The Adventures of Haley and Bennett

Tonight, Bennett and I sat in the Sonic parking lot and shared a hot fudge Sunday. We watched cars go whizzing up and down the highway, and shouted at the really big trucks that made lots of noise. Bennett loves to shout at big trucks. Bennett ate most of the ice cream and I ate most of the hot fudge and we were both very happy by the time we decided to go home. It was a simple thing, but I think this is one of my new favorite memories. I love hanging out with this boy.

Lately we have had many adventures here in the Hargrave home. Bennett and I are very busy people. I never realized just how busy until Sunday rolled around and I remembered it was time to do the blog. So I got out the camera to see what we had captured over the week, and that's when I saw there were 181 pictures waiting to be loaded. And I got tired and went to bed. But I am back now and resolved to at least post something, even if it's not everything. So hang on.

Saturday, October 16th:
Bennett and I go to Lake BLORA with our good friendy-friends the Askerlunds. Texas is a funny state. It is just chilly enough for a sweater in the mornings, but by about noon it is back up to the 80's or 90's and perfect for swimming. I have to say I rather love having the best of both worlds.

The Askerlunds. I don't know what I would do without these guys...probably just be really bored.

Bennett's bestest buddy and future wife, Brielle.

My favorite magoo. The water here was only two feet deep for a good long distance, so Bennett had a great time being "big" and walking out into it all by himself. He sure is an independent little guy.

Monday, October 18th:
We go on a field trip to the fire station during Story Time. The library and the fire station are right next to each other, so our group of 20 moms and 46 kids trooped on over to take a look. I have never in my life seen so many terrified children in one place. It was a kind of fascinated horror though. The kids were torn between seeing the big trucks and running for the nearest exit. The trucks won in the end, but it was close.

Bennett and Jace. Is it any wonder people ask me if they are twins?

One of the firemen put on their gear and I thought there was going to be a riot started from all the screaming children. Jace kept saying in a small, terrified voice, "I go that way" pointing to the door. The firemen didn't really pick up on the pandemonium though, because after he was all dressed up he invited the kids to come shake hands with the "nice helper fireman." Bennett was the only kid in the room that got close to him without bursting into tears. I was one proud momma. After awhile he started picking up on the other kids' sacredness though, and he wouldn't go to them anymore. Talk about negative peer pressure.

Me with a terrified Jace and an "in shock" Bennett.

Bennett on the "BIG TRUCK!" (You have to yell these words or else it loses its effect. At least, that's what Bennett and Jace taught me.)

Inside the lobby there was this little toy fire engine the boys loved.

This has to be my favorite picture ever from the day. Jace is such a crack up. I really do love watching this kid.

Wednesday, October 20th:
A few weeks ago, my mom sent Bennett an Elmo video in his Halloween package. Bennett loves Elmo, but has never actually watched him on TV. This Wednesday afternoon I was trying to get the boys' lunch ready and they were both being super clingy, so I popped this DVD in just to see what would happen.

Success! Elmo has become a regular at our house now. It is perfect, because Bennett's attention span is only about as long as two clips of the Elmo video, which is exactly as long as it takes me to make two peanut butter sandwiches. Thank you, Nanna!

Some Day This Last Week:
I send the boys outside for "Cracker Time" while I find a minute to eat my own breakfast. Pretty soon I go out to check on them, and literally two feet from where they are playing I find this...

I know it's hard to see, but this is a spider the size of my palm. The size of my PALM! It had created a huge web from the fence to the tree (about six feet across) and was just hanging out waiting for a meal. A nice, Bennett-sized meal was probably what it was hopping for. It didn't get it though, because I got two of Matt's tennis shoes and clapped that thing between them so hard it never saw it coming. And then I screamed like a little girl and ran inside the house with the boys until I was sure it was dead. I can only be so brave for so long.

Saturday, October 23rd:
Bennett and I drive down to San Antonio for Sarah's Bridal Shower (Matt's littlest sister). It was SUPER fun and I took about a million pictures, but I am going to dedicate an entire blog to that later. Stay tuned!

Monday, October 25:
We dress up in our Halloween costumes for Story Time. Seriously, what would we do without Story Time? We went with a lot of our friends and had a great time singing spooky songs and eating Halloween Cookies.

Bennett is a dinosaur/dragon/monster this year (I'm not sure what the difference is between these three things). I'm actually a little disappointed with his costume. The plan was to do his hair all spiky and then spray it with that hair color stuff to make it green and blue (like his costume) and then paint his face to match. But I did a little test paint on his hair and found that his blondness pretty much absorbed the color and kept it there permanently. So unless I wanted a green and blue headed son for the next three months, we had to settle for just the spikes. The face paint is something I am still thinking about. Maybe for real Halloween we'll go all out with that. I was too lazy on this day. For example, my costume for Story Time was A Mom Who Had No Time To Shower. I pulled it off very accurately and got many compliments on it.

I'm a little biased, but I like this kid's face even without the paint.

I know I just posted a video of Bennett at Story Time, but I was laughing so hard watching him do this. Bennett has become quite the little performer. He's definitely got rhythm in his soul. (You have to keep watching past the boring "yawning" part. Sorry about the lack of action there. And is it any wonder the neck of this poor costume is so stretched out? Bennett is an active little guy, regardless of the delicacy of the material he is wearing. Oh well, it was from Goodwill anyway.)

Eating cookies with some of our friends.

Living up to the name of his costume.

Every Morning and Every Night:
We go on walks around the neighborhood with "The Stroller Mafia."

I was so lucky to move into a neighborhood with so many super cool people! We are actually missing one person and her little girl in this picture, so there are usually six moms and eight kids going around and around Dixon Circle (like a giant track). All of us are in the Army, four of us have deployed husbands, and three of us (four if you count me) are LDS. I love it! Everybody in the neighborhood knows who we are and they all come out to say hi and place bets on who's baby will "win the race." It is so fun. Thank goodness for good neighbors!

And In Between It All...
We rest up for the next adventure!

We really do have such good friends and a great little routine going, we are having a blast. I told Matt the other day that of course we miss him like crazy, but I feel guilty because we are just having too much fun to wallow and cry over him being gone. He said he hoped it would stay this way and not to feel bad. :) What a great guy I married! What a great kid I got! What a great life I have! I really am the luckiest.