Countdown to Christmas

We had a good first half of the week while Grandad and Nana were still here.  The boys got some baseball practice in nearly every day much to their delight.  Grandaddy helped them improve their skills for next season.  Caroline photobombed their baseball picture while sweeping the backyard.  She loves to sweep outside, particularly in the grass.    It does not translate to enjoying sweeping inside.  We're working on that.

We also got Grandaddy's help to fix our dryer.  It blew a fuse and fortunately the part arrived before he left.  When it came time to put our dryer back against the wall, we called in our trusty worker, Slim.  He shimmied himself behind the dryer and coiled up the dryer duct to keep it as straight as possible.  We really appreciate his slight frame in times like these.


We were able to play more games while Grandaddy and Nana were here since we didn't do full school days.  One day we broke out Todd's old game, Hangman.  It was Caroline verses me.  As she set up her tiles, she said that there was only one word she knew how to spell.  I figured it out pretty quickly, so I started guessing Q and K and Z to keep the game going.  She ended up figuring my word out quicker than I thought, and so won the game.

Caroline was also banned from media for a few days, so she got around that quickly and drew up her own smart phone complete with Netflix, email, Facebook, games, and glare line.  She actually sat there and talked on the phone and pretended to play games.  The influence of media!...

Mid-week we had a very solemn, very quiet drive to the airport.  There were three super sad kids in the backseat who had to say good bye to Grandad and Nana.  They are very much missed around here.

To make their leaving even harder, we started school back full time much to everyone's delight.  We have almost finished our science book for the semester, so we are doing the last few experiments.  We've been reading about space and specifically the Apollo programs, NASA, and most recently about the International Space Station.  We were reading about zero gravity and micro-gravity and the related experiment attempted to simulate (as best we could) zero gravity-esque water bubbles.  They each had a sheet of wax paper and two drops of water.  They were able to move those water bubbles around using a butter knife.  They separated them, joined them, moved them all around.  It was a lot of fun for them and slightly reminiscent of playing with the ball of mercury from a broken thermometer back in the day, albeit significantly less toxic.


This weekend we tried a new building program at Home Depot.  The kids were able to make a Christmas Countdown.  The difference between Lowes Build and Grow and Home Depot is wood glue.  Home Depot puts wood glue on the tables so you glue your pieces together before hammering the nails in.  They don't tell you how much glue to use, however, so Josiah, who was working independently, was quite generous with his amounts. By the time he got home, he noticed his blocks were stuck to his base.  He thought it would be "18" Days Til Christmas forever.  Fortunately for Josiah, Todd was able to pry them loose.  The kids got pins to put on their aprons when they completed the project.  (A plus from the iron-on patches at Lowes.)

That same afternoon, Caroline had a birthday party to go to.  She was told to dress up in a princess dress as it was a very princess party.  The party was really nice and they had a whole spread of lots of fruits and vegetables, sandwich rolls, and a basket of pigs-in-a-blanket.  Caroline passed by anything remotely healthy and ate her royal weight in pigs-in-a-blanket.  I never knew she liked them.  Shortly afterwards there was a knock at the door and who should arrive but Elsa.  First, she put make-up on all the girls, minus Caroline who said she didn't like make-up.  Then she attempted to tell the story of Frozen.  She was interrupted nearly every other word by very eager 5 and 6 year olds telling Elsa her own story.  It was hilarious. These girls knew every single tiny detail of Frozen.  Then they all stood and sang, Let It Go, followed by dancing lessons and princess waving instruction.  Caroline had a great time.  When Elsa left, all the girls gathered at the front window of the house and watched her walk away.  One girl asked the others, "Do you think it was the real Elsa?"

Our Cinderella - Caroline's favorite princess

Singing Let It Go

The kids are eager to do Christmas decorations.  We did get the tree up, though no ornaments are on it.  Caroline has been using it as a hospital with different floors.  The bottom branches are the waiting room and the patient rooms are the higher branches.  She plays with her small dolls and stuffed animals in it.  If we can keep this going, we can just put all the small stuffed animals in it and not have to get a single ornament out!  So easy.  I don't think the kids will go for that, though. 
Our radio station has started playing Christmas music as well.  Caroline sings her own version of Jingle Bells.  Her verse reads, "Oh what fun it is to ride in a one hoe sleigh."  Picture that.