A Sad Goodbye

On Monday we noticed a patch of hair was missing from Henry's head.  We could clearly make out the scissors line to see what had been cut.

We gathered the boys together to determine just how the hair got cut.  (See how we gathered both boys together?  It's like we knew it wasn't just one child involved.)  Apparently, Josiah thought it would be fun to cut Henry's hair.  So, following the golden rule of doing unto others as you would want them to do unto you, we cut Josiah's hair.  We gave him a little tuft of missing hair in the exact same spot.  I wasn't sure Todd was serious that we do it, so I had the scissors in my hand looking at Todd for some sort of go-ahead signal that we weren't just playing with Josiah.  I never could tell what Todd was thinking, so I just snipped the hair off and he ran to the bathroom to see the horror bestowed upon him.  It'll grow back.  It wasn't that we were mad at Josiah, we just didn't want him taking advantage of his brother just because he's older.

It's been great having Nana here, we have been going to new shops and getting some decorating done.  We went to Hobby Lobby and Grandad & Nana let each of the kids pick out a Nutcracker.  Henry quickly found the one he wanted.  He liked the English Bobby mostly because he was holding a set of handcuffs.  Josiah took forever deciding on his favorite.  He finally settled on the Uncle Sam one which he named Paul Revere.  He liked that it came with a real flag.  Caroline looked all around as well and she settled on a fancy Nutcracker that came with a cape.

We did start school up again and got a little bit done.  In history, our activity had us making Samurai Warrior hats out of origami.  The instructions were in our history book, but we were not following them very well (it's hard to do origami without pictures).  All we had to do was check YouTube, and there it was, an instructional video on Samurai Warrior origami hats.  You can find just about anything online.  They turned out to be more decorative as they didn't stay on their heads too well, but they were fun to make.

Josiah in Samurai Warrior Pose.  Henry looking a bit Pilgrimesque.

The boys were sweet to Caroline.  She was not able to go to Awana this week because she'd been coughing for a couple of weeks and I was concerned she was contagious since Henry had strep.  It was Awana Store, the time when they got to spend their earned points on little trinkets.  Josiah determined that he was going to get something for Caroline since she wouldn't be able to go spend her points.  Then later, Henry saw what Josiah did and gave up one of his things for Caroline.  That'll bless your heart to see them do that on their own.  You do love each other.  :)

Unfortunately Grandad and Nana had to fly back home at the end of the week.  We had some pretty sad kids on our hands.  The first day, Henry was very quiet and sad.  He teared up a few times.  But the second day, Henry was wailing because he missed them.  He missed playing ball with them, going outside with them, reading with them, seeing them, hugging them, the list went on.  He was just inconsolable.  He finally fell asleep that night, but only after some long, exhausting cries.  Later that night, Todd and I went up to bed and discovered it was doubly occupied.

Since Henry had already had a tough night, we didn't want to move him.  Todd and I just picked a twin bed each.  He chose the princess room.

We did a Lowe's Build & Grow project this weekend.  The kids each built two picture ornaments.


We were talking about what pictures they could put in the ornaments, and Josiah asked to pose for this picture for his first ornament.  Nothing like immortalizing the Lunchable.

We finished out our week at Josiah's WAM concert. WAM is Worship Arts Ministry and each kid in grades 1-5 could pick a track for the semester. So, this concert was the culmination of all they had worked on. We got to see what the other kids had done: photography, woodworking, interpretive dance, singing, drama/theater, guitar, drums, art, etc. Josiah picked the Banners track and he was always secretive about what the banners looked like and the work he did.  They turned out to be very impressive.  The pictures don't do them justice.  He said he cut out some of the triangles and glued them on.  He was also in charge of the sequence.  His favorite was the lion one on the right.


Caroline got into some of the songs at the concert.  During one number in particular she could not help but get up and dance.  It was loosely in the genre of "interpretive dance."  You can see her silhouette with her pony tail flying to the side as she was head-banging to the worship songs.

And so begins another week.  Our goal right now is to just finish out the year well.