Winter Blast

The week began and ended very warm.  80° warm.  But right in the middle we had a cold front come through which was perfect because our church had their Winter Blast on Wednesday evening.  It was a nice, cool 46° which made it feel a bit more winter-like.  As the kids were dressing to go to Winter Blast, they put on their warm pants, their hoodies, their hats, and gloves.  Instantly they thought they looked like Murph and Harry, the two robbers from the movie Home Alone.  It didn't take them long to unite in their vision of burglars and throughout the evening they could often be heard saying, "Crowbars up!"  (They put their imaginary crowbars up.)  "Tink."  Always the tink as they hit them together.  That'll bless your heart.

Todd and I were pleasantly surprised that there was no snow pit like in years past.  This pit was always filled with kids being kids, having snowball fights.  The problem had been that it was right next to the line for the sledding hills, so we were often hit by random snowballs.  It wasn't always pleasant.  But this year, no pit.  Yay.  The kids did manage to find a big pile of ice cubes which they used to lob at each other, but we were never hit by these.  They had three snow hills this year, which was great for making the lines move quickly, but it was really hard to figure out when your kid was going to come down a hill.  I got Josiah and Caroline on camera, but not Henry.  Henry only went down once and then said he was done.  Josiah went down a few times, but Caroline was the big sledder this year.  She got right back in line every time.


Caroline was not to be outdone by the boys with her Smores making either.  She was able to roast four marshmallows to the boys' three.  I can't even figure out how she did it.  She's been a sneaky one with desserts this week.  She got in trouble for sneaking some M&Ms in the car.  It was the big candy cane M&Ms which she got at Awana.  She was told not to open it up the night of Awana.  The only reason she got caught was because a few days later Henry was sitting in the backseat of the car and somehow spilled the remaining M&Ms.  When they picked them up, the candy cane was only about one-third full.  So she had opened it and eaten them.  When questioned she said, "It just opened."  Yeah...when you twisted the top off...

All of our kids' method for roasting marshmallows was to stick them directly in the flame, light them on fire, enjoy their glow, then casually blow them out.  Put that on repeat.  Every time.

The Winter Blast had an area that told the Christmas story as well.  They had what appeared to be snow falling, but after it got stuck in your hair you could see that it was just tiny bubbles.  It was still magical to the kids.

We heard the Christmas story at Awana this week as well.  During the time when all the groups are together they had a Happy Birthday Jesus Celebration.  We got cupcakes and then while everyone was eating, they turned the lights off, turned the disco ball on, and said the kids could dance.  I'm not totally sure that's how it went down in Bethlehem.  I could see Josiah and Caroline dancing it up, but Henry was just standing and hanging out.  Too cool for school.  I was with the little 3 year olds that night and one little boy was sitting there on the floor, legs crossed, having nothing to do with the dancing.  I looked at him as a kindred spirit.  I get you little dude.

We did have a full week of school.  Josiah even set up Monopoly for us to do as a review game one day.  For review games, I ask a child a question from CC, then they take their turn.  Ask a question. Take a turn.  Ask a question.  Take a turn.  It would be a bazillion times quicker to get through review by just asking the questions one after the other (rapid fire) and be done with it, but the kids like review games.  So, two hours later, we were still playing Monopoly, we had only gotten 6 of the 12 weeks worth of questions asked, Henry had quit the game in anger because he had the potential to lose, Caroline was kicking tail, and I was pretty over it.

We have one more week of school before our Christmas break.  May it be filled with eagerness to do their work and may they finish well!