Crayfish, Plantains, & Pumpkin(fest)

For CC this week, we examined crayfish.  They had been preserved in formaldehyde and, had our kids been older, we would have dissected them.  However, for our purposes, we just examined the outside of it identifying all the parts we could see.  Each child had their own crayfish, a set of tweezers in one hand and a plastic glove on the other.  I had the joy and pleasure of being in Henry's class this particular day.  It was Henry and five other girls.  I think Henry was the most squeamish.  That and he kept poking at the crayfish with his tweezers and then bringing his tweezers dangerously close to his face/mouth area.  I was going slightly crazy telling him to keep the tweezers near the crayfish, keep your hands away from your face, stop being squeamish and just look at it.  The smell, which wasn't too strong, also bothered the kids a little.  Towards the end of the science time, most of the kids had gotten a little more brave with their specimens.  All but the tutor's daughter who cried for the first part and refused to come back to the table.  :)

Well, I thought Henry was squeamish, until it was time for Henry's class to go wash up in the bathroom and I happened to pass Josiah's class.  Josiah was just downright dramatic.  I took a quick picture.  At least he was entertaining his class with his reactions.  We do not seem to have any future doctors, nurses, medical technicians, paramedics, pathologists, biologists, or morticians on our hands.

Henry and Josiah occupied themselves one afternoon this week looking out the back window and drawing a picture.  I assumed they were drawing what they saw out the window since they kept looking up and out.  Henry showed me his picture and he drew our whole backyard.  Josiah showed me his picture and it was Batman. 

Though it did not make it in Henry’s picture, our lime tree on the side of the yard has been producing a lot of limes that are now ready to be picked.  We have a lot of limes!  In true Tex-Mex fashion, we use them to make guacamole, and I put slices in my water which tastes nice.  I think what we really need is an apple tree because we eat a ton of apples.  What we most definitely do not need is a plantain tree.  We have been studying Ancient West African Kingdoms in our history lessons recently.  I thought it would be fun to eat some of the food from the region.  I bought two plantains, which was overly optimistic.  I fried up one and had the kids try it.  They stared at their small slices for quite some time, calculating the risk they were taking to eat something foreign. 

Henry spent time kissing his.  (He’s into “lip kisses” lately, much to our chagrin.) 

They finally each tried it.  None were fans, but at least they tried.  I didn’t think they were too bad, but they probably will not make any future grocery lists.

Caroline has been the puzzle master for the week.  She has gotten into puzzles a lot lately.  Every time she goes to bed for a nap or for the evening, she’ll ask me if we can do puzzles when she wakes up.  So, this is how it works when “we” do puzzles:  I am required to attend the puzzle making event.  She tells me to sit down, she picks out the puzzle for me to do, and promptly dumps all the pieces in front of me.  She does the same for herself and we’re off to start putting them together.  I get about two pieces of my puzzle put in place when she interrupts my focused concentration to inform me that I need to stop putting the puzzle together.  She will help me when she’s finished with her puzzle. So there I sit.  And wait.  Then she doesn’t really help me do the puzzle, she takes over and does it herself.  Every. Single. Time.  I put her down to bed yet again, and she says, “We do puzzles when I wake up?”  “Yes, dear, we’ll do puzzles when you wake up.” 

The boys were allowed to dress up for Awana this week.  Josiah made the decision to dress up as Benjamin Franklin days beforehand.  We made him circular frames out of sunglasses with a brown mullet attached.  He held the Declaration of Independence.  Henry decided upon his idol George Washington.  He made a cotton ball white wig that attached to an inside-out pirate hat, so it appeared to look like a tricorn hat.  Socks over pants finished their ensembles.  Caroline and I stayed around for the Pumpkin Gospel presentation.  She was very excited to see the boys coming with their classes.  We saw that Henry was at the head of the line for his class.  This was a coveted position of honor.  He had told me several times that he was always the first one up out of his seat when it was time to line up, but he never made it to the door in time to be first in line.  When his teacher opened the door and I saw him at the head, he was marching like a drum major knees high and with his arms going up and down in the air.  It was exciting to be George and the line leader.

Saturday was Pumpkinfest at our church, which got moved indoors due to rain.  The kids all enjoyed going around to all the different stations, playing the games, and getting candy.  Todd and I signed up to work our class’s Star Wars themed booth for a 30-minute time slot.  We (I) had the brilliant idea that it would be good for the kids to learn how to serve others by working alongside us (and we thought the Star Wars theme would help).  They started off wanting to help by giving the nerf gun to the kids in line (to try and shoot off the Death Star), but our kids were fighting with each other as to who could put the darts back in the gun and then who could hand it to the next kid.  By the end of the 30 minutes they had grown tired of “helping.” 

Josiah had made his own Green Lantern costume to wear there.  Henry dressed himself up as a nondescript superhero, but then fell apart when we got home and he saw his George Washington hat/wig combo that he had intended to wear.  Josiah made himself sick on cotton candy.  Caroline got a balloon sword (purple, of course) which we had to control her from swinging all over the place.  Josiah got a black sword which he used to duel with Caroline.  Henry got upset because he chose a hot dog over standing in line to get a balloon. 

Sunday morning the boys got to the car to discover new booster seats in lieu of their carseats.  Henry was getting close to the weight limit of the car seat, Josiah not so much.  But since we have company coming soon, we thought we could move the boys into them sooner so we could all fit into the car together.  They spent most of the drive to church and home again looking out the back window.  Apparently it was fascinating to watch what was going on behind them.

Don't worry, Henry puts his seatbelt at his shoulder when we drive. 

Tomorrow for CC we inspect/dissect owl pellets.  Here’s hoping it goes a bit better than the crayfish.