Henry, Memory Master Extraordinaire

Henry had a big week.  On Tuesday, we went to a fellow CC member's house where he did his big Tutor Proof.  He had to answer 24 questions in each of the 6 subjects (144 questions total), as well as sing the entire timeline.  He was allowed zero errors and zero helps.  When he walked out of the room an hour later, he had a slight smile on his face, but his tutor wasn't smiling at all.  My heart immediately sunk as I thought Henry was putting on a brave face.  Even the lady next to me quietly murmured, "Oh no!"  He passed.  They were trying to mess with us.  We are so proud of him!  Later I asked him how she quizzed him on the Latin.  When we practiced at home, I'd say, "Latin Verbs: erat" and Henry would go into "erat - was, sunt - are, est - is, etc."  She quizzed him the opposite way, giving him the English word and he had to say the Latin.  He briefly got stuck on "light" (lux), but remembered it.

Henry and his tutor.

When we got home that afternoon, they all got their reward.  I told them that after the Tutor Proof they could watch Despicable Me 3, a minion movie.  I typically cannot stand the minion movies because both boys talk like minions for weeks afterwards (they don't say words, just make noises).  They must be maturing, however, because they watched it and only spoke like minions for a day.

Two days later, Henry was back at it having to complete his Director Proof.  This one was much easier, as she only quizzed him on 25% of the material.  When I got his papers later, I noticed that she quizzed him on all the questions that he initially missed during the Parent Proof.  They're tough.  When Henry and our Director were walking out of the room, they both came out with frowny faces again.  I don't know why they mess with us CC moms!  Of course, he passed this one.  While he was being tested, I got to hold our Director's 5-month old baby.  I haven't held her a whole lot, so to keep her from crying, I sang CC songs softly in her ears.  I figured that way she'd hear something familiar.  She especially liked the Preamble to the Constitution.  Josiah and Caroline had a really good time playing peek-a-boo with her and were even getting some smiles.  Caroline loves playing with babies, but she doesn't have any concept of a baby not being able to support its own body weight in a sitting position.  At one point, I had the baby sitting on top of a table while Josiah and Caroline sat in chairs.  Caroline kept insisting that I let go of the baby.  She wanted that baby to have some freedom.  I think she was merely projecting her strong independent spirit.

After the Director Proof, we stopped at Dairy Queen on the drive home to celebrate.  They were excited about the ice cream, but then they saw that the store had Cartoon Network playing on the TV.  So, basically we sat there and they watched TV.  I had to keep reminding Caroline to lick her cone as it was dripping down her hand.  Then they didn't want to leave the store because they were showing what was coming up next.  We were not about to sit there for two hours so they could watch some pretty lousy programming.  They only get to see this particular station at a hotel on the way to Virginia and at the beach house.  Given what they were watching, that's more than enough. 

That evening, the kids got to open a box of 256 markers.  (Amazon had a good deal for our artsy kids.)  Before they could open the box, they had to pick up every single toy/Lego/piece of paper/clothing/etc. that they owned and put it away where it belonged.  We had tried to do this earlier saying they couldn't do electronics without putting away all their things.  They were (mostly) content to not do electronics.  But when they saw that big box of markers, they got to work.  These kids love their markers.  Josiah then asked if we got the same box in crayons, too.

At karate this week, the boys learned a new take down technique in which they pull the leg out from under someone while simultaneously pushing their chest down.  This causes you to go to the ground fast!  (Then you punch them in the side of the neck to make sure your attacker stays down.)  I love the self-defense techniques they are taught.  The boys had fun taking each other down, too. 

Josiah taking down Henry.

This weekend, Caroline finally got her time to go out with Todd.  Caroline got dressed up for the occasion.

They went to a new restaurant called, Willie's.  When they got home, I asked Todd what he ordered and he said he had, "Half a Bacon Willie."  Half?  I asked him to elaborate.  He ordered a Bacon Willie (hamburger), but Caroline thought it looked so good that she kept asking him for some and ended up eating half of his burger.  She had a good time out and she didn't come home hungry.

We have our last CC this Thursday and the Awana Award Ceremony this coming week as well.  Things are coming to a close for this school year.  Although the kids don't like to be reminded that we do school til the end of May.