Fashioning Forky

One benefit to homeschooling is that they kids can wake up when they want.  Fortunately for us, we have early risers, so it's never been a problem of sleeping in too late.  One morning, I came downstairs to see all three menfolk reading at 6:15 a.m.  It was such a cool thing.  They were all lying there perfectly content reading.  It made me smile.
                                                                       Caroline was at her gymnastics class early this week.  Her class was way in the back of the gym doing the bars.  From what I could tell, it looked like she was supposed to flip herself up and over the bar.  She did it a few times, but then made a trip to the chalk bin.  She spent a solid minute moving her hands around in the chalk, and when they emerged from the bin, they were completely and totally white.  From where we sat (maybe 100 feet away), it looked like she was wearing very white gloves.  The chalk may have prevented blisters on her hands, but the ensuing dust cloud probably wasn't too good for her lungs.

The kids had their first week of CC.  They had a good start.  Josiah has the same tutor that he had last year and he loves her, so he was thrilled.  Henry, who typically has a tough time on 'first days' in general, did really well.  He liked his tutor and he walked out of class with a smile.  That speaks volumes with him.  He did say that he didn't like the after-class as much, but then proceeded to tell me all the fun games he played with his friend.  My question to him was, "Were they strict?"  Yes.  Caroline, meanwhile, really liked the after-class.  It's just a two hour window of play time for them, while Josiah is in his afternoon Essentials (grammar/writing) class.  This year he has a new tutor for Essentials, but it ended up being the very first tutor he ever had in CC and he loves her.  So, it's been a great start to CC for the kids.  After CC we went to a park with a few other families.  The kids had fun, but it was ridiculously hot.  The weather the past three or four weeks has just been so hot that it's nearly impossible to do anything outside.  I keep looking at September with hopes of somewhat cooler temperatures.

The kids had a good Saturday.  We made a quick trip to the library where Henry got his very own library card.  He was so happy to finally get one.  After the library we went to the movies  to watch Toy Story 4.  You know it was good if Henry and I stayed awake for the whole movie.  The only unfortunate thing about the movie was we got two large buckets of popcorn.  Those two buckets came with free refills.  So imagine five people eating four large buckets of movie theater popcorn and then going home to a house with three bathrooms.

The movie theater also had an arcade inside.  The kids asked to play all the games, but we (I) wasn't going to spend money on them.  Todd kept telling me that you could get 100 games for $20.00.  Smile and nod.  Smile and nod.  The kids pretended to play each and every game and finally got to one of the very last ones, picked up the guns and the game started up.  They played it long enough that they actually got bored with it.  Still the game kept playing.  Caroline tried her (pretend) luck at guitar hero.  They had a good time and it would not surprise me at all if Todd purchased the incredible $20 deal at some point in the near future. 

Today Josiah was over at the neighbor's house and he made himself a Forky from the movie.  Months ago, ever since the previews for Toy Story 4 came out, Josiah has loved the new character Forky.  He's been asking me to buy him a spork and pipe cleaners to fashion him out.  Sporks are not the easiest thing to find, nor did I look that hard.  He settled on a plastic spoon from the neighbors and they had all the other materials.  He ran home to keep it safe from their ensuing Nerf war.

With school in session, our weeks are slightly less exciting.  Google did make it nostalgic, though.  Every week when I upload my photos they create pictures for me to save.  Recently they've been creating a lot of "then and now" pictures.  This one of Henry showed up today.  Oh my goodness do we miss those cheeks.