Puppy Love

Henry learned about conjunctions in his grammar lesson this week.  It only seemed appropriate to watch School House Rocks: Conjunction Junction.  We watched it a couple of times and then Henry was singing it for a couple of days.  Conjunction Junction what's your function?  He's got them down now.  We are able to finish school earlier and earlier each day now.  This past week we finished their Writing and Science books, so it's getting down to math, history, phonics/grammar, handwriting, and reading.  There are three days left.  We are all exhausted and very ready for a break.

One afternoon while we were out in the front yard, Caroline took a walk around our circle.  When she got to the neighbor's house across the street, she noticed our neighbor sitting in her garage with a puppy.  She asked Caroline if she wanted to pet it.  And despite all the times I've quizzed the kids, "When a stranger asks you if you want to pet their puppy, what do you say?" (Answer, "No. Let me ask my mom/dad."), Caroline went to pet the puppy.  She did at least glance in my direction.  At the realization that she was petting a dog, the boys were over there in half a second.  The puppy was a husky-lab mix and was only 6 weeks old.  They had a ball playing with it.  They were giggling and lying on the driveway so it would jump all over them.  They had so much fun.  They really would love a dog.  The owner of the dog told the kids that they could come over any time to play with her.  She clearly didn't understand the incredibly literal nature of our children.  6:00 a.m. the following morning, Josiah says, "Can we go play with Gia? She said we could come anytime."

Another day we had our friend, Ezra over for the whole day.  His parents had to make a visit to the ER, so we had him for a long time.  After we picked him up in the morning, he immediately started in on a long explanation about a game he has played.  I don't know if it was a video game or what, but it was a game and it had chapters.  Ezra also has a little bit of a speech impediment (he's only 5).  Well, in Chapter 2 of this game, Ezra kept talking about a character that sounded exactly like "a$$ angel."  He kept saying it over and over again.  A$$ angel had to fight this person and a$$ angel helped him... I just kept chuckling to myself in the front seat while no one else seemed the slightest bit aware.  By Chapter 3, the a$$ angel was no longer part of the story, so my fun was over.

We played a bit at home and then after much negotiations between all the kids over what playground to go to, we ended up at the splash pad in our neighborhood which has a playground next to it.  They went from splash pad to playground and back again many times.  We had one moment when Henry fell off the monkey bars because his hands were wet.  He just had two kids in his church class with their arms in casts, so I told him not to do that again.  We really don't need a broken arm at the beginning of the summer.  Of course, Josiah had to try the monkey bars after just to see if he could do it.  Guess what? He fell off, but at least he landed on his feet.  The water was fun and refreshing.

running to the playground

Later we went to McDonald's to eat and play before karate class.  McDonald's now has computer games, so instead of running all the fast food calories off on an indoor playground, they just sat there staring at a screen.  Caroline and Ezra did play a few games of tag with some other kids, but for the most part they were pretty sedentary.

We did karate and afterwards we met Todd in the Costco parking lot.  I traded him two pizzas for two kids.  Josiah, Ezra, and I brought the pizzas back to Ezra's house to feed his older siblings, while Todd took our two younger kids home (kicking and screaming) because they desperately needed to go to bed early.  It always feels like a divorced couple when we do those things.  Here's the kids for the weekend...

Meanwhile, back at Ezra's house we hung out until another babysitter came.  Josiah got to play on Ezra's game system for several hours.  From the sounds of it, they tried just about every game he had.  Josiah had a great time, and I am renewed in my efforts not to buy a gaming system.  The kids are thrilled.   Ezra's family also has a dog, so we got the obligatory picture. The dog is still a puppy and was too excited to take a picture with Josiah, so we did our best. (And the ER visit that they thought would be for a pinched nerve, ended up being a spinal compression requiring surgery!)

Today the kids and I went to a birthday party for a little girl that is friend's with Caroline.  Caroline picked out a sparkly notebook to give her.  The sparkles changed from silver if you pushed them up, and sparkly pink if you pushed them down.  Caroline loves sparkles.  Sprinkles and sparkles, those are her loves.  The birthday party had a unicorn theme, so they had unicorn horns, unicorn pinatas, pin-the-horn on the unicorn, unicorn cookies and cake.  They also got to ride in her birthday present - the Frozen mobile.  The birthday girl took Caroline for a drive in the backyard and promptly ran into the tree.  I kept pulling them back to help them move around the tree, but every time she kept running right back into it.  So, I just let them be.  I think they finally abandoned the car at the scene of the accident.

They did have fun with the karaoke machine.  Caroline and Josiah would love to have this in our home.  To me, it's much like the gaming system, not necessary for our house.  We already have singing at the top of their lungs all day every day.  I cannot imagine adding a microphone to the mix.

We're planning our trip back east.  Last year we had to get an oil change and rear brakes, this year it was an oil change and front brakes.  The car is ready.  Hopefully the passengers will be ready soon.  We have another busy week ahead.  We have so many play dates, picnics, and birthday parties scheduled that our days are just jammed packed, even if it is mostly fun stuff.