovan, Dan & Lauren, Tori, and cousin Nicole came up too. Our kids LOVED having so many Aunts and Uncles there to play with.
Our Pinecrest Top Ten (in no particular order)
1. Jessie and Toby swinging in the hammock and playing frisbee with their new friends in the campsite next to us. Logan playing with trucks in the dirt
2. Uncle Arnold taking the kids on 'buffalo hunts' around Pinecrest
3. Good food and roasting smores EVERY NIGHT, YUM!
4. Jessie and Toby playing with Dan & Lauren's dog, Simon -taking him on walks
5. Naps in the hammock
6. Fishing on Uncle Mark's boat (even though we didn't catch anything except a beautiful sunset)
7. Playing a new game, Bohnanza, with all the big kids
8. Late night chats around the campfire while sipping Peppermint tea and watching the meteor shower
9. Taking showers at Lauren's cabin and watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie
10. Selling the tent trailer the day we got back! "dirt-camping" as the kids call it, is not a vacation with soon-to-be 4 young kids. We will rent a cabin and visit the dirt before doing that again any time soon.
Jessie's birthday was the end of August. She turned 7. I feel old.
Jessie still loves ponies and arts & crafts. She is such a good help to me around the house and with her little brothers. Reading, which she didn't enjoy last year, has gotten easier and now she likes reading bedtime stories to the family. She is so excited for her new baby sister coming in January. J loves telling jokes she hears at school or reads on the juice boxes. She's got a quick wit and knack for sarcasm- the little pickle. Math and Spelling are her strongest school subjects, but her favorite are recess (of course) and art. Her new thing is Barbie, which Dave and I said would not enter our home in multiples, yet they are here. They are better than those awful Bratz dolls which Jessie wanted, so we feel the compromise was worth it. She received a lot of clothes for school. Thank you family and friends! It's great having a child whose birthday comes right before the start of school.J asked for a star birthday cake. You can see my attempt below. It turned out more like a flower or big sun. Pretty much a disaster but it tasted good. Let's just say I learned it is a lot harder than I thought to frost an odd-shaped cake and make it look good. It was also very last minute.
We went mini-golfing the day before J's birthday with both sides of the family. Jessie said she had a great birthday!
We got a 'courtesy call' from J's principal a couple days before school started to let us know they placed her in a 1/2 grade combo class for the year. I was not happy about it since she is in 2nd grade. Obviously, some of the other Mom's had the same fears I did because we had an impromptu class meeting with the teacher, principal and those parents who were there after the first day of school. After that meeting I feel better about how the year will play out. It is a compliment to Jessie that they picked her as being an independent worker, good listener and all-around good student for that class.
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