Derby Days

Caroline had a tough week.  At karate, one of the other mom's gave Caroline a ring that had a big yellow ball on it that flashed different colors from the inside.  She loved it for the entire 3.5 hours that she had it.  Caroline loves having the car windows open, so every Wednesday when she and I drive home from church together, we have the windows open.  Caroline also has a tendency to hang things out of the window.  Stuffed animals, food, papers, you name it, she's tried it.  I've always warned her that if anything fell out of the window I was not going to stop and get it because it was unwise to hang things out of the window.  But in all of her 4-year-old (stubborn) wisdom, she continued to hang things out, which is what happened this week with her ring.  She was hanging her ringed hand out when the ring fell off into the street.  She was sooooooo upset.  "I NEED it, Mommy, I NEED it."  I really felt for her, and considered turning around to get it.  But then I thought if she was ever going to learn the lesson to not hang things out the window, this would be a good toy to do it with.  However, the loss of this ring was felt deeply. If we were back in biblical times, Caroline would have worn sackcloth and ashes for the next couple of days.  On Saturday, we were driving down the same road, saw the ring still in the street near the curb, and Todd stopped to get it for her.  It was a bit dirtier and had lost its flashing lights, so the reunion was not as happy as it could have been, but Todd sure earned some points in her book.

Caroline has been asking to do something just the two of us.  Something that we could do without the boys knowing about it.  So, this Saturday morning, the boys had a Derby Car Work day and while they all went off to do that, she and I had a nice breakfast at Chick-fil-a. 

We sat in the tall seats and had a nice meal together.  There were three little baby girls in the restaurant at the same time, so she gushed over them.  She loves babies.  I almost feel bad she doesn't have a baby sister at home.  She'd be a good big sister.  (Sorry, not sorry.)  Afterwards we went to the store where I proceeded to buy 9 containers of her soy milk.  Got home and realized I had bought "Original," not "Unsweetened."  Our little girl doesn't like any flavor to go with her soy milk...

After re-bagging her soy milk to be taken back to the store, we dropped by the boys' Derby Car Work Day to see them race their cars.  Todd had helped them put weights on their cars as well as the wheels.  Then they had the opportunity to do practice races down the track.


Since the Derby is always held while we're at Awana, we use this as the boys' race day.  They probably raced their cars down the track 50 times.  There was an adult standing at the head of the track just putting the cars on, letting them go, next set on and go, on and go, indefinitely.  Our boys' cars consistently came in 3rd or 4th place.  Some of the dads took the work day very seriously and glued pennies on the car to get them to be exactly 5 oz.  They looked professionally done.  Our boys' cars looked like they had made them and helped put them together which was just fine with us.

pre-wheels

They didn't get upset that theirs didn't win either, they just ran it back to the start line for another race.  I'm sure they'll learn tricks to make them faster as they do this every year, but we'd still like to keep it fun.

We finally got our bricks fixed.  Our front door has had three wooden boards covering up a hole in the brickwork ever since we had the foundation repair over the summer.  Since I very rarely use the front door, and so rarely see the boards, it just sort of got put off.  But we are happy with how it turned out.  Now we have to get the tile repaired inside the house that cracked because of the foundation issues.

before

after (still wet)

The kids had a lot of fun this evening.  We were playing out front, riding bikes and scooters, when the neighbor boy across the street came over.  He's 2.5 and got his tricycle out to ride with our kids.  Then they played with a soccer ball and had a ton of fun chasing each other with the ball.  It was the first time they have played together, but our kids are hoping it'll be a daily occurrence.  It was a good end to the weekend. 

Winter Freeze and Burst Pipes

We have been having a real winter here.  It has been much, much colder than the past two winters.  When we first moved here, we (the kids and I) missed the snow we got out east, but now that we've been here for a while we've grown soft and miss our 60-70 degree winters.  On Tuesday we had freezing rain and temperatures in the 20's.  Basically, ice on the roads shuts everything down because every major highway is just that - high.  They're loaded with overpasses going over cross streets below.  The entire time we've been here I always thought it was such a waste of money to have "Bridge Freezes Before Roadway" signs before every bridge/overpass.  And yet, it finally happened.  All the schools were closed Tuesday and Wednesday because of icy conditions.  Wednesday morning we woke up to a burst sprinkler pipe spraying water on the side of our house.  Todd went to turn it off, but the turn off area was cracked, so he turned off the water shut-off in the house, and still the sprinkler sprayed.  So, he went to the street shut-off and shut off all the water to our house and it finally subsided.  But that meant we had no water to our house.  Over the next 36 hours we became very cognizant of just how beautiful running water and flushing toilets were.  We appreciate them very, very much.  Todd called a man at 8:30 a.m. that Wednesday morning and we were already 10th on his list of busted pipes for the day.  So, he got another company to come out the following day and he fixed it for us.  We learned that plumbers get paid handsomely but we are very grateful for their skill set.

A busted pipe makes a lot of ice.

The school systems were all shut down for snow and ice, but that doesn't mean the home schools take a break.  Our kids are not a fan of that part of homeschooling.  It does give order to our days, though, so it's good to keep on going.  Josiah began a new grammar curriculum this year that I have loved.  He's learned so much about parts of speech and how to write well, but on his tests he has consistently been getting his vocab words wrong.  There will be two words listed and he has to write if they are synonyms or antonyms.  He usually misses about 1/3 of them.  What has happened is that we usually do grammar last each day, and writing vocab words is the last thing he does in grammar.  So, by that time I have left him to look the words up in his dictionary and write out the definitions by himself.  Since he was missing them, I thought I better check to see what he's writing.  And the problem became quite obvious.  He was using the dictionary to define the first word, but then he was using Josiah's best guess to define the remaining three words.  For example, this week, he wrote:
"cranky - means you need more sleep"
"grouchy - sort of like cranky"
Not exactly what was written in Merriam-Webster's.

Josiah did surprise us one morning with cartoon pictures of each member of the family.  We really liked them.  He had a paper to go along with each that had our name, birth date, signature, and a description of ourselves.  Todd got, "A nice fun loving father and a nice strong man who wants his children to grow up in the name of the Lord."  For mine he wrote, "A woman who teaches with attitude and strength and very stern at her teachings."  He didn't mince words there.  Thanks? Josiah did apologize to Todd for giving him too much hair. 

How he spelled his own name wrong is sort of baffling.

Both Caroline and Josiah had karate belt tests this Friday.  Henry and I were off at Awana, so we missed them, but Todd took lots of pictures for us.  It was Caroline's first belt test and she was pretty nervous going into it.  She did well and even broke her boards on her first try.  She had to break one with each foot, which isn't easy.  Her instructor exclaimed, "Caroline! You're strong!"  That's what having two older brothers will do for you - she can hold her own.

Josiah did well in his test, too.  He had to break a board with his fist and another with his foot.  He did both on his first try, too.



So that was our week.  Today the temperatures reached the 70s again and all was right. 

Nine is Fine

Josiah's class in CC has a Jeopardy game to review their material each week.  He wanted to use this game at home and use it for when we review CC each afternoon.  Since this is typically not the most exciting part of our day, we gave it a try.  Of course, the boys wanted to rotate who would be the host, because they knew the host didn't have to answer any questions.  They have enjoyed their hosting jobs to the point that I have had to set a 30-minute limit for the game.  They talk to the contestants just a bit more than Alex Trebek.  Every time Josiah hosts, he will ask the question and then before we can answer, he'll say, "Here, I'll help" and he starts giving the answer, which pretty much defeats the purpose.  Henry hosts and just about every other question becomes a daily double.  Since we only get one point per question, and Henry never actually doubles our points, he's only in it to say, "You just got a Daily Double!!"  But, as a contestant, I have been humbled by my CC knowledge.  I thought I knew more than I did, so it's proving a good way to review.

Host Henry

Josiah as Mr. Trebek

Mid-week our church had their annual Winter Blast where they have snow ferried in all over the property.  Our first stop was this giant orb.  We actually got inside it and they took a picture of us - the only snow covered trees and log cabin that you'll find in these parts.  The picture they gave us was cute, but it was too small to upload here.  I think the kids just liked climbing in a giant balloon full of fake snow, picking up handfuls of it, and throwing it at each other. 

From the orb we went and got our hot dog, chips, and hot chocolate dinner.  We were eating in this garden area at church and it has a sort of stone stage area.  We were eating on the steps to the stage and Caroline just couldn't contain herself.  She climbed right up and moved her body all over that stage.

From there we went to some bounce house obstacle course.  The kids did that 4 or 5 times in a row before we made it to the sledding hills.  All of our pictures are blurry, but we did have a great time.  I went down with Caroline while Henry went down with Josiah for our first round.

Henry reluctantly, but bravely, went down by himself.

Josiah and Caroline had a wipe out.

After lots of sledding (and waiting in line to sled), we went to the Smores station.  This is how Josiah did his smores: he went up to a table where some nice adult would give him a marshmallow on a stick, he'd bring it to the fire, he'd purposefully light his marshmallow on fire, blow it out, light it on fire again, blow it out, and then take his blackened marshmallow back to the table to collect his chocolate and graham crackers.  This is the child who likes his toast lightly tanned and won't eat it if it's even slightly burned (or toasted as I like to call it).  Yet he ate three very charred marshmallow sandwiches.  Henry and Caroline did smores the normal way, a nicely toasted marshmallow smore.

That is one burned marshmallow

The following day Josiah woke up as a nine-year-old kid!  It is hard to believe he's already halfway to 18.  Henry made him three cards.  Caroline said she and Henry did the Kermit card together.
"Oh," I said, "What part did you help with?"
"None," she said, "I just watched."
I saw her moral support all over the card.

After a nice, healthy breakfast of Froot Poops (that would be Todd...), he opened all his gifts.

He got a bow and arrow kit from his cousins that he loves.  And he got Lego kits from each of his grandparents as well as us.  So, for Josiah's birthday, he joyfully put Lego kits together for literally six hours.  We did take a lunch break, but he was busy all morning long.  (I actually got a lot done around the house, because he was so focused on building!)  He even acquiesced and let Henry help him build, which was a pretty major thing for Josiah to allow.

For lunch we went to a sandwich shop.  Josiah got a birthday milkshake with his meal, so Henry talked me into getting a cookie for himself.  At least he had to order it at the counter himself and pay for it.  We file that under "life skills" in our school.

The boys played with the Lego kits all afternoon, before we headed out to pick up Josiah's birthday pizza.  Then cheesecake for dessert.  Josiah has talked about getting a cheesecake for years, but would always change his mind, so I was pretty excited he finally got one.  It's one of my favorites.  Henry didn't like it, so Josiah ate most of his slice, too.  We should have given him a side of Miralax to go with that second slice.

He said it was his best birthday ever, so we'll call it a success.

The next day, no other students showed up for Caroline's karate class.  The instructor said she could join the boys' class for that day if she'd like.  She was all-in to try their class.  The funniest part was that the boys' class still has some new students in it who are pure white belts.  Since they sit/stand in belt order, Caroline was ahead of half the class.  I think the 11-year-old girl Caroline had to sit ahead of was wondering what was going on, but it made me chuckle.  Now she wants to do it every week.

Caroline also took down Mr. Gregory.  (She loves Mr. Gregory.)

It was a good, fun, busy week.

Caroline Loves Her Netflix...

The kids have been drawing up a storm this week.  After their school work is done, they always want to do their Art Hub videos.  The man who instructs the kids is really, really good.  The pictures always turn out so well.  For this week, Josiah drew the pictures and Henry colored them.

Caroline got in on the action, too, but she wasn't as happy with her result of Elsa.  I thought she did a great job, but she wouldn't hold it up for a photo.

Mid-week, Todd's alarm went off at 5:30 a.m. and we both noted that we heard the T.V. on downstairs.  The kids know they're not to turn the T.V. on when it's a school day, and the fact that it was 5:30 in the morning!   So, between the two of us, Todd seemed the likely person to go and inspect who the culprit was.  He went downstairs and discovered Miss Caroline watching Netflix.  Netflix.  At 5 a.m.  She fought a little when he sent her back up to bed.

She may have been up that early because she went to bed early the night before.  The previous day  she started her new Phonics curriculum which (eventually) teaches her to read.  She was so excited to start it.  Although, Josiah may have been even more excited than Caroline.  Everything I read to her, Josiah jumped up and down and clapped his hands.  Josiah has always loved this curriculum.

Caroline has actually gotten herself banned from Netflix for a week.  Whenever it is "iPad time" she always asks to watch Netflix.  She goes up to her room to watch it, because, as she says, "the boys show is too loud."  So, she'll go up to her room and, as is often the case, I'll lose track of time.  When I notice that she has been awfully quiet for some time, I'll go up to her room to tell her that her time is up, but she's noticeably absent from her room area.  We have learned to then check her closet.  She has been sitting in her closet, in the dark, with the door shut, watching movies on Netflix that she knows she's not supposed to watch.  We've caught her 3x this week.  She's 4!  We have the strictest controls for her, too, but she manages to find all sorts of things.

Henry cried on New Year's Eve that he wanted more attention - he wanted to do more things one-on-one.  Every time he brings this up, I always ask him what he wants to do together.  And every time he answers, "Go to Sonic with me."  Can I just say that I do not like Sonic?  I have never liked how you have to order (screen with a car hop).  I would much rather walk up to a counter and order food that way.  So, New Year's Day he and I went to Target, not Sonic, just us, so that he could finally use his money that Grandad and Nana gave him when they were here.  He got a Nexo Knight Lego kit.  He was a happy camper.  And I didn't have to do Sonic.

He and I ran errand this afternoon, too, and stopped off at Dairy Queen to fulfill his milkshake-alone-with-mommy quota.  And, Henry being Henry, saved about 1/3 of it for Josiah.

The errand Henry and I ran was to a fabric store to get some vinyl to cover our brand new breakfast area table.  Yeah!  It's been an empty room for quite some time.  We built the table the first night with Caroline's help.  She put all of the washers on the bolts.

Today we put all the chairs together and Josiah got a lesson in using the lovely Allen wrench.  It turned out really well.  The kids love having it there and Josiah says he's going to draw on it first thing tomorrow morning.

This is going to be quite a week we have coming up.  Josiah has kept us informed, since Christmas, how many more days it is until his birthday.  Now his birthday week is upon us.  He is the ultimate celebrator.  And I cannot believe he's going to be 9!