A Memorizing Master!

The day after Easter, Josiah and Henry kept play-acting Jesus going to the cross, dying, being put in the tomb, and then finding the empty tomb.  Josiah, (always our play director), got to be Jesus, Henry was the Roman soldier, and I got to be Pilate.  Caroline got to be the women who found the tomb empty, when she chose to cooperate.  Otherwise, I changed roles and found the tomb empty.  Josiah did this all day long.  It did strike up a lot of conversation between the boys and I about heaven and what it takes to get there (faith in Jesus as the Son of God and acceptance of Him into your life).  This prompted them to have very nice prayers in the evening for people they wanted to see in heaven with them.

Then out of the blue, Henry recited John 3:16 for me and I had no idea he knew it.  ("For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.")  I asked him where he learned it and at first he said I had taught him, although I  never formally did so.  Then later he said they put it on the screen at church and they say it there.  He knew the whole verse, though!

Since Josiah missed Awana last week, he made up for it this week.  He recited 4 verses, spoke about a missionary couple we know (who they are, where they live, what they do, etc.), and sang the song for all the books of the New Testament.  Then he added another verse at the end that we didn't even go over.  I have no idea how he did that.  He is bound and determined to finish the book.  He has two more weeks to do so and he should make it.  I think all of the memorizing he does for his CC work has helped with Awana as well.  He is very good at memorizing!

Thursday he did his Memory Master at our CC director's house.  He said all of the history sentences to her and she said he did very well.  It is good practice for him to be tested by another.  Next year we'll try to do two subjects and eventually work our way up to all of them.  I think he liked playing in their son's room after the memory master best of all.  He had Star Wars legos and he was very nice to let Josiah and Henry play with all of them.  Now the boys have a new item on their wish list.

Caroline is still not sleeping through the night - we had her visit for 2 1/2 hours Tuesday night (midnight to 2:30am); then Saturday night she came in our room to sleep at 3:30am.  She and Henry came one after the other, so they somehow slept next to each other in my half of the bed and I had a sliver down the edge of the mattress.  If she doesn't visit us in the middle of the night, she has been waking up at 5:30 am.  This is at least an hour and a half earlier than she's used to, so she has been a bit on the cranky side this week (as have I)!

Storytime at the library this week had to do with April Showers.  It was rough because Caroline was so tired from waking up early that she was less than cooperative.  Henry is never very cooperative there.  But they did make a cute hat.  It was a rainbow hair hat and they all liked this one.

Hat on backwards, of course, because that is hilarious to all 4 year olds.

Thursday morning we went to a different playground.  It is part of a Memorial Park which has a monument commemorating the different military branches.  I'd know more if I could ever finish reading the information plaque.  Basically it is a very tall concrete monument shaped sort of like the Washington Monument, but with spaces throughout.  There is also an opening so the kids enjoyed going inside the hollow monument, which proved to be a great place to hear their echos.  I knew my children were loud, but now so does the couple that were sitting close to one another on the park bench next to the monument who have probably decided to forego having kids.

Saturday we did the Texas Children's Hospital Fun Run. We had to park off site and then shuttle to the hospital.  They used school buses to shuttle us and you would have thought we had just won a million dollars to see Josiah's excitement over riding a school bus.  They had 3300 participants and they let them start running in waves of 100.  We were in the far back with all the other families with strollers.  At one point in the race you could choose to go the 1K route or the 3K route.  Todd was running ahead with the boys and they chose the 1K.  Caroline and I were running/walking/looking at the scenery together and we chose the 1K as well.  A 1K is only 0.6 of a mile, so I found it quite humorous that halfway through our race they had a hydration station.  Of course we had to stop for water.  Caroline leisurely drank a few sips of the water, and slowly dumped the rest of the water in the trash can before throwing the cup away.  Like any good fun run race, they had medals at the end.  The boys then found themselves in 7th heaven at the buffet station.  Apples, bananas, chips, granola bars, breakfast bars, and fruit rope things.  I think they went back for seconds, thirds, and fourths.  And what is better to do after eating all that food, but to bounce in bouncy house rides.  Caroline loved the little bouncy house "obstacle course" for kids her age.  She was beaming the whole time.  The boys even made a Home Depot toolbox at the end.  Henry said it was one of the best days.  We were thrilled that the rain held off because it was supposed to thunderstorm all day and it ended up being just really overcast (which was great for the race).  We ended it with another super-fun bus ride back to our car.  

Not sure why they have glum faces - they were very happy to finish the race and go do all the fun stuff.
They don't like stopping for pictures.

Next week is Josiah's last day of CC for the year.  Not the last day of kindergarten, I have to remind him, just the last CC meeting for the year.  :)

Finally, Todd's parents celebrated their 50th Anniversary this weekend.  That is quite a notable accomplishment.  I'm embarrassed to say I had to go all the way back to Josiah's first birthday to find a picture with both of them in it at the same time (that wasn't blurry)!

Happy Anniversary!