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.