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.