Breakfast with Santa

*Sorry for the lack of posts, we have been extremely busy, I am trying to catch up, so more to come!*

At the beginning of December Aunt Kerri invited Henry and myself to "Breakfast with Santa" in Suffield. It was a great morning and Henry's first experience of the year with Santa. We had a great time and are very appreciative of the morning.

Henry writing his letter to Santa. On the way he told me he was going to ask him for "crackers." I guess this could be a cheap Christmas for us!

He was not so sure of Santa at first.

These are kind of far away, you may want to click on the picture to get the full expression of Henry's face.

And he refused to sit on his lap, as you can tell from his face. He did however, love the "treats" aka candy canes that Santa handed out and he continued to help himself throughout the rest of the morning.

Bubba Surprises Emily!

This picture was supposed to follow the video, but oh well, I'm done trying. Anyway, this is Henry enjoying the "treats" from Emily's shower.

During Emily's bridal shower this past weekend, Brian (aka Bubba) came home from Washington and surprised Emily, my mom and all of the other guests (except for Kate and myself). He flew in Friday night and spent some time with the Castors and ourselves and we all managed to keep our mouths shut which made for a great surprise for Emily and my mom. I tried to capture the moment the best I could but I couldn't get too close since she did not know what was coming. We all had a great time and are very excited to have Bubba home until Christmas and cannot wait for the wedding!

Fall Fun!

Even though we have a very small yard, we have a quite large tree that blesses us with many, many leaves every year. This year we recruited the help of Henry. It's about time he earns his keep! Although he had much more fun jumping in the piles than raking them up, we certainly enjoyed the family time we had together to tackle this job. Enjoying the pile!

I think he had enough at this point.

What a big helper!

He had his own "mini" rake, that was twice his size.

Halloween!

Sorry it has been so long since I have posted pictures, but Kevin had the camera in Japan, so I do have some catching up to do. This year Henry was a cowboy for Halloween, complete with homemade chaps and a vest made by Grammy. He has mastered "trick-or-treat" and still wakes up in the morning asking for "treats." Henry went trick-or-treating with his cousins and his buddy Owen and enjoyed handing out candy to fellow trick-or-treaters. Henry was definitely more interested in blowing out the candles on the jack-o-lanterns than anything else.

I had bought Henry a cute Shrek trick-or-treat basket, but when he saw Cole's Spiderman, he fought hard for it, and won! Thanks Cole for being such an understanding cousin!

Henry spent much of the night trying to blow out the candles, I guess he convinced Cole to help out as well.

Still going!

Here is the whole James Street crew! TROUBLE!!

Group shot! This is getting more and more difficult the more children we add.

Elmo Live!

Henry and I went to Elmo Live tonight with Kate and Cole. I, unfortunately did not have my camera, but Kate did and took some nice pictures, check out her blog to view them. We had a great time and can't wait for the next show!

A Visit to the Pumpkin Patch!

Since today was such a beautiful fall day, we decide to take advantage and take a trip to the pumpkin patch. Henry had a good time picking out his pumpkins and he managed to pick only the ones he could carry. He certainly seemed to enjoy the experience more this year than last, and I'm sure next year will be even more fun! (I think what made these pictures even better was the St. A's sweatshirt he's sporting, thanks girls!) And this was his first pick, beautiful Henry!

Sure, this one looks good.

This was during the hayride, Henry needed some assistance walking through the long grass and hay, Daddy was happy to oblige.

This was the pumpkin Henry picked during the hayride, and we lost it about a million times, but it did make it home and is nicely displayed on the steps.

End of the day, Henry's favorite part was definitely the Cider and donuts he enjoyed on the ride home.

Cookie Monster!!

Henry has inherited mine and Kevin's love for cookies. Of course a cookie is not a cookie unless you can dunk it in milk. Well Henry does surprisingly well with the dunking. He prefers to have his own cup on and dunk on his own, however he is willing to share if that is the only option. For a while he was always trying to take the sippy top off his cups so he could dunk his food, we have slowed down on cookies and milk for a snack and that behavior has subsided a bit. The bib was just a coincidence.

Very disturbed at me taking pictures.

In for the dunk!!

That is one happy baby!!

Beach Bum!

Last Monday I took the day off of work and took Henry to the beach. Kevin was home doing some "remodeling" work (those pictures will come soon!), so it was just Henry and I at the beach! Overall the day went well, but he was very busy between the sand and the water. We went to Old Lyme so there were minimal waves and tons of rocks! Henry did not mind the rocks and was fearless of the water. I wish I could have gotten some pictures of him swimming, but with only 2 hands and an active 16 month old, that was not possible. We collected a lot of rocks and attempted to build some sand castles. We both enjoyed this adventure and I have learned that my days of relaxing on the beach are gone, at least for the next few years! Henry loved watching all of the boats in the water.

Having his "nack" on the beach, although I think he ate more sand than food!

He loved the sand!

He sat nicely playing in the sand until he discovered the water, then that was where we spent the rest of the day.

Trolley Museum

Last weekend Kevin and I took Henry to the Trolley Museum near our house. It was a fun little outing that we were able to experience before afternoon nap! I'm not sure who had more fun "exploring" the old trains in the museum, Henry or Kevin. We all enjoyed the Trolley ride, although Henry had clearly lost interest by the way home and I think his yelling kept our conductor's talking to a minimum.

Kevin and Henry checking out a old train in the museum.

Henry "driving" the train.

We managed to get a family shot on the trolley ride.

Not sure what they were looking at, but apparently it was exciting.

Potty?!....I Don't Think So!!!!

So Henry loves the potty! He is always trying to go in with us and on this occasion he managed to try on his own. This is not something any of us are ready for! After he "went potty" he would walk around the house then run to the bathroom yelling "potty!" But nothing would happen when he was brought. At least he we know he is interested for when the time comes, and he is a mean flusher! I don't think this is how most boys stand!

He has the flushing thing down.

Parade and Carnival Fun

On Saturday we went to the Windsor Locks Parade and Carnival with Kate, Bryan, Cole and Reed (the big boys were with my parents). We had a great time and I think Henry enjoyed his first ever carnival experience. The pictures are out of order, sorry but you get the idea. This is the big ball Henry won (from the game he is playing below) and soon after lost on the way home.

All they had to do was pick a duck and win a prize, they both won large yellow balls!

Henry spent much of the evening on Daddy's shoulders.

Kevin thought it would be nice to buy the boys some blow up bats, they had a great time hitting each other (and innocent passerby!) with the bats while waiting for the parade to begin.

Thank goodness for Kate's double stroller! Here they are waiting for the excitement to begin.

Extreme Home Makeover!!

As I'm sure many of you know by now, Extreme Home Makeover has come to Suffield! It is very exciting and despite Kevin's attempts to convince me that it would be just as exciting to drive by the house on Monday when it was completed and the crew was gone, I felt I had to see the action while it was here. After all it is not everyday that t.v. comes to town! I must say this was a very well run experience, we all piled on a bus (Kate and the kids came with us) and we got shipped over to the work site, stayed about five minutes, and got shipped back. Kevin was an integral part of this operation as we could not have maneuvered five young children through all the chaos without the extra hands. Everybody was very well behaved and ice cream was earned by all (especially Kevin!) The pictures are not great, as I could not see what I was taking and just kind of held my camera in the air and hoped for the best, you get the idea though.

Ice cream after the big trip. I can't wait for Henry to use a spoon like Cole!

And after eating he could not find a napkin, so used his hair, lovely!