Museums and Music

This week, we actually had to work school around all of our fun.  We began the week meeting up with friends from Awana at Monkey Joe's - an indoor bounce house place.  Caroline and her best friend, Hannah, were running around, holding hands, and going down the slides together.  They were pretty cute.  The boys had a lot of fun with her older brother, too.  They bounced, they climbed, they ran, and they left drenched in sweat.


The next day we hung out with some CC friends at the local Children's Museum.  Our boys had always enjoyed playing with the Lyons' boys at CC.  I think part of the appeal was that our kids were older, so they felt like they were taking care of the younger kids, sort of babysitting them.  That was at CC, but at the museum, they just played really well together.  We ended up staying well into the afternoon without a lunch break.  So, by the time we got in our car, our kids were tired and hungry.  I had packed sandwiches to stave off the hunger.  Caroline wasn't too happy with what I packed her and kept whining and crying, "I want pretzels."  I told her no, she needed a fruit or vegetable because all she'd had that day were carbs (par for the course for her), so she started whining, "I want broccoli."  And I think we can accommodate that.  

And speaking of starving, we've been reading a lot about the Jamestown settlement lately.  We've been reading a historical fiction book about a girl who came to Jamestown in 1609 (two years after its' establishment).  The boys have really liked it, so we got Book 2 from the library and it was subtitled, "The Starving Time."  Upon reading the book's cover, Josiah said, "Remember that day when I didn't eat breakfast? I was starving."  Caroline followed it up with, "Remember when we didn't have any more chips?"  Yeah...  The kids of Jamestown were like, "Remember when we didn't have any food so we had to eat broth and worms and chew on pine roots?"  So, our kids have no idea what it feels like to truly be starving, which is a blessing, and yet at the same time it is good for them to hear what people went through as our country began.

Josiah and I took a trip into Houston this week as well.  We went to the Houston Symphony with our CC group.  It was an "older elementary" concert, so the littles were not allowed to be a part of it.  Josiah and I made it into the city just fine, found the concert hall, and then set out to find a parking spot. We found a parking garage, but once down in its depths, it felt like this parking garage covered blocks and blocks.  We went from a blue section, to green, to yellow, each time going deeper underground.  We finally parked and I made many notes so that we would be able to find our car again.  The concert was great.  Josiah sketched as he listened to the music.  The conductor was very funny and made it very enjoyable for the kids.  They finished it off with the William Tell Overture which garnered everyone's attention.  It was fun.  The best part was we found our car again and made it home.


We are down to four more days of school for the year.  The end is near!

Frogs, Skeeters, and a Bit of Salsa

After making fun of Todd last week and his meatball looking gingersnap cookies, we've made them twice more this week.  They were so good and Caroline-friendly.  And we discovered after making a batch of flat cookies, that the meatball shape was the best after all.  So, I stand corrected.

In an attempt to work on better self-control and responsibility and all that other good character training stuff, Todd asked the kids one night what they could work on the following day.  Amazingly they all had a tough time coming up with even a single thing to work on.  We finally settled on:
Josiah would pick up after himself.
Henry would listen to me without arguing.
Caroline would work on not sucking her thumb.
And I would work on not yelling (which would really be a snap if the above were fulfilled....)
In response to what I said I would work on, Caroline stirred up the boys with, "Let's make mommy yell!"
At the next day's end, we'd all failed miserably....  However, when Todd came home from work and asked, Josiah stated, "I've been mostly perfect today."  And behavior-wise, yes, he'd done just fine, but there was a trail of Josiah all through the house.  Breakfast plates, lunch plates, toys, drawings, etc.

The local library had their F.R.O.G. art event this week.  F.R.O.G. = Fully Rely On God.  The kids were each given a strip of paper with all of the stations on it and if they went to all the stations they would get a treat at the end.  This year the treat at the end was a lollipop and a sticker.  They had a really good time making bracelets, origami frogs, watercolor pictures, face painting, tattoos, and others.  Henry spent a good half-hour at the Zendoodle station.  He loved it.  The girl kept giving him different designs to do on his frog and he just ate it up.  Kids came and went from that station, but he kept at it.  His frog was blank when he first got it.


Josiah liked making a paper frog.  Most just made a frog, but when he spied that the girl at the station had made eyeglasses for hers, he had to have some, too.  Then she made a bow tie for him.  He had a good time with it.

Towards the end, we were waiting for Josiah to finish one last station.  The younger kids asked for a second tattoo, but they had a hidden agenda of getting tattoo sleeves.  Henry ended up with four.  Caroline got an entire strip of Frozen snowflakes up her arm.  They were quite happy with themselves.  The girls at that station were prepared to give them more, too.

This weekend we went out to eat to satisfy a Tex-Mex craving.  Henry ordered his usual cheeseburger and after the first couple of bites, his tooth came out.  The unexpected nature of it caused him to get upset.  At first he was surprised that it happened, but it quickly turned into him being quite upset by the taste of blood in his mouth.  Then he wanted to put his tooth back in his mouth.  But before he could try, he dropped the tooth on the floor, picked it up, and then tried to put it back in its spot.  (so, so gross....)  We got the tooth securely out of his hands, gave him some ice to suck on, and after a few minutes he was cool with it and happy that it came out.  The rest of the meal went on without a hitch, except at the very end when our super good waitress was clearing out some plates and dumped a bowl of salsa on Todd's shirt.  He, of course, was fine, but we felt really bad for her.

His tongue in the missing tooth spot.

Todd surprised Josiah with a Skeeters game this weekend as well.  It was just a special night for the two of them.  Henry went to his room and cried when he found out what they were doing.  But at the same time, Henry had a miserable time at the last game ("I can't see anything..."), so when he's a little older he'll get a special night, too.  From the texts and pictures I got back, it looks like they watched a little baseball and Josiah ate a lot of grub.  He started off with a hot dog, "This is the just the kind of hot dog I like."  After that he polished off an ice cream sundae. Then he noticed that other folks were eating fries and he tried to get in on that action, too.

It was free jersey night at the Skeeters game, but when they got there, they only had Youth XL sizes left, so Josiah and Todd both got that size.  It made Henry quite happy the next morning to see he got a jersey, and Josiah was really happy to be able to give it to him.

And we are down to two more weeks of school.  It's going to be a busy couple of weeks, too.  Apparently all of those, "We should really get together." that us moms say to each other are coming to fruition in the next couple of days.  It should definitely be a fun two weeks for the kids, that's for sure.  

FroYo & Sumo

Last week it really felt like we were finishing up all of our activities for a while, but this week was just as busy.  We had our last night of WAM ("Yay, it's over!!!") and Josiah had his last Boys of Iron meeting.  For his Boys of Iron, all the boys in grades 1-5 shot off bottle rockets for an hour.  They filled 2 liter bottles with water, and then pumped them up with air until the pressure got so great that they shot in the air.  Those things shot up super high, much to the boys' delight.

We were up at church a second night for Henry's kindergarten graduation.  It was a really nice thing they did for all the kindergartners.  He was all excited to do it up until the moment we got there.  He finally allowed us to drop him off and while we were away he got to see his new first grade room at church, where they discovered there were no toys.  They got to see the game room, they made crafts, and had sandwiches.  Then we all gathered together for a graduation ceremony.  Henry really loves his one teacher, Mr. Jay.  He's made Sunday mornings much better for Henry and we are very grateful.

Henry was also very much in a celebrating mood before the ceremony began.  He was dancing in his aisle and doing all sorts of silly faces and body movements.


While Henry was enjoying all the kindergarten activities, we took Josiah and Caroline to a playground near church.  They had almost two hours to play before we had to get Henry and it happened that for half the time, Caroline found a little girl to play with and for the other half, Josiah found a little boy.  When Caroline's new found friend was leaving, she kept calling out, "Bye, Claire! Bye, Claire!"  Of course, Caroline was just ignoring her, until I let her know to say goodbye.  Josiah also mastered the monkey bars.  Once he got his body swinging, he did fine.


Todd's been punching his man card a lot this week.  He changed a car battery, did all the yard work, is working on fixing a bathroom fan, and even made gingerbread cookies.  He conveniently left the recipe on the kitchen counter all week and dropped hints about how good the kitchen would smell with cookies baking in it.  He finally gave up and made them himself this evening (he couldn't ask me to do it on Mother's Day).  Now, Todd didn't want to waste any time with making them.  The recipe called for 4 1/2 dozen cookies.  That would be 54 cookies.  He took that as a challenge, made 34 cookies out of his dough, and put them all on the same tray to cook.  What came out looked very much like gingerbread meatballs.  And I quote, "The recipe didn't say to push them down."  In his defense, they did taste good.

Todd also took the boys out for some frozen yogurt.  It's one of those shops where they give you a dish and you put the yogurt and toppings in it yourself.  You pay by weight.  The last time he went, he went on a solo mission with Josiah.  It cost a little over $3 for Josiah's yogurt.  This time he took both boys.  He was helping Henry with the toppings while Josiah was behind him helping himself.  This time it cost a little over $9.  Needless to say, they enjoyed it.

We did get some school done.  (Three more weeks left!)  We learned about Japan and so we had to do what all Japanese people do.  We drank tea and watched a little sumo wrestling.  The boys had a lot of fun doing their own sumo wrestling until one brother sustained a head injury after being pushed into the couch.  He got back up, but we had to call the match from that point.  Caroline enjoyed saying, "3, 2, 1, SUMO!"

And we ended up with Mother's Day this morning.  When I came downstairs, Josiah, our chief celebrator, had made me a toasted bagel with butter ("I toasted that half on '3' and the other half on '5.'") with a mug of hot water.  He's our holiday man, always ready to celebrate any and all holidays.  He's a good kid.

He's also getting older.  We went to get him a haircut this afternoon and when we left he said he loved it.  In the car, he wanted the windows up - a rarity if Henry's not in the car - because he didn't want to mess up his hair.  Then he wasn't sure he wanted the air conditioning on either because the air from the vents might mess it up.  But I wasn't about to melt on the way home, so he suffered through the A/C vents being on.

We are finally down to just one activity - karate - for the rest of the summer.  Three more weeks of school.  It is good to be in the home stretch.

Awana Awards

Caroline bought a Frozen Lego kit which arrived in the mail Monday afternoon.  She didn't want the boys to help her with it, but they sure sat there, and talked, and picked up all the pieces while she and I put it together.  My head actually hurt that evening from the abundance of words spoken in a high-pitched excited manner for hours at a time.  In the end, Caroline got her Ice Castle with Elsa, Anna, and Olaf.  She's a happy girl.

Caroline got her pumpkin bread this week as well.  For the past couple of weeks, she has been picking out the can of pumpkin from the pantry and asking to eat it for breakfast.  I don't know what she thought canned pumpkin tasted like, but we finally got around to making her pumpkin bread.  In a mere 36 hours, the kids, and only the kids, had eaten an entire loaf.

Caroline also got to go out with Todd to have a special lunch with him this weekend.  So, she's been making good in the food department.

In school this week, we learned about coral reefs in science and the boys made really good versions of them out of clay.  Henry had a variety of coral in his model.  Josiah made brain coral.


Caroline made a sand castle.

We also learned about Dutch dikes and the boys attempted to make some out of sand but they soon learned the weaknesses of dikes.  We also watched a few You Tube videos of Dutch dikes.  Type that in and see what you get.  For every three clean Dutch dike videos we passed, there was at least one of the other variety.

Henry also learned subtraction this week and has taken quite a liking to it.  After finishing up his usual math assignment, he asked to do a whole sheet of just subtraction.  He did that for a few days and still smiles when he thinks about subtraction.  He's a funny kid.

We met our local sheriff's deputy.  All the neighborhoods in this area have the sheriff's department patrol them.  We always see them driving up and down the streets several times a day.  One day this week the deputy turned on our street to stop and introduce himself.  Caroline chatted him up and he gave the kids stickers.  He showed me his radar system and said they can shoot radar from the front or the back or the car, from a stationary position or while driving.  I certainly took note of those helpful hints.  So, now, while we're out on our morning break we can wave and say Hi to our new officer friend.  

The weekend was a busy one.  Friday night the kids had their Awana Award Ceremony.  They all got certificates, Henry and Caroline got ribbons, and Josiah got his Sparky plaque for finishing all three Sparks books.  They were excited to receive their awards, eat the cookies afterwards, and then play on the playground.  Now, our Henry likes to run head first into all things.  He is always in forward motion.  Unfortunately, he ran right into the bottom of the slide, which in his defense was where he was aiming.  I think he was trying to jump on the bottom so that he could climb up it.  But the way things go for him, he jumped toward the bottom, hit his nose pretty badly on the slide, and then was hit by Josiah who was in the process of sliding down the slide, "I couldn't stop."  It wasn't a shake-it-off injury.  It was a, "let's go home and get some ice on that nose injury" and that was what we did.  It was already late at that point, but it wasn't the happy, fun ending we had anticipated.  And while his nose still hurt a lot, Henry said the reason he was so upset to leave was because he didn't want it to be his fault as to why we left when we did.  (We told him it was time to go anyway.)  Poor kid.  And his nose was okay....thank goodness.

Josiah finished our week up with his WAM performance.  He had been talking about how funny it was going to be and that we'd really like it.  It was a "Whodunit?" musical about the Good Samaritan and the kids did a really good job.  Josiah spotted us and waved like crazy during the time people were taking their seats.  Then, as soon as the musical began, he quickly put those hands down and didn't do a single hand motion for the rest of the evening.  He was easy to spot in the crowd.  Out of the hundred or so kids in the choir, only two weren't doing the hand motions.  Our Josiah and another little boy.

The best part of the WAM performance were the emails leading up to it.  Two days prior we got an email with the subject line: Lice Alert.  So, yeah, that was fun.  Fortunately we have not seen any on our kids' heads and I just pray it remains that way.  Josiah tends to be a bit of a hypochondriac when it comes to these things.  We told him to not share hats, not to put his head close/touching another kid's head, etc.  But the minute he knew about lice, he was scratching his head and finding lint and asking if it was a lice.  This kid has laser sharp focus on these types of things.

It is nice for all of these activities to come to an end for a while so we can have some weeks without rushing about.

And just some last pictures of Henry jump roping.  He really likes doing it, but the expressions Caroline captures of him jumping are pretty funny.