Eight Is Great

Josiah had a good week.  Our highly excitable child was in overdrive for his birthday week.  We started the celebration the night before with a dinner at a Tex-Mex place where he enjoyed a cheeseburger and fries.  Those good Tex-Mex fries.  Josiah actually has us move the salsas away from him due to the smell.  Meanwhile, Henry is dipping his fingers in the green sauce and licking away.  After dinner, Caroline and I went to get the birthday balloons.  We typically get one per year which has never been a big deal when they were younger, but handling eight balloons was getting to be a lot.  Caroline was insistent on helping me hold the balloons in the store.  She did get to hold them, but I glanced up at the balloon covered ceiling more than once hoping ours didn't meet a similar fate.  She also had a fit that I would not let her carry all eight by herself to the car.  It helped that she got to play with them on the drive home.  She loved being able to help.

That was the night before Josiah's birthday.  The morning of Josiah's birthday began at 3:45 a.m. when Josiah walked in our room ready to party.  I kindly (??maybe??) sent him back to his bed, reminding him to "wait til the 6."  At 4:00 a.m. I heard squealing downstairs, so I went to investigate and both boys are sitting at the breakfast table with party hats on looking at his gifts.  Josiah was NOT happy to be told to go back to bed.  He went back to bed, but I really don't think he went back to sleep.  Finally, at 6, we got up and he opened his gifts.  He loves his Legos.

Froot Loops were the breakfast of choice.  He originally wanted IHOP, but then remembered Froot Loops and they were much better, so we conceded to the $2 Froot Loops.

We went to a sandwich shop for lunch.  While they were eating, the boys were discussing their sandwiches.  Henry kept saying how delicious his was and that it was very "flavorful."  (He chose ham, cheese, mayo, mustard, & lettuce.)  Josiah agreed that his was "good, but not very flavorful, because, you know, cheese is just plain and not very flavorful."  He thought that next time he'd order mayonnaise on it.  

Our church put on their Winter Blast the evening of Josiah's birthday, so we got hot dogs & chips there (free!) and birthday dinner was taken care of.

They also had open fire pits so we could roast marshmallows and make smores.  The boys loved making smores and also learned some finer points about fires, particularly being "downwind."

Caroline was happy that she could walk up to a table and someone would just hand her a marshmallow on a giant stick.  They had four tables set up and we didn't rotate very well, because Caroline's third time to the table the lady said, "Oh, you want another?"  She couldn't have the chocolate and graham cracker, so we let her have a couple marshmallows.

The best part of Winter Blast were the imported snow hills that we got to sled down.  The kids absolutely loved to sled down the hills.  Caroline would scream with glee each time she descended.  It was hilarious to hear her.  The only issue with the imported snow is that it kept on melting in our 75 degree air, which caused a bit of soggy grass which quickly turned to mud as hundreds of kids kept getting back in line to sled.

Josiah also participated in a snow ball fight with the snow they had dumped in one patch of grass.  By the time he got to it, though, the snow ball fight had been going on for a few hours and the snow was brown with dirt.  Like very brown and muddy, but that didn't stop him.  He liked his independence of running around with the big boys.

We didn't get home until late that night and after a quick bath, we sang to Josiah.

He blew out his candles and then we let the boys have one bite of cake.  Henry, ate his bite in true Henry fashion, all at once.  Josiah, in true Josiah fashion, savored his.  Henry wasn't too happy that Josiah savored his.  He always thinks that Josiah "gets more" because he takes longer to eat everything.

Since his birthday was so busy, we didn't get to his party poppers until the following day.  The kids were so excited about them, but they didn't exactly know what they were.  I think they had big expectations for what was going to fly out of them, because after they popped, they didn't say much.  I think they were hoping for big streamers, lots of glitter & fireworks, and a loud boom.  All they got was a "pop" and a small clump of streamers.

Caroline wanted to wear red that day.

And then it was back to real life, back to school and reality.  We studied the Mongol Empire this week, so one of our dinners was a traditional Chinese meal.  Now, when I lesson planned for the week, I wrote in my planner that this is what we would do, but I didn't actually look at the recipe at all.  So, when it came to time to actually making it, I only had half the ingredients.  We substituted real onions, garlic, & ginger for the powdered variety.  Rice wine vinegar became apple cider vinegar.  But I did have soy sauce and peanut butter.  While I was cooking it, Henry told me that it smelled really good.  I said, "Thank you."  He responded with, "Well, I didn't say it tasted good.  I haven't tasted it yet.  I just said it smelled good."  Again, "Thanks...."  He did end up liking it.  I thought it really did taste like Chinese food (it was chicken & broccoli in a peanut sauce with rice).  It had way more flavor than most of my dishes.

To keep the Chinese theme going, we painted Chinese scrolls - an outdoor scene with Chinese lettering on the side/bottom.  Henry chose a panda bear eating bamboo.  He wrote the Chinese characters for "panda bear" at the bottom.

Josiah painted a waterfall with birds.  He wrote the character "person," but didn't actually paint a person in the picture.

In Caroline's school, she tried to do a picture like Ezra Jack Keats does in his books.  She understood what he did in his book, but her picture was a little more abstract.

 Caroline also wanted to work on her "opposites" this week.  Several times in the car she'd ask us to give her opposites.  It went like this:
What's the opposite of up?  "Not up."
What's the opposite of full?  "Not full."
What's the opposite of asleep?  "Not asleep."
What's the opposite of large?  "........Medium."
So, she is really good at negation, and now we have something to focus on and work towards in her schooling.

Caroline ended her week better than she started it.  Monday night, she got in bed with us because she was very congested and we had a humidifier already going in our room.  She spent two hours going to sleep because she couldn't breathe because she refused to take her thumb out of her mouth.  So, she has her thumb in her mouth and she is desperately trying to breathe through her very congested nose.  She clearly is not getting enough oxygen, but even when I would try to pull her thumb out so she could get a few good breaths in, she had lock jaw on it.  Finally, after two hours, she was breathing better.  Her bed has become the coveted room for Todd and I.  Should we have nightly visitors, we always hope its Caroline so one of us can get her bed.  It is rare to sleep in a quiet room with no nightly interruptions, plus her bed is comfortable.  Whoever gets her bed always sleeps well.  Whenever Todd says he's going to her bed, I always get a little jealous.  Man, I should have called it first!

And for those on mustache watch (mainly, me), I have a good report:

One birthday week down, two to go.