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.