You Want to Know WHAT About Babies?

This week was the Skeeter's Home Opener.  We got there early to get our 2018 Championship ring.  All three menfolk picked up their rings, but neither Caroline nor I got ours.  We knew we'd never do anything with them.  Meanwhile, Josiah's been wearing his for several days straight.  We actually got there so early that the kids had a ton of time on the playground.  As we were walking back to our seats for the National Anthem and first pitch, we were approached by the Swat Team (Swatson the Mascot).  They needed three kids to play a game on the field after the 6th inning.  Would our kids do it?  Caroline gave an immediate, No.  Henry said, Yes, and Josiah hemmed and hawed and finally said, No.  The game ended up being Tic Tac Toe.  Henry and his partner were the O's.  They had to spin around a baseball bat three times then run to the board and put an O down, while the X's team was doing the same thing.  It was a race to get three in a row.  Unfortunately, it was 9:00 p.m. at this point and the X team was two little brothers around 3 and 4 years old.  The four year old went on the field, looked at the bat he was supposed to spin around, and walked off the field.  His brother showed about the same amount of interest in the game.  They quickly brought another little girl on the field to run for the X's.  She managed to block the O's and since they only had three O's total it was a scratch game.  We had a good time at the game even though the Skeeter's lost pretty badly and we had to deal with tiny gnats the whole time.  They were pretty gross because they were everywhere!

We had our CC end-of-year picnic this past Friday.  Despite having the same bothersome gnats that we dealt with at the Skeeter's game, we all had a great time.  The kids were always running off  playing with their friends, so I took a total of three pictures the entire time, and two weren't even of the kids.  We were at Memorial Park and at one point the kids wanted me to walk out to the military memorial with them.  On one side of the path was water and the other side was a big hill that is typically filled with kite-fliers on the weekends.  Henry ran up the hill with the intention of rolling down it.  He ran up, rolled once, twice, and jumped up and yelled what sounded like "Birds! Birds!"  I thought maybe he spotted some big falcons flying above him.  However, Henry still has that little kid voice that doesn't always enunciate everything exactly right.  He wasn't yelling, Birds.  Instead, he came racing down the hill covered in burrs.  He was fine and they came off easily, but he left the hill alone after that.
The other pictures were of the alligator all the kids spotted in the water.  Earlier they had spotted a snake in the water.  Did any of them take the advice of the Snake Man from our field trip months ago?  No.  Don't provoke the snake!  Walk away!  The alligator, however, swam from one end of the water towards the picnic area.  There is nothing keeping him in the water  - he could totally walk up on land at any point.  He swam close enough to the picnic area that we got everyone away from the water.  He finally lost interest and swam away without ever reaching shore, but we did keep checking the water for any activity after that.

At the picnic, the kids also got their yearbooks and had everyone sign it.  They have poured over the photos a lot since then.  Later, when Todd took a look at it, Caroline sat and showed him who was friends with whom on each page. He was intrigued, and thoroughly informed.

The kids also had their end of the year Awana Awards Ceremony.  Caroline was so excited to get her first book award ribbon.  The boys also got awards.  We had one cranky kid that night, so that child was escorted to the car as soon as the ceremony was over and therefore no pictures were taken with awards. The other two partook of the refreshments and playground fun after.

School has taken a shorter amount of time now that CC is over.  If we stay focused, and start early enough, we can be done by lunch or at least shortly after.  Since they've had more time in the afternoons, they've played outside more, they've made popsicle stick boats and sailed them in the bathtub, and they've asked to make slime from a recipe in one of their books.  Josiah tries to claim these are educational books because the main character is an amoeba.  That's about where the educational aspect ends.  It's basically just another funny (to him) graphic novel.  However, at the end of one they said you could make slime using just cornstarch and water with food coloring in it.  No measurements were given, so we did cornstarch, added water, more water, too much water, more cornstarch, back and forth til we ran out of cornstarch.  They had fun.  I remained calm.  We did throw it away when we were done.   

Caroline likes to talk at bedtime.  Usually it's silly stuff and it seems like she's just delaying bedtime.  However, we've always been told by older and wiser adults that kids often open up at bedtime so try to be patient and let them talk.  One particular night she was asking her usual, "What day is tomorrow?  What do we do tomorrow?"  But then she followed it up with, "How do babies get out of you?"  As I am about to answer her, she asks with an even greater curiosity, "How do babies get in you?"  Let's start with the first question.  I said they grow in the belly and then told her where they came out.  She giggled and then asked, "But how do they get out if they're so big?"  I mentioned stretching which caused uncontrollable giggling, which was just fine with me because she forgot all about her second question.  When her giggles finally subsided, she asked if bees poop.  Then she asked about the bathroom habits of birds, butterflies, dogs, and on and on. Lots of bathroom talk.  It was a relief to walk out of her room that night.

We have a fairly easy week coming up.  Their WAM concert is next Sunday, so they have two rehearsals in the meantime.  However, those are usually fun because they finally get to see the drama portion that goes along with the songs they've been practicing all semester. Five more weeks of school!

Driving to Church in a New Car

Spring Break was a little like it was back when I was in school.  The first few days I slept in a little later than usual (7:30 a.m.), then a little later (8:00 a.m.), and by Friday I slept in until 9:00 a.m.  It was time to set the alarm clock again, though the extra sleep was wonderful.

Henry picked out a puzzle for us to do Monday morning.  We worked on it for a while together, but then he wanted to go play outside.  The kids were outside for a couple of hours playing nicely, during which time I couldn't stop doing the puzzle.  When he came in, I had finished it.  The weather has been absolutely beautiful this week - low 80's, sunny, breezy, and very little humidity.  They spent a lot of time playing outside, riding bikes, and making chalk drawings.  We did have one morning of thunderstorms, but then they enjoyed playing in the puddle.

One morning I mowed the yard and afterwards Caroline helped me sweep the curb.  She was a good helper.  Then we moved to the backyard where all three kids wanted to help mow, so they each got a turn.  The whole back got mowed, but I don't think there was a straight line mowed among them.  Whatever gets the job done (and them helping).

Cheryl & Phillip sent the kids another Easter package to their delight.  Josiah immediately used the sidewalk chalk.  He's been drawing the Alamo on our driveway along with the U.S., Texas, and Come and Take It flags.  Caroline has been wearing bow after bow and loving every minute.

Mid-week we went to the Children's Museum.  At first Caroline didn't know what to do and she was bored.  She was expecting the big Children's Museum in Houston, but we went to the smaller off-shoot in Sugar Land.  It wasn't until halfway through our visit that she decided to have fun.  She lifted herself up in the pulley-lift, did a little art, and played "dispatcher" where she had an old fashioned (like 1980's old fashioned) phone to her ear while she spoke into the light.  They always have a theme country or area that they highlight and this time it was Oaxaca City, Mexico, which was cool because Oaxaca was one of the cities they had to identify for geography in CC.  Caroline made a bean tambourine, tissue paper flowers, and as we were leaving she saw the faux Oaxaca City market.  The same market all three kids dashed by when we entered the museum, but now that it was 2:00 p.m. and we were all starving from not having had lunch yet, they wanted to spend time in Oaxaca.  We stayed until my stomach was eating itself, I was hangry, and made them leave.

The boys made this whole structure with a pulley system to boot.

That same evening the boys had their special Memory Master dinner.  This is a dinner just for the memory masters, siblings not invited.  We dropped Caroline off with Todd and made our way to Pappa's BBQ.  We were quite early, so we sat in the car with the windows open, smelling the BBQ cooking (which may sound lovely to those who like BBQ.  I, however, am not a BBQ lover and it was getting a bit nauseating.  I happily enjoyed a meatless salad for dinner.)  Somehow Henry got it in his head that this restaurant was all about the meat.  When we were in line to order, he asked for a cheeseburger with a side of steak.  He was adamant about it.  No matter how many times I told him there was no side of steak, he still wanted that.  I asked him of all the places we have eaten burgers, has he ever had a side of steak.  He rightfully answered, No.  I asked him again did he want fries on the side.  Yes. And steak.  He got a cheeseburger with fries.  He ate all the fries first, and then came over to me to tell me how full he was without having even taken a bite of his burger.  He managed to find room for the hamburger as the evening went on.  Then came the cake.  It was already after 8 p.m. by this point and the sugar combined with the tiredness made the boys crazy.  But they had a lot of fun with their friends.  At these events we always have a parent's table and a kid's table so we can all enjoy the time.

Sugar High

Meanwhile, Todd had taken Caroline to Sweet Tomatoes where she got her standard plate: cold noodles, shredded carrots, crumbled hard-boiled eggs, and a pile of cheese.  She added a bowl of soup and a bowl of sprinkles to round out the meal.

We had our last Awana this week.  Josiah finished his book and they had their Easter egg hunt.  I was glad they had an egg hunt there, because we (I) decided not to do anything for Easter here at home.  I don't know if it was because it was Spring Break and they watched too much TV or what, but the kids haven't been acting the best.  Lots of complaining in general, upset about having to put their own things away, talking angry and mean to Todd and I, ungrateful for all the things they have and places we take them.  So, I had zero desire to make any effort for Easter.  It's not about the candy anyway.  I warned them ahead of time that I hadn't bought anything and with their attitudes of ingratitude, I wasn't planning on buying anything.  Amazingly I still got a nice picture before church.  I think it was because they were excited to drive in Todd's new car.

Saturday, Todd and Henry went to the car dealership just to look, talk, and test drive.  They did all three and then bought one.  Todd said that Henry had a good time with the test drives.  He always wanted to biggest and best model of car.  The dealership had a soda fountain with Lemon-Lime Powerade in it along with popcorn and water bottles.  Henry helped himself to all of it.  We had to meet Todd there to sign some papers and the kids wanted a final picture with the Mazda.  They were super sad to part with it.  They really wanted us to keep it despite it being on it's last leg.  However, we've had two drives in Todd's new car and they've all but forgotten the Mazda.

We have six more weeks of school.  These should be easier weeks in general, so hopefully school can take a shorter amount of time each day.  Hopefully...

Hearing From Poseidon

Tuesday both boys had their Director Proofs.  I always thought that this proof would be the easiest since they were quizzed on only 25% of the material.  They both passed.  (Whoo Hoo!!)  Yet, when I looked over their proof sheets to see what they were asked, this proof seemed like it would have been harder.  They're asked six weeks total worth of the timeline song starting at random spots in the song.  (two weeks here, two weeks there).  Nothing is in order and there isn't any flow as when you go over every week.  They did it, though, and said it wasn't hard, but that's because they're hardcore at this point.  Todd took them out to Smashburger for dinner that evening.

They even got a celebratory milkshake.

When we go to Smashburger we often try to steal one another's fries by saying, "Hey!  Look!  There's Tom Brady!"  If I were trying to steal Todd's fries it would be, "Look!  Gisele!"  Henry attempted this with Todd by saying, "Hey, is that a character from Death in Paradise?"  [Todd's TV show]

Now that the Proofs are over and they've received their medals (of which Josiah wore for several days straight), Henry has moved on to memorizing songs from the radio.  He asked to have the lyrics of two songs printed out.  He memorized the first song in two days time and now he's working on the second.  The first song is Survivor by Zach Williams.  The refrain has a line that says, "I'm a survivor."  It is at that particular line that Caroline joins in at full volume with emotion.  I'm a survivor.  It's a good song, even if we hear it sung 50x a day.

Josiah dressed as Poseidon for his Faces of History report this year.  When we went shopping for his wig, we discovered that there were few shops that carry them at this time of year, so we were forced to pay "off-season" prices.  I told him he better decide who he's going to report on next year during the Halloween season so we can gather all needed accessories while they're cheap!  Next year is the Middle Ages, so he's thought about da Vinci or Robin Hood.

When it came time for him to speak, Josiah gave an amazing auditory performance.  He spoke through the microphone really well - we could totally understand everything he said, he had a ton of expression in his voice, he was very much into it.  Unfortunately the visual was a paper in front of his face the entire time.  He put it down only at the end to ask the question, "Who am I?" and call upon someone to answer it.  (They wised up and the next speaker put their papers on a music stand.)

I was very impressed with Josiah's Poseidon paper.  He had to have three sources and he had to do a Key Word Outline for each source on three different topics - Offspring, Trident, & Sea.  He had done these outlines several weeks ago and then we put everything on hold to work on Memory Master.  We had to get right back into it this week and I asked him to read his outlines to see if he remembered what they all meant.  He remembered every detail.  It was unbelievable.  Since we were short on time, I had him dictate the paragraphs to me while I typed it up.  This kid is a really good story-teller.  I looked back at him at one point and asked him if he was reading from the book, but he didn't even have the book - Henry was reading it.  He spoke his outlines into really nice paragraphs, which was a beautiful thing since we only had three days to write it, edit it, and practice the performance.  He's definitely got writing and story-telling in his blood.  He idolizes the author Nathan Hale who writes historical graphic novels and Josiah has written several additional ones about historical events that Hale hasn't done yet.  He even has the personality of an author - he never throws anything away and he leaves his things everywhere.  Picture a cluttered writer's nook...

He wore swim goggles for a touch of humor.

It was due to this clutter, that branches out into all rooms of our house, that I spoke with a mom at CC this week about how she gets her (five) children to pick up after themselves.  She said that she calls it Contributions.  Everyone needs to contribute to the household to make it run smoothly.  Before school begins each day, the kids have to do their contributions and in the evenings they have more contributions.  It sounded like an excellent idea.  Whenever we get going in the semester with school and activities, chores seem to fall by the wayside.  Now that CC is over and activities are starting to end, it's the perfect time to get this going again.  So, we spoke to the kids about Contributions at dinner one night.  They seriously couldn't have been more thrilled.  Then before school the next day, the kids did their Contributions.  Later, while we were doing school, Caroline looked at me dead seriously and asked if I did any Contributions for the house.  I looked at her, inhaled slowly, and affirmed, "Yes. Yes, I do."  Then I listed just a few. 

There have been many conversations lately about how to make our family a happier, better family.  Josiah spoke to us last week about kids' rights and treating each other with respect.  Then Henry has branched off of that and has requested many private conversations with Todd and I this week.  We told him that the majority of our frustrations as parents could be appeased if they would just pick up their stuff (ideally without us having to remind them).  So, we've all worked on it.  After a day of better behavior (by all), Henry requested another private conversation.  At one point he said, "You guys are better than regular parents."
Todd, slightly surprised by the statement, happily replied, "Oh, thanks."
Henry, finishing his sentence, "Sometimes."
Oh... Thanks....

One highlight of Josiah's week was that his Essentials' class had an ice cream party after their Faces of History presentation.  We all brought toppings and the kids were instructed to put their toppings in the bowl and then try to dump their cup of ice cream on top.  Josiah filled his bowl up with so many toppings he didn't even have room left for the ice cream.

A little more sugar to top your sugar?

Caroline went to another birthday party again this afternoon.  For the love of God, I hope birthday parties are over at this point.  I have counted, to the best of my ability, and came up with fifteen birthday parties this school year.  At times it has felt like double that.  The party today had a game where you pull out the tissues from a tissue box as quickly as possible. Caroline gave a valiant effort, but came in second.

 

Caroline helped us make dinner last night.  As she was stirring our cauliflower rice she asked if she was a baker.  I told her she was a chef and she was proud of what she made.

This week we are off.  We are not doing school.  They kids don't even want to do any of their activities, but we'll see about that.  I don't want to do anything special. I want to just BE.  Be in the house, be present with the kids and play games, do puzzles, watch movies and take walks.  Relax and recharge.  We are all looking forward to it.

Rock Walls, Fun Runs, and Hidden Desserts

April Fool's Day was Monday.  We Saran-wrapped the kids' doors the night before.  I woke up at 5:30 a.m. just to make sure I was up before Josiah so I could see him run into it.  Unfortunately, he saw me watching and paused, dipped under, looked confused, and uttered, "Oh no, it's April Fool's day."  I made sure I was more hidden for Caroline and Henry.  Caroline, too, saw the wrap and ducked under.  Then she wanted to keep it up all day.  We could always count on Henry, though.  He wakes up like a bull and typically walks full steam ahead in the morning.  He busted through that Saran wrap.  He didn't find it funny, though.  He didn't feel well and got upset by it.  He had a head cold that hit him full throttle that day.  He kept asking me if he could go outside and get some fresh air.  Typically I'm all for fresh air, except Monday was 55 degrees and windy out.  Not ideal for a head cold. (He gave me the death stare after walking through the Saran wrap.)

Caroline game me "the look" at her broccoli donuts.

The last were the Oreos that Todd had meticulously opened up and cut out a bit of the cream in the middle to fill with anchovy paste.  He covered the paste back up, but our kids decided to twist off their cookie tops instead of eating them whole.  They were proud that they weren't had.  But they didn't know what the dark substance was, and Todd convinced Josiah it was like chocolate.  So he took a bite.  I thought he was going to throw up for a bit because of the scene he made.  Definitely worth it.  Until next year.

All with a bad taste in their mouth.

Definitely not chocolate.

We had a short school week for the kids.  Monday and Tuesday was school as usual, though heavily favoring reviewing their CC material.  Then Wednesday was the big Tutor Proof.  I had butterflies in my stomach that morning.  Josiah was nervous, too.  If Henry was nervous, he didn't show it.  The host house was packed with proofing kids and our boys were in the first time slots.  I was in charge of the littles playing in the backyard.  Fortunately this family had a trampoline, a playground, and a small dog, so it was a pretty easy job out there.  Just about everyone was playing happily.  (I did feel a bit sorry for whoever had to watch the kids after me, because there was going to come a time when they would get bored.)  After an hour passed, I kept glancing over to the back door to see who would emerge.  Finally Henry came out.  He walks right up and says, "I didn't make it."  Yeah, right.  Not falling for that again.  He was very happy - not only that he passed, but that he could now play in the back.  Priorities.  He did say he messed up one history sentence, but self-corrected himself.  I knew Josiah would take longer just because he doesn't feel the need to speed-talk like Henry does.  After a bit more time, he, too, emerged victorious.  He was soooo happy and proud.  A couple of days later, his tutor told me that when they were proofing Josiah told her he was going to show Henry that he could pass memory master, too.  He showed him.

The littles playing.

We celebrated with lunch out and after that the kids wanted to hit the zipline playground again.  Unfortunately this visit was riddled with injuries.  They had a good time playing until Henry decided he would attempt running up the rolling pipe slide.  The slide won.  Sadly, the side of Henry's face lost.  He had two big bruises - one on his cheek and the other on the side of his forehead.  He sat with me for a few minutes, but decided he wasn't done playing yet.  He played for a little while longer and somehow cut his hand.  At that point we called it a day because I wanted to get ice on his face.  As we got up to walk towards the car, we saw Caroline coming toward us, crying.  She had been doing something like a one-person spinny thing.  (I'm getting dizzy trying to figure out how to describe it.)  She got off, after a loooooooong while of spinning, and enroute to us she tripped over a decent size stump and skinned up her shin.  We were done.  We made it home, cleaned up wounds, iced all injuries, and sat down to watch Netflix.  I sat next to Caroline propping up her ice and dozing as much as possible.

Last week the boys asked if they could get the new donut sticks at McDonald's if they passed their Tutor Proof.  So, on our way to CC the morning after the Proof, we stopped and they partook of the fried sugary dough.  It cost me less than $5.  Then I was speaking to another mom who told me she was taking her son to Target to get an $80 item for passing Memory Master.  Don't tell my boys!

At CC, another mom and I have been helping out with Science for the past three weeks.  We've been studying rocks and they needed to have three stations.  I manned Station 2 and this other mom manned Station 3.  This last week she was disappointed because she thought her station was so boring.  All it was was a discussion about how the rocks are used in everyday life (countertops, building material, etc.).  Then as the classes went through the stations, the 2nd-3rd grade boys were all excited at her station because she had Obsidian and they use Obsidian in Minecraft.  Instant conversation (about the uses of rocks in fake worlds....).

This Friday morning we had a field trip to a restaurant called Taste of Texas.  The registration said 8 years old and up and that it was geared for the 4th grade.  We brought Caroline along anyway.  I told her she had to be very mature and no whining. She did amazingly well all things considered.  The owners are a husband and wife and the wife is the one who is passionate about Texas history and gives these presentations.

She does them weekly, which is amazing once you realize all that goes into each presentation.  We were there with three other homeschool groups/co-ops.  The owner, Nina (Nine-ah), had total control the whole time.  It was quite impressive to watch.  She told the kids not to talk, to sit criss-cross, and to keep their eyes on her.  Whenever she heard a whisper or a child talk, she'd repeat the rules, and the kids were quiet and attentive.  But an hour is still a really long time to sit still and listen.  She spoke about the history of Texas.  She developed a passion for it in the 4th grade and has been reading books about it ever since.  She also had an impressive collection of artifacts and so the presentation was the history of Texas as told through the things she's bought over time.  They were all over the restaurant and she was incredibly excited about each one.  After the Texas history was done, she let the kids walk through the kitchen which was busy prepping for the lunch crowd.  She was proud of her new walk-in freezer, so she let 22 kids go in at a time.  Then she treated everyone to a lunch of chicken tenders, steak fries, and Sprite.  She does this every week.  She said she tried to calculate how many kids (mostly 4th graders) have come through the restaurant for the number of years she's done it and she estimated about 400,000 kids.  That's a lot of free food!  While Caroline was eating her lunch, she said, "I want to do this again, except without all the talking."

Saturday morning we did our annual Fun Run.  We had tried to get into top 1K shape by running around the retention pond in our neighborhood.  We taught the kids the concept of pacing themselves.  It all went right out of the window when they got up to the front of the line and the starting horn blasted GO!  Caroline took off like she was in it to win it.  Nevermind that everyone gets a medal, and they start the race in waves so we're not all on the vast 1K course together.  It is also a Fun Run which means it's all families, tons of little kids, and zero knowledge of race etiquette.  Caroline was zig-zagging around people because there were walkers on the right, walkers on the left, walkers in the middle, it was a real free-for-all.  We made attempts to catch up with her, Todd got her at one point, but then she took off for the finish line.  It was probably the best she's ever run.  She just needed a racing bib, a crowd of 3000, and a Fun Zone at the Finish.

Since we go to bounce house places now, those things hold less of an allure to the kids.  Though they did visit their beloved caterpillar obstacle course, they spent a lot of time on other activities. 

The caterpillar.

High Five. We're in line to do it again.

Henry and Caroline did the rock wall 5-6 times each.  They'd have a turn, come down, and get right back in line.  They did it for at least an hour.  Henry would come down and say his legs felt like jelly and then get right back in line.  He made it to the top twice and got close the other times.  Caroline did really well, too.  She got 2/3 of the way up and she was really upset she didn't reach the top.  Considering she only got 3 feet up off the ground last year, she's vastly improved her climbing abilities.  While they were climbing, Josiah wanted to get in the face painting line.  Todd stood in line with him for almost an hour.  That's some dedication.  Fortunately he chose to get his arm painted instead of his face.  It's a Minecraft Creeper.  Unfortunately, his arm started to react to the paint today and it's all red and bumpy, so he's washed the creeper off and we don't have to waste any more time standing in face painting lines.

They love their mascots, too.  Toro from the Houston Texans and HEBuddy from the grocery chain HEB.

Caroline had a fun Saturday because after the Fun Run, we came home, had a quick lunch, and she was off to a birthday party.  This one was a swimming party.  She basically stayed in the pool for three hours.  She came out for cake.  I asked her three times if she wanted to eat as they had a beautiful spread of food.  No.  She didn't.  Guess who whined the whole way home that she was starving?  Yep. The first pic is smiling Caroline swimming away.  The second is after I said, "It's time to go home." Noooooo.


The kids cracked me up the other day.  After dinner they were wanting dessert.  We had no more Hostess cupcakes that we bought for Caroline's birthday.  At least I had thrown the empty boxes out.  We still had Christmas and Valentine's candy though.  Henry said he was going to get his dessert and I assumed he'd have some of his candy.  Instead, he emerges from the bathroom proudly holding up a cupcake he had hidden in the closet.  It made me laugh.  Then Caroline finished her dinner and went to get her dessert.  She, too, had hidden a cupcake in the same closet and emerged victoriously holding up her cake.  Josiah didn't get the sibling memo so he had some old Christmas candy.  They always want "the last one."

This coming Tuesday the boys will have their Director Proof - the last and final leg of this whole Memory Master journey.  Josiah also has his big Faces of History paper and presentation due, so we have a lot of work to do for that.  Fortunately he's doing Poseidon so we have a bit of freedom with his costume.  I'm thinking big blue sheet, big white beard, a trident and we're good to go.