Henry Is 8!

Caroline did a great job on her presentation at CC this week.  At the beginning of the school year she sort of mumbled her presentations, wanted me to stand up there with her, and didn't say a whole lot in general.  This past week I was in her room and she stood in front of her class by herself, looked at her audience, spoke in a voice people could hear and explained what she had made really well.  She spoke about her Roman mosaic that she made with beans.  I was impressed with her progress.  That is one of the things I love about CC - the kids have to do presentations each week so that they get comfortable standing up in front of a group, speaking well, and fielding questions.  It's great practice.  (Josiah did his presentation on Michael Jackson and The Beatles this week.  He had two minutes to talk about some of the most famous singers of all time.  While some people could talk about these two artists for hours, he needed just one minute per artist.)


The day after CC it was this guy's 8th birthday! 

I cannot believe he is 8!  He even came in our room at 2:00 a.m. to let us know it was his birthday.  He stayed in our bed and we were aware of his ever-moving 8-year old body all night long.














He wanted his birthday gifts hidden again, so we had his scavenger hunt ready.


He got so many good gifts from grandparents and aunts and uncles.  He spent the morning playing with every single thing he got.  He put together all his Lego kits.  He read through his books, he played with his new Hot Wheels set, he played many games of baseball.

He even went through all of his football stickers and (somewhat) organized them by teams.

Todd even started reading one of his new baseball books.

We made it to Which Wich for lunch.  Henry got his customary milkshake, which still sits nearly full in our refrigerator several days later.  Mmmm.  We spent the afternoon at a new park that we (I) have always wanted to visit.  It is in a very nice neighborhood and they spared no expense on this playground area.  It was amazing.  One of the favorite features was the zipline.  It was tons of fun.  The kids went across it one-by-one in the beginning, but then they would go two-by-two.  Before any other families showed up, I took a ride across it myself.  If I didn't have so many kids clambering to ride it again, I'd have gone across it a few more times. They had stepping stones that went in a spiral.  They had huge boulders to climb on and lots of stumps staggered to help you climb up walls.  They really let kids climb everywhere.  It was an awesome place.

We had a spaghetti dinner before heading off to Awana that night.  After Awana, when we were all incredibly tired, we sang to Henry and cut his cake. 

Actually he cut his own cake and each child wanted a different part of the cake, so this is what it looked like after Henry served the three kids.  Henry wanted an "H," Josiah wanted part of the "L," and Caroline wanted part of the "N."

Now several days later, people are still picking the letters they want to eat and the cake is in this condition.

Saturday, Todd and Josiah went to a local Comicon called Brazcon at an area high school.  He said it was really well done and much bigger than he expected.  It still had all the Comicon-type people dressed up as anime characters, Star Wars characters, Dr. Who people, Harry Potter characters, etc..  I am personally not a comicon-type person.  I'm not a, Hey let's dress up as our favorite character and hang out with other people dressed up, too, kind of person.  It's all a bit weird to me.  I'd rather Josiah not become that dressing up sort of person either.  Just a future hope of mine.  When they got there, they allowed Josiah to register with their library system (different county) and in doing so, he got a free t-shirt.  A little later, Todd heard a rather robust lady go up to get her free t-shirt and they informed her that they had already run out of Triple XL.  It was only 9:30 a.m.

One of the reasons they went was because the author Nathan Hale was there and Josiah has read all of his books.  He writes historically accurate graphic novels (the new term for comic books) about the Revolutionary War, WWI, WWII, the Donner Dinner Party, the Underground Railroad, etc.  The first session Josiah and Todd went to, they heard Nathan Hale talking about how he got to where he was in his writing/illustrating career.  He likened it to stairs.  In the third grade, his teacher noticed that he could draw and asked him to decorate their classroom door for Halloween.  In middle school, a teacher asked him and his friend to paint the backdrops for the drama department.  That lead him to painting backdrops for the community theater.  Because he did that, he got a job painting background scenery in a museum.  Towards the end of his talk, he said he is where he is because in the third grade he said, "Yes!" to decorating his classroom door.  Each thing built on the next thing.  He encouraged the kids to say, Yes! to opportunities.  Some kids may level up in Fortnite (video game), but you can level up in life by saying yes.  He also said that he wallpapered an entire wall in his office with rejection letters.  He encouraged perseverance, too.  Todd said he was great to listen to because he drew the entire time he spoke - stick figures acting out what he was saying.  He was quite funny, too.  After the first session they got in line to get Josiah's book signed.  The rest of the day was filled with eating brisket tacos and S'mores waffles from food trucks, browsing (and buying from) the Lego vendor table, and going to other drawing sessions.  It was a great experience, all except for the end when Josiah told Todd, "I need to figure out who I want to dress up as for next year."  Palm to the face.

While they were doing their comic book thing, Henry, Caroline and I went to a birthday party.  The little girl whose party it was, really loves Laura Ingalls Wilder, so the party theme was pioneer times.  Caroline made a rag doll which she loved and named, Raggy.  They both made lanterns out of soup cans.  We hammered holes through the cans in the design of a tree or star and then they had electric tea lights to put inside.  They also had a room in their house that was set up to look like the night sky with white lights on the ceiling.  They had trees for the "woods" and had paw prints on the ground and lots of stuffed animals everywhere.  The kids were given Nerf guns and had to kill their supper.  They had a lot of fun being pioneers.

We ended out our weekend doing Caring for Katy with our church. 

It is the day that the church is closed and everyone goes out into the community to do service projects.  Our community group went to a house that had been affected by Hurricane Harvey.  Their situation was really pretty horrible.  The week before Hurricane Harvey hit, the house diagonally behind them burned down.  The owners of that house were in the process of gutting it and had thrown a bunch of insulation and things in the backyard.  Then Harvey hit the following week and the debris in the neighbors backyard had somehow caused the water to flow to this house and it flooded the back of their house.  Our church had stripped the damaged drywall and pulled up the flooring last year.  The church had replaced all the drywall and got it habitable again.  However, the insurance money didn't cover all their repairs and now a year and a half later, they still have no flooring and they have had other issues with the house.  So our group went in and painted many rooms, replaced door frames, added gutters, did a lot of yard work, and got the house looking more like a home again.  The owners were really very handy and helpful, but they just haven't had the time or money to fix up the house.  Todd, the kids and I stayed out front and raked, mulched, and beautified the front to make it pretty to see when they got home.  Our kids did well and worked hard.  At first it was just the five of us doing the raking out front.  It was great.  We spread out and were getting a lot done.  Then, I guess the parents inside sent their kids outside and all of a sudden we had like ten extra kids in the front all wanting to help rake.  There were a few too many cooks in the kitchen at that point, but we got it all done.
Josiah was insistent that he stand in the middle for the official Caring for Katy picture.  Caroline is insistent that she always stand in the middle for every picture.  Thus we have the following.


We were all tired when we got home and so spent the afternoon watching Jurassic World.  We'll see how many visitors come to our bed tonight.  We both have our bets on Henry.  He does not like scary things.  Caroline's the wild card.  Ironically, Henry got a Jurassic World Lego kit for his birthday.  The kit came with the Lego character Owen played by Chris Pratt in the movie.  For Henry's birthday, Josiah dressed up as the Chris Pratt/Owen Lego figure.

Another birthday in the books.  I think "8" is going to be the year of "yo" for Henry as he has started saying that nearly all the time.  What's for dinner, yo?  What are we doing today, yo?   One more birthday and we'll be in the year of evens with 10, 8, & 6.

Dancing at the Dentist

Monday morning Henry had a math test.  He got a 100% on it, but the very best part was he checked his work.  I always tell the boys to check their work because most of their errors are silly mistakes that they should catch if they would just check their work.  Usually they merely glance at their paper and say they checked it.  But that morning Henry actually went over each problem and told me that he found an error and corrected it.  I was so happy.  He was happy that he caught it, too, so now maybe he'll check his work every time.

The kids had their dentist appointment this week.  I felt like I passed the semi-annual parent test when they came back with no cavities.  They love going to the dentist, while I am always secretly apprehensive that they'll have a cavity and I'll feel completely guilty and responsible.  While waiting for her turn, Caroline danced to her reflection in the door.  After seeing the boys, the dentist came out and informed me that Henry was ready for braces and that Josiah had one more baby tooth to lose before he was ready for braces. Henry still seems quite young, but I guess we'll be researching orthodontists in the near future.  Caroline was Miss. Independent at the dentist and was quite insistent that I stay in the lobby while she went back by herself.  After she had her cleaning and the dentist was in her booth area, the receptionist said I could go back and talk to the dentist.  I went back and once in eyesight of Caroline, she quietly mouthed, Go out!  Go back out!  I love you, too.  Looking at her mouth, we can see her two front teeth just under the surface of her gums.  It's been so, so long since she's had front teeth that I can't even imagine how different she will look.  Right now she has three missing up top and the fourth tooth is incredibly loose.  She eats from the side of her mouth a lot right now.

Josiah started the higher level karate class this week.  The first class was hilarious to watch.  These kids are a lot bigger (early teens) and just quicker over all.  They did this new form routine and at first Josiah was trying to keep up with them and learn it.  He was able to keep up when the Instructor went through it because he went incredibly slow and emphasized each step.  After two slow go-throughs, the students did it on their own.  They were so quick that Josiah just stood still with giant eyeballs.  He'll get there, but it'll take him some time.  It's good for him to be challenged.  Henry and Caroline are loving Josiah's new karate class, because they each have a friend to play with.  The weather has been nice enough that they've been able to play in the field next door.  Henry and his buddy J.J. are playing on the giant tire way in the distance.


Josiah's new karate class is on opposite days of the previous class, so we've changed our schedule up a bit.  Because of that, we didn't do karate on Friday and it turned out to be an incredibly relaxing, yet productive day.  The kids took an hour "recess" in the backyard.  They played so well together - they talked and didn't yell, they got along and worked together.  It was wonderful.  About halfway through I opened up the windows in the house to get some fresh air going through.  Once I did that, Caroline kept coming to the window, "Mommy, Mommy, look what I made."  "Mommy, Mommy, guess what?"  It was nearly constant.  I think my reaction went from Oh, she's cute, to Oh my goodness, I don't need to see everything you make, to laughter and resignation that she really was going to show me everything she made and explain it all in vivid detail.  The vast majority of things she made were balls of mud wrapped up in grass.  Each a little present.  While they were outside, I prepared our history lesson and got all the materials out for them to make Roman mosaics.  I filled up all three of our glue bottles to the brim so they each had plenty.  Little did I know how important that would be when Josiah took it upon himself to use enough glue to sink his beans into.  It was so thick it was measurable.  Josiah made a patterned mosaic.

Henry had a nautical theme for his - water, sailboat, sun, clouds, & birds.

Caroline made herself.  They had a good time and it was so relaxing because they weren't rushed to finish it before some activity that afternoon.


Todd's cousin sent the kids Valentine's Day presents which they loved.  It came a few days before the 14th, so Caroline was able to wear her heart dress to CC, which fell on Valentine's.  Her reaction to her star pants was hilarious.  She kept saying, "Oh my goodness, you won't believe this.  Izabelle has these same pants.  That is so cool.  I can't wait to tell her."  Someone else from church has the same ones, too.  She loves them!

At CC the kids all ate too much candy.  The kids in Caroline's class passed out Valentine's - the little cards with candy or something attached.  Josiah's class went the easy route and the kids just passed out candy - no note necessary.  We got them some candy as well, although as I was putting the Reese's peanut butter eggs and Robin eggs in their cartons, it dawned on me that those were Easter candies.  No one complained about the mixing of the holidays.

Henry had a good day at church today.  When he got to his classroom, they had a balloon on the door and a card that said "Henry's birthday."  He said his teacher's got him donuts and a Fruit by the Foot.  They definitely made him feel special and he had a good day.  When Caroline saw him later with his card taped to his back she melted down that she never gets anything.  Ever.  Nothing.  Ever.  She's going to have a tough time this week when he celebrates his actual birthday.  It's been hard teaching the kids to be happy for other's celebrations/victories/achievements.

Henry's been planning his birthday meals and activities.  He wanted a DeAndre Hopkins cake (Houston Texans football player).  He was convinced that Sam's made one, which if they did, they don't anymore.  Fortunately Todd got a NFL cake ordered.  He's getting excited.  I can't believe he's going to be 8!

At the Roller Rink

We have been studying about the Chinese and the Great Wall of China this week in history.  We painted with watercolors again and they wrote the Chinese characters that went along with their pictures.  Josiah painted a dragon and wrote the characters for: sun, day, and dragon.  The three of them also painted a waterfall theme.  I have no idea where it came from because we read about the Great Wall and the unification of the Chinese states.  Somehow they got waterfall from that.

In recent history, Josiah wrote a letter to former President George W. Bush some weeks back telling him he was sorry that his dad died.  He just got a response this week.  Josiah's loving all the presidential letters.  He's a big letter writer.  Right after he saw Mary Poppins Returns, he drafted a letter to Dick Van Dyke, and when he was really into Garfield he wrote to Jim Davis (asking him to mail him a signed, blank comic book so Josiah could color it in - we never did mail that one off). 

Caroline read I Can Run to me! Yay!  When we go through all the words she's learned so far, it's up to 97 words.  She has also been using her phonics tools to sound out words on signs or cars when we drive around.  It's so neat when she figures a word out.

This week our CC group went on a field trip

to the Health Museum in Houston. The older kids were able to participate in a cell lab.  After getting suited up, they were put in groups to do three different experiments.  I helped out in Henry's group, so most of my pictures are from that.  First they isolated the DNA of wheat.  That one was neat, but it sort of stopped at the coolest point.  After all our mixing and adding of ingredients, we had a little glob of clear stuff in-between our wheat and water (?if I remember correctly?).  The DNA was in that glob.  The next experiment was to look at our cells through a microscope.  The kids all did a cheek swab and then wiped it on a microscope slide that we had already put blue ink on so we could see their cells.  Then we looked at them through a microscope.  That was really cool.  We saw real cheek cells and could definitely see the cell wall and nucleus. 

The last experiment involved working with real blood, which the kids were quite excited about.  We chose to isolate blood type (there were choices on this one).  We ended up figuring out that the blood we had was type A+.  It was also sheep's blood.  They really liked the whole experience, so much so that Josiah was the last to leave the lab.  He liked being a scientist.  The scientific field is definitely open to him.  However, the medical field still seems to be a closed door because after the cell lab, they had a cow eye dissection demonstration.  We were in a theater and the lady up front dissected a cow eye and it was projected onto a giant screen for us all to watch.  Now, it was pretty gross, but she gave so much information about the eye that it was incredibly interesting.  Halfway through, Josiah, in the third row, stepped up and walked out.  I was in the back with Caroline and I asked him what was up.  He said, "I don't like this." and walked out.  I thought he was going to go vegetarian after that, but he had some chicken for dinner.


The Health Museum also had a virtual reality area where you could look around the city of Houston from above (I think you were in a helicopter or something).  Henry spun himself around the city and made himself dizzy.

This weekend our neighbor friend turned seven.  She had her party at a roller skating rink, which shocked Todd and I that they still existed.

When we walked in it felt like we were 12 again - neon carpeted walls and benches, the exact same brown roller skates, and a nice disco ball over the rink.  Our kids have never been roller skating.  If they've done the kind that strap-on to your shoes, it would have been so long ago that I don't even remember.  Basically they walked in skill-less.  After lacing up his skates, and no longer being able to stand upright, Josiah was eager to get himself a wheeled walker.  The other two kids were too proud.  I got them on the rink, told Henry and Caroline to hold onto the side while they got used to it and I walked to the other end of the rink to wait for them.  They laughed, they fell, they walked, but they did not skate.  Caroline was not real happy because she didn't want help, she didn't want a walker, she just wanted to magically know how to do it.  In her mind she's always a ballerina twirling gracefully about.  We finally convinced her to try the practice area where there were less people.  She figured out how to glide there and then we got a smile.  Then she practiced jumping and I told her she better figure out how to work with her skates on the floor first.  Henry naturally got better as the afternoon went on.  Josiah cracked us up, though.  He picked the concept up the quickest with his trusty walker as a help.  He was zooming (as fast as he could) around the rink.  Later he told us that he was skating around helping people.  He passed one girl and told her her shoelace was untied.  Another teenage girl was having trouble and he let her hold on to his walker while they skated to the exit.  He is one-of-a-kind and we love his desire to help others. 
Their first steps in the rink:

Towards the end:

They had fun and they've been asking to go back ever since. 
This coming week, Josiah is moving up to the more advanced karate class.  I have a feeling the kids are going to be a lot bigger than his current class, so instead of being one of the oldest, he may be on the other end.  He says he wants to make blackbelt, so this is how he needs to do it.