Go Huskies!

I got to go to Josiah's scouting meeting this week to see what it was like.  Crazy!  It was about 50 men/boys and me when we were in the main room all together.  Now, when the adults would hold up their right hand at a 90 degree angle, the boys all knew to be silent.  For the most part, they obliged this signal to attention.  However, during the interim while waiting for the meeting to be called to order, it was a bit on the chaotic side.  It may have been that it was just a room full of young boys and they were loud and active, but wow, I think I'll take Caroline to her scout meetings in the future.

Josiah went with me to the library the next evening and helped me pick out an obscene number of books.  I noticed on the way home as he silently looked at a book, as well as with his school work this week, that he appears to have figured out how to read silently.  I was sort of looking forward to this day of him reading silently, but now that he does it, I just look at him and wonder what's going on in his head.  Are you reading?  What are you doing in there?

Of course, I do make him read aloud to me for school.  We have an old reader with an original copyright date of 1879.  It sort of serves as a history book in a way, since I have to explain things to him (outhouses, carriages, etc.)  He uses it to work on his pronunciation and just reading aloud in general.  For whatever reason, every time he reads from this book, he uses a voice like a man taking the stage to read Shakespeare.  Every time, I ask him to use his "normal" voice, but he just cannot seem to do it.

Henry built this while I did some lessons with Josiah. It was a pigeon and something else that fit right on top of the pigeon. He was very proud of it and asked me to take a picture of it. We're working on the camera smile...

It was my turn to volunteer in Henry's class at Awana.  It started off really well.  His class has 3 and 4 -year olds in it.  As the evening wore on, the highly active and loud children made themselves known and I quickly learned their names.  On the way home, I asked Henry if his friend was in class that night.  "Yes," he said, "but I don't know his name."  Now I had my opportunity, and I listed off all the boy names starting with the two boys who were forced to sit the last 10 minutes of class in chairs in the back of the room.  I was happy to hear his friend ended up being one of the more follow-the-rules kind of kid.  :)  Although, I'm not sure they said two words to each other while I was there.

Caroline has spent her week helping to make and then eat egg salad.  She insisted on cracking all her eggs and shelling them without help.  It was painful to watch at times.  Her eggs were so beaten up by the time she was finished taking their shells off, that she earned her own special batch of egg salad.  I kept mine in a different container...

Todd's boss at work was gracious enough to give him tickets to his university's football game this weekend.  She gave them to him weeks ago, unaware of the weather that was to come.  Todd was really looking forward to taking the boys, until a couple of days ago when it became clear that the weather was not going to cooperate.  There was a storm coming up from the Gulf which was colliding with Hurricane Patricia from the west.  And yet, he kindly went with them anyway.  He took the boys to the President's house for a reception before the game.  Henry hit it off with the President's wife.  He was hoping they would have ice cream there.  Todd mentioned this to Mrs. Sloan in jest and she said, "Oh, I have ice cream."  She was incredibly hospitable and set up a fixin's bar for the boys.  She was very, very good to the boys.

Ice Cream Bar

After that they went to the football game.  Todd said the boys would say, "Go Huskies" for a while and then stop.  It was raining quite hard, and while they were wearing ponchos, a little before halftime Henry announced he was done and wanted to go home.  So, that was their first football game experience.  Ice cream - good; rain - bad.

Todd said, "Henry, look over here."  

Caroline insisted that all her babies be swaddled for bed this evening.  It's a good thing those Labor & Delivery nurses teach us how to swaddle our newborns.  It comes in handy for years to come.

The boys decorated their tin whistle cases at CC this week. PVC pipe and duct tape.  They were proud of them.

We worked on their finger position this week. As you can see, they still need a little work (Henry's fingers are correct).