A Week Off

Our week off of school started out great.  The kids had a couple days of down time, painting, playing, just doing their own thing.

I got bathroom tubs and showers cleaned for which we're all thankful.  It had been a while....

Henry lost another tooth.  He's up to five missing teeth at the moment, but instead of holding him back from eating, he's reverted back to his pre-teeth days and just gums his food as if nothing is wrong.  This technique may serve him well 90 years from now.

We spent a lot of this week playing cards.  It was my goal to teach the boys how to both win and lose graciously.  They both have a tendency to celebrate lavishly when they win and fall apart/melt down when they lose.  So, when we made it to the end of a card game (which didn't always happen if one brother knew another brother was going to win and fell apart early), I made them shake hands and say, "Good game."  We had to start somewhere.  Henry kept asking to play "army" (aka "war"), but could not make it through a game.  Josiah wanted to play Old Maid a lot and every time he got a "J" he'd call it a Jake, a Jace, or a Jester, but never a "Jack."  By the end of the week, Josiah has improved greatly on his sportsmanlike conduct.  Henry, well Henry, he has a ways to go.  That boy doesn't like to lose.

By mid-week, we got busy.  We went to a play on Wednesday morning.  It was the Interactive type play again to where they pull from the audience.  It was a homeschool day and there were only about 25 of us in the audience total, so almost everyone got to participate.  It was Meet the Presidents and they went through every president in the U.S. in an hour.  It moved quite fast and I was surprised at how many presidents died in office.  There were only four actors in the play, so they always had the same guy dying again and again.  The boys really enjoyed it, but I think the adults understood it far better.  Caroline watched it, but got hungry shortly after it began and was tortured by her growling stomach for most of it.  From there we went to eat with our friends, then straight to karate, and then onto WAM at church.
Caroline, "We going to Sam?  What is it? Ham?  What do we do at church?"
"WAM, Caroline."
Caroline has been singing all the songs she has learned at WAM, Awana, and church.  She is quite proud and so sings them all really loudly.  The best part is that she tries to teach the boys the songs, however, they already know most of the ones she knows.  "Boys! Boys! I teach you the Cubbies song.  Sing with me.  We are Awana Cubbies, we're happy all day long...."  Henry usually responds, "Carwowine, I already know that." and he sings it 10 decibels higher than her very loud rendition.

The next day we had some friends come over.  They have three kids also and the kids did really well.  I think it was the best play date they've ever had in terms of their controlling their running around and yelling through the house.  My kids were fascinated by their "baby" who was 20 months old.  They now want a baby of their own.  While I miss snuggling a little newborn baby, I do believe our cup runneth over in the children department.

A nervous Josiah finished his week well, passing his test and earning his yellow belt in karate.  He kicked, hit the dummy, sparred, and earned his belt.

While he was doing karate, Henry and Caroline were at Awana.  Henry earned his "wings" and a red jewel so now he says he's officially a Spark. Caroline was very proud of her barn that she made and all the animals in it.

We started this weekend with a special kind of torture.  I had a wonderful idea to get lots of buckets to sort all the Lego pieces.  It took maybe 10 minutes to put the storage organizer together and that was only because Josiah wanted to help with the screwdriver.  I sat down on the floor and began sorting as a middle-aged lady.  Four hours of sorting later, and I stood up a crochety, feeble, hunched-over old lady.  Todd didn't fair much better, but he at least determined that he'd never do that again.  Now I'm just praying it wasn't a pipe dream to get the kids to keep them this way.

School begins again for us tomorrow.  Personally, I cannot wait to get back to the routine of school and everything else.  It sure fills up our days, but we use our time more efficiently that way.  I think the boys probably feel the same, though they'd never admit it.