Newman's Castle

We spent much of Monday at Newman's Castle with our homeschool group.  When we went three years ago, our homeschool group was the only group there.  However, this year we had some bad planning (by yours truly) and ended up going on a school holiday.  We were there with at least one hundred other people.  His castle really cannot accommodate that many people all at once, so it was a lot of waiting in line to climb the towers at the start.  Fortunately our group had what others didn't.  Stamina.  We waited them out and several hours in, we had the run of the place.  The boys both made it to the very top of the bell tower.  Caroline, who doesn't seem to be scared of much, surprised us by saying she was too scared to climb that high.  It consisted of a lot of stairwells, ladders, and Henry even said that the bell hit him in the back while he was climbing.  But they were pretty proud of themselves when they made it.

If you look closely, Josiah's at the very top.

Josiah

They climbed the drawbridge wheel, played with wooden swords, and did their best to get the sword out of the stone.

Mr. Newman, the owner of the property, also owns a bakery in town.  Part of the castle tour includes a brown bag lunch with a spread of donuts, cookies, and cakes from his bakery.  When we all gathered for our lunch, Josiah just happened to mention that he had already eaten two doughnuts. He seemed to always make himself scarce and go off exploring on his own.  Apparently, always with a doughnut in hand.  For her presentation at CC this week, Caroline talked about her time at Newman's Castle.  One of her peers asked her, "What was your favorite part?"  to which she replied, "The cake and donuts."  In three years time, when we study this period of history again, we'll just skip the castle and go get some donuts.

Poor Henry has not felt well all week.  He didn't have many symptoms except a general feeling of sickness.  He had a very brief fever Monday evening and then nothing since then.  No cough, no stomach upset, not even a runny nose.  He has been taking his temperature every day, all day long because I think he feels that if he has a fever then he is legitimately sick.  I have told him that I know he's not one to fake being sick, but I think it may be the incessant questioning of his sister that makes him check his temperature.  No-empathy-Caroline keeps asking him, "Do you have a fever?" to which he'll reply, "No."  Then she says in quite the accusatory tone, "You're not sick."  She has had no patience for him being able to lie on the couch and watch TV.  She continuously brings up some random day in the past and tells me, You made me do school when I had a fever.  I have no idea when this day was. I can only imagine we did school and discovered she had a fever later in the day.  But she has brought that day up, and brought it up often!  Fortunately, by Saturday he seemed to be on the mend and was running around the house again tossing his ball in the air.  Once we saw the ball playing we knew he was back.
 In addition to being sick, Henry has lost 3 teeth this week.  He never lets us know that he has any teeth loose until they're ready to fall out.  He's like a puppy right now with all the teeth coming out.

We had a very fun CC day this week.  One science experiment was about surface tension and water molecules.  We had a bowl of water, shook in a lot of pepper flakes, then got a tiny bit of Dawn soap on the end of a toothpick, put the toothpick in the water and watched the pepper all zoom to the edges of the bowl.  The kids in Caroline's class were amazed.  Henry missed CC (and had spent the morning at Todd's work), so Caroline did it for him the next day.  It was a fun one.
Then we studied the artist, Gainsborough (who did The Blue Boy).   He liked to draw fanciful, idyllic landscapes, but the people at his time wanted him to paint their portraits.  So he fulfilled both and painted people in front of landscapes of his own desires.  In Caroline's class they painted a background scene of sky/mountains/river/tree, but the best part was that they got to put themselves in the painting.  Caroline's painting is below.  When she cut her photograph, she kept the grass since there was grass in her painting.

Keeping the craftiness alive, Caroline made a necklace this weekend.  She painted one of those plastic things that you're supposed to hang in the window.  She, instead, decided to make it in to a giant bling necklace.

Josiah and Caroline were able to do Saturday Night Drop Off at their friend's house.  The craft this week was for all the kids to do a vision board and set goals for 2020.  We thought this was a great idea.  We had no idea what the kids would come up with, but as parents we could think of some great goals for them.  Apparently we were not on the same wavelength as our kids.
Josiah's 2020 goals:
1. Draw Mickey Mouse 20x (he'll have that done in 2 days time)
2. Learn more about dogs.
3. Buy a top hat.

Caroline's goals:
1.  "Ha ha ha.  I don't have any goals."
She did tell me that the girl she drew was so she could act more like a princess.  The unicorn was so she could be cute.

Alrightly then.
They did have fun at their friend's house.
And so a new week begins.  This week we study Degas and have another fun project.

Rembrandt Portraits

This week has been much more refreshing than other school weeks.  I have always wanted a quiet time in the afternoons and this week we made it happen.  I told the kids that no matter where they were in their school work, from 2:00 - 3:00 p.m. we were having a quiet time. Everyone relegated to their own rooms and they can play quietly, draw, read, nap, I don't care as long as it's quiet.  It has been Ah-maz-ing!  Just to have a time to recharge in peace and quiet has been so good for all of us.  No one has complained about it, and Henry even mentioned that he really likes it. 

Our CC group started back up this week.  The next six weeks are going to be so fun.  We are studying physics in science so our experiments are fun and very interactive which is really good for the kids.  This week we learned about sound waves and made spoon bells - simply tying kite string around a metal spoon, wrapping the string around our index fingers, sticking our fingers in our ears and banging the spoon on the table.  Instant bell.  The kids loved it.  We also made empty wine glasses hum with just vinegar on our fingers.  Later in the semester we will add different amounts of water to make different notes.  Then in art we are studying great artists.  This week was Rembrandt who was known for looking in a mirror and painting himself with different expressions.  He also painted many portraits.  Our director had printed out a black and white picture of each of the kids, folded it in half and the kids had to complete their portraits.  The boys did really well with it.  All three kids were really happy to be back at CC.

Josiah has been trying out all his new birthday gifts.  He's been reading his new books and drawing with his charcoal pencils.  He also got walkie talkies from his cousins that he wears on his hip like a cell phone.  Henry and Caroline both want the second one, so they've tried to come up with an elaborate, complicated schedule for who gets to use it and when.  Henry is always up for making lists of complicated rules that no one can remember. 


This weekend started off as a rainy one.  The kids spent their morning building giant forts in the living room using many many blankets and chairs.  They had porches and their own individual rooms.  After they got tired of that they played video games for a while.  Later in the day Caroline was telling us what had happened in the game.  She said that Henry kept telling her to bring her character over to where Henry's character was.  She kept saying no, but when she finally did, he blasted and killed her.  Brothers. 

Sunday proved to have better weather, cool, but sunny.  They were finally able to get outside and play.  They had two neighbor kids to play with and besides playing Legos, bikes, and tag outside, they also set up their usual card table right outside the garage and asked for chips and salsa.  Every time the card table comes out, there's always a request for chips and salsa.  Texas kids! 

It was a nice easy week.  Tomorrow we head out to Newman's Castle for the day.  The kids are excited to have sword fights and climb up the towers.  The man who owns the house also owns a bakery, so they're hoping for some baked goods at the castle as well.  (When we went three years ago  he had lots of doughnuts!)

The Year Josiah Told The Neighbors He Was Having a Party...

Caroline was our chef du jour earlier in the week.  She had picked a classic Caroline meal: spaghetti, meatballs, and broccoli.  She also wanted "buns" or bread (rolls or Texas toast).  She finally settled on Texas toast.  When I put a small pot on for spaghetti sauce she reacted, "That's not part of my dinner."  True.  But there are at least two menfolk who don't like dry pasta.  She was not keen on cooking on the night she picked, however, because a neighbor boy was over and all she wanted to do was play with him and her brothers.  She didn't get out of her cooking duties though and we all enjoyed the meal.

A few days later, Josiah had his turn in the kitchen.  His menu was: hot dogs, chili (from a can), chips, and sweet corn.  I told him that Todd would probably need a little more food than that, so he cooked some fries as well.  It was a carb heavy meal.  Classic Josiah.  Josiah wanted to pretend he was a real chef, so while he had his pots and pans going, he set out five small plates for each of us and when the food was ready, he tried to fix each individual plate.  Once we saw Josiah scoop up two handfuls of fries to distribute to the plates, the natives grew restless.  Henry, for one, does not like people touching his food.  He's really particular about that.  Josiah's man-handling of his fries was a no-go.  Caroline cried out, "He only gave me six fries!!"  We convinced him to let us use the dinner plates and to let each of us make our own hot dogs.  Now we're only two weeks into the new year and all the kids have used up their cooking nights.  I've still got 19 more meals to figure out...  We'll have to spread the love out for February.  (Although Todd did surprise me this evening by cooking for a second time this month. Woo hoo!)

Josiah had a good birthday week.  In WAM at church he found out that he got the track he wanted.  It is the Media track and they teach the kids how to operate the cameras and lights during the church service.  They also get to walk around and interview people with a camera and microphone.  Josiah's really excited about it.  Henry got the Lego track.  He's not a huge WAM fan, so chilling and playing with Legos was right up his alley.  Caroline didn't get a choice yet.  She's just in the first grade track.

Josiah's week got even better on Friday when we were able to go over to his best friend's house for the afternoon.  This friend got a new dog two weeks ago, so our kids have upped their "I want a dog" requests.  This dog is the most chill dog I have ever met in my entire life.  He would let you pet him and then he'd sleep for an hour.  Walk 3 feet from the couch to his bed.  Sleep an hour.  He's only three years old, too.

And then Josiah's birthday came.  Josiah is an incredibly excitable kid.  He woke up at 3:00 a.m. Christmas morning because his excitement wouldn't allow him to sleep.  His birthday was no different.  3:00 a.m. the kid woke up.  At 5:00 a.m. he came in and asked if I could get up earlier.  Sorry, buddy, I promised 6:00.  You get 6:00.  Of course Henry was up at 4:40 and Caroline was up some time in the 5 o'clock hour, so by 5:45 they were all in Josiah's room talking as loudly as could be.  They ran in our room the second it turned 6:00.  Josiah went straight to the Happy Birthday tree and proceeded to open amazing things from aunts and uncles, grandparents and siblings.  Legos and art supplies, books and Star Wars figures, laser games and logic games.  A week before his birthday, Josiah's new math curriculum came in, so we decided to wrap that up as well.  He was thrilled.




Todd continued his tradition of messing with his cereal.  Josiah continued his tradition of ripping it right off. 

He spent his morning putting together his new Lego kits.  He needs about 4 bookshelves in his room to house all his Lego kits.  It's astronomical how many Legos he has!  But he does still love them and he does still play with them.

For Josiah's birthday, we went out to eat lunch at Josiah's pick, Which Wich.  He enjoyed his sub sandwich and milkshake.  It had been an early lunch and we returned home right at noon.  As soon as we got out of the car, a neighbor boy and his dad were walking over with a gift.  His dad said, "Josiah said the party started at noon."  Did he now?  There was no party.  We had planned on his friend Bobby coming over, so we did have snacks and food and some activities.  We just had to add one more boy into the mix.  I had known that Josiah had invited other neighborhood kids over, but I had their parent's information to let them know there wasn't actually a party.  I now have this new neighbor kid's dad's phone number.  A total Josiah move.  God bless him.

One thing Josiah wanted to do when Bobby came over was to have a "Make Your Own Forky" craft.  Forky is still alive and kickin' around here.  So, the boys all made Forky's and Knifey's and Spoony's.  After that they ate and then went upstairs to play video games.  They played those for a good long while (Henry for an even longer period of time), then moved onto playing Legos and having lightsaber battles.  We sang happy birthday and had the Toy Story 4 cake he picked out.  Finally, five hours after neighbor boy came over for the "party," Josiah's friends went home.
Now Henry's got it in his head that he's having a birthday party, too.

The whole utensil crew.

Welcome to 2020

At the beginning of the week, we went to the movies.  Caroline and I saw Frozen 2, while the boys saw the new Star Wars movie.  Poor Henry.  When I asked him which movie he would rather go see he replied, Neither.  He said he'd rather play outside or watch a sport's game (like in a stadium).  Todd said Henry moved in his seat nearly the entire 2 1/2 hours.  At one point he said it looked like Henry was curled up facing the back of the chair.  I had a similar situation with the girl.  I don't think Caroline stopped moving the entire movie as well.  She somehow managed to lay on her belly facing the screen for parts of it.  (These are big recliner style seats.)  I don't think she actually understood all of the movie, which made it not as interesting for her to watch.  They had a lot of flashbacks which can be hard to follow for a little kid.  That night at dinner, Josiah was trying to tell me the whole life's story of Kylo Ren from Star Wars. He was doing a full chronological telling of their life's story.  I was fairly lost towards the beginning because I have no interest in Star Wars so the names all mix together and I don't know who's good or who's bad (and I really don't care).  I was listening to Josiah like a good mother, but the part that cracked me up was when Todd chimed in to give me a clarification on a point that Josiah was saying.  I just chuckled to myself that he actually thought I was following along.  Smile and nod.  Smile and nod.

Josiah dressed in all black, like Kylo Ren.

New Year's Eve around here is a crazy time of fireworks.  Anyone and everyone seems to buy them and shoot them off from 8 p.m. to 1 a.m.  I love firework shows in part because there is a rhythm to them.  There is a rhythm to how they are shot off and it's easy to listen to (and watch).  Around here we have three neighbors directly next to our house that shoot them off for hours, but it's all jagged in their timings, so it's more headache inducing (at least for me).  The kids, however, had a blast this year.  They were up til 10:30 p.m. watching from several windows.  At one point they were all on Caroline's bed, lights out, Christmas lights on, blinds wide open.  They were screaming with glee at the big ones.  We only knew they had fallen asleep when they finally quieted down.  At least they enjoyed the show.  They all ended up falling asleep on Caroline's bed.

"Slopy Joe" was good.

With the New Year I like to come up with resolutions for our family.  Last year they had to make their beds daily which didn't quite last, but they're still better at it than the previous year.  Last year we also banned the phrase, It's not fair.  This year my resolutions for the kids are for them to comb/brush their hair every day (really, really necessary).  Their second one is that they have to make dinner once a month.  Not a group effort, but they EACH get a night to cook.  They have to come up with the meal and all the parts (sides/veggies).  I can help cook, but I don't want to have to come up with anything for them.  I had already come up with this idea, but then a few nights before the new year, Josiah said this at dinner, "Is the chicken supposed to be tender?"  Oh my son.  And in my defense, it actually was really tender that night.  We were having Chicken a la King which is one of my childhood favorites.  That comment solidified my stance to have them cook once a month.
When I brought it up to them about cooking one night a month they immediately picked dates.  Henry wanted the 1st of each month so he could get it over with.  Josiah picked his birthday date and Caroline the same.  So, Henry was first up.  He picked Sloppy Joe's.  When I asked him what he wanted as his sides and veggies, he said, "What's a side?"  He ended up making: Sloppy Joe's, chips, salad, and smoothie.  At first he just picked salad, but he later amended it to add a smoothie since I was now willing to use the blender since we have a dishwasher that will wash it for me.  :)  Not too shabby for a first go.  Tonight Todd had his meal night (oh yeah, he's part of the resolution).  He picked breakfast tacos and they were delicious.  I can't wait to see what he comes up with next month.  ;)

The remainder of our last week of break was spent outside playing with friends.  The kids have befriended two more kids in the neighborhood.  They have ridden bikes, played football, played FBI/SWAT, played Legos, had light saber battles and Nerf gun wars, played Star Wars with their tie fighter bikes, freeze tag, on and on.  It's been great to get them outside for hours at a time.  They've come home sweaty, stinky, and exhausted.  One of their new friends is so nice, too.  He's a great mix because he likes Star Wars like Josiah, as well as Minecraft like Henry.  He's nice to Caroline, he's respectful - it's a dream to Todd and I.

You know it's time to start school again when your kids sit on the bench behind the library and say, Hey, it's Albert Einstein.  No. That would be Mark Twain as seen from the "Huckleberry Finn" book he's reading.  School starts in the morning. I for one will be glad to get back into a routine.