Derby Cars and Gaylords

The boys had one busy weekend.  After a Whataburger breakfast,

Todd took the boys up to church to practice their Derby cars on the practice track.  First they had to put the wheels on and a few weights.  Josiah had made a Hardy Boys themed car. It is a hand holding a flashlight on the top and then Frank and Joe holding flashlights on either side.

Henry had made a Lightning car.

Todd said they raced their cars down the practice track 25-30 times.  Josiah consistently came in 2nd or 3rd and Henry consistently came in 4th (out of 4).  However, it did not deter them from racing again and again.

If we were going to make the actual derby next week, then Todd would have tweeked their cars a bit more, but knowing we'll miss it, he just let them have fun.  Fun they had until silliness and chaos ensued and it was time to depart.

I needed them home early anyway because we had signed up to volunteer at a program that collects books for elementary-aged students.  The nonprofit hosts "book fairs" in Houston schools at the end of each year, allowing each child to pick out 5-6 books to take home for free.  Their goal is to get books into homes that have no books and by doing it every year they can build up these kids' home libraries.  It is a neat program and we were excited to have the boys have the opportunity to volunteer. After getting introduced to the warehouse and what our assignment was for the afternoon, the boys only heard, "the kids can get in the big gaylords to help pick out the books."  Josiah and Henry were only too happy to help at that point.  They had fun sifting through the books, but also were a little disappointed that they couldn't bring a stack home themselves.  I reminded them we go to the library each week and check out on average 30 books at a time.  I think we're doing just fine with the whole book thing.

Henry has taken to reading to Caroline in the car a lot, too.  He'll usually bring a few books to read on the drive to karate and inevitably, she'll ask, "Henry, can you read to me?"  He usually does, which is very sweet to hear.  Caroline, however, has a tendency to interrupt to ask questions or give her two cents about the story on nearly every page.  So, sometimes Henry gets frustrated with her and threatens to stop reading if she won't stop interrupting.  While it's not always said kindly, I usually smile to myself as I can relate to the scenario.  We struggle with the fine line of interacting with the book by showing interest and having questions, contrasted to constantly interrupting just to talk.

Josiah made it to the doctor's office this week for his 8-year check-up.  The appointment went well and he's healthy and growing nicely.  We checked out and then were met with the elevator.  Now, Henry pushed the elevator buttons on the way up to the doctor's office, so Josiah and Caroline were to push the buttons on the way down.  I was distracted and did not see who pushed the button on the outside on the elevator to call it to our floor, but I soon learned it was Josiah.  Because after our family, and two other families, got in the elevator and Josiah pushed the button to go to the first floor, Caroline screamed bloody murder that she didn't get to push it.  She literally screamed the whole ride down.  One little boy asked his mother what was wrong with her.  Needless to say, I took her sticker away when we exited that elevator.  It was all the leverage I had at the time.  And now I will be the one pushing all said elevator buttons from here on out.

Now, by the time we made it down that elevator, Caroline was quite tired.  We had just spent all morning at CC, which always exhausts her, though she loves it.  The boys did presentations on artists.  Henry chose Da Vinci and painted the self-portrait that Da Vinci did when he was older.  (Note the long beard.)

Josiah presented on Raphael and tried to copy his self-portrait from when he was young.  They did a good job on their presentations.  This is one of the things I love about the CC program, is that they have to stand and give presentations each week which helps them get comfortable with public speaking at a very young age.

The kids were super excited to get special containers with handles from Nana and Grandad.   They each claimed one for their own and already have grand uses for them.  Henry has said his is a nature box to collect nature in and he has tried to force his siblings to have nature boxes, too, but they have not followed suit as of yet.

Caroline is rocking her karate class.  She gets so disappointed that she only has it once a week compared to the boys twice a week.  She loves it.  She does very well in it, too.  I think having big brothers has made her a bit tough and ready to learn some fightin' skills.

She's a tough girl.  We had beautiful weather this afternoon and the boys took her on some crazy Big Wheel rides. 

The kids also learned to not all climb the tree at the same time.  After requesting a photo op, Henry moved down the tree a bit, stepping on Josiah's hands who in turn stepped on Caroline's hands.  

And so begins another week...