Henry is Nine!

Caroline's painting

At CC this week, the kids learned about Berthe Morisot, another French Impressionist painter.  She liked to use lots of paint and her paintings were raised because of it.  So, to imitate her, we "painted" using colored joint compound and Q-tips.  The kids had an outline sketch of one of her pieces and were able to put the joint compound right on top.  They had a lot of fun doing this one.  But the best part came at lunch time when the director of our campus passed out cookies with Morisot's flowers and vase picture on it.  There were color dots at the bottom and tiny paint brushes and the kids could paint their cookie icing and then eat the whole cookie.  The concept of painting your own cookie was incredibly creative.  This was the good part of CC.  Then there was the messy part.  In science, the experiment was to demonstrate the law of inertia.  A soda can on a piece of paper is at rest and wants to remain at rest.  At least it should want to remain at rest.  We quickly pulled the paper out from under the can demonstrating the can remaining at rest.  Then the kids from Caroline's class tried it.  But they are a young group.  And they were scared.  So they didn't pull the paper quickly enough.  So after a few tries of the cans falling on the ground, one finally exploded.  It wasn't just a small, steady stream of soda that you could get to a sink.  The whole can literally exploded.  All seven girls had it on their clothes, it was all over the tables, all the chairs, it was a gigantic mess.  So her class learned that science can be messy.  Next time we'll be sure to use a nice thick soup can....


The kids saw the dentist this week and none of them had cavities.  I was shocked that their 10-15 second brushing sessions resulted in such good oral health.  Caroline said her hygienist told her that she was doing a good job and to keep on doing what she was doing. Oh, lady, please, no!  I think we should encourage her to add a good 30 more seconds to her brushing routine.

And then it was Henry's birthday.  Nine!  He was so excited for his birthday.  All day Friday he said that he was going to get the Minecraft game for the PS4.  When asked what he wanted to do on his birthday, he said he wanted to play the Minecraft game that he just knew he was going to get.  Well, what if you don't get that?  What do you want to do?  Silence...  Of course, we hadn't bought the Minecraft game.
I woke up at 6:00 a.m. and heard all three kids chatting and laughing away.  Who knows at what ungodly hour they awoke!  For breakfast, Henry chose doughnuts, so Todd and he headed out to get them.  Henry's plan was to eat all the doughnuts before opening his gifts, so we knew to limit the number we bought.  After sugaring themselves up, it was onto gifts.  He was abundantly blessed once again by so many family members!  Aunts and Uncles, Grandparents and cousins.  He opened Lego kits, puzzles, mind games, regular games, books, cameras, an Erector set, binoculars, and Newton's cradle.  No Minecraft video game, but he really loved it all.  He had a permanent smile all morning.

Once Game Stop opened, Todd took him and Henry used his money to buy Minecraft.  He really wanted it because at noon, he had a friend coming over.  This is the same CC friend from Josiah's birthday.  This kid is Josiah's age, but he is seriously the nicest kid you could ever meet.  He is so kind and polite and genuine and respectful.  He is also good at video games.  At noon they started playing Minecraft.  After an hour or so we had pizza.  Then they were back to Minecraft.  After another two hours we had cake.  Then they were back to Minecraft.  They played for a good four hours total.  And when this friend left, Henry just fell apart.  It was too much.  Too much birthday.  Too much time playing video games.  We went out to eat dinner as a family and Henry was barely keeping his head up.  So, at 7:30 p.m. we put them all to bed and they all fell asleep pretty quickly.  And that is why they speak so often of establishing time limits for video games/media!



Today was the day our church closes its doors and we go out into the community to do service projects.  We met on a street that had been affected by Hurricane Harvey.  We had a team of people putting up doors in an elderly lady's house.  Her home had flooded during the hurricane, and though she was back living in her home, she has had zero interior doors for two and a half years.  So, there were men putting up doors all over her house.  The rest of us cleaned up the yards of 10 houses on the street - raking, weeding, mowing, edging, mulching, and planting a few flowers.  Our family raked, weeded, and mulched three houses.  Todd and I came home tired!  It didn't seem to affect the kids at all.  They were out playing with their friends just as quickly as they could.  Running around the street, riding their bikes and scooters.   


This evening, Henry coerced Todd to help him with his puzzle.  While Henry showered, he asked Todd to set aside all the edge pieces.  Then when he was clean, Henry came back to work on it.  Henry has always loved puzzles.

We have another busy week up ahead.  The boys have a STEM class at the Children's Museum downtown this week.  We don't know exactly what they're doing, but it was free so it must be fun!