Al Dente

At the beginning of this week, the boys were invited to a neighbor's house to swim.  He had just gotten an above-ground pool and our boys along with two other boys were invited.  Because it was going to be five boys swimming (all older), I kept Caroline at home.  She was LIVID.  We never let her do anything.  It's not fair.  The boys get to do everything.  Lots of screaming.  When she finally calmed down we sat and watched a movie together.  We had not gotten far into the movie when the boys came home.  They didn't have as much fun as they expected because one of the boys who came was their friend's older brother.  An 8th grader.  Apparently he was a bit of a tosser - tossed them off the floaties and things.  It was unappreciated.

Later in the week the kids were invited to go over to the pool again.  This time it was just our kids and the neighbor, so I let Caroline go.  I gave them a clock, told the boys to keep an eye on Caroline, and told them to be back in two hours.  And they did it.  They had a lot of fun.  It is a salt water pool which is pretty neat and since it is above ground, it is only about 4 feet deep (gauging from the kids description of "it comes up to here on me").

They have played with this neighbor friend for hours upon hours outside this week.  Bikes, roller blades, basketball, Nerf gun fights.  They've really had a good time.  They've eaten a ton of tortilla chips and popsicles and lemonade and Gatorade.  It's been great.  During one of their times outside their friend brought over pieces of scrap wood and our kids took to pounding nails in them and tested out all sorts of tools on them.  This gave me the idea of string art.  Get them hammering nails for a purpose.  So one evening we had them trace out their initial and pound some nails in it.  After the boys finished their boards, it was clear we wouldn't have enough nails for Caroline's "C," so to delay it, we told her to paint her board so her "C" would pop against the white thread (since we only had black thread, orange yarn, and white thread.)   Throughout the process, Henry had the most intense hammering face I think I've ever seen.  Every strike of the hammer was accomplished with a very strained face.

In between all the playing, there has been a ton of bickering with the youngest two.  It's been an almost near constant insulting, criticizing, mean words barrage between them.  I think every other sentence that I say to them is, "Was that necessary to say?"  No.  It's incredibly frustrating to listen to.  BUT in the midst of all of this, one afternoon it started to thunderstorm.  It was about two in the afternoon.  All of a sudden the kids were super excited because at some point in the past (years ago??) they said that I said that they could all sleep in Caroline's bed whenever there were thunderstorms and/or fireworks.  I, of course, do not remember saying such words, but to Henry they were written in stone.  So, they went from bickering to elation in a matter of moments.  So while the storm was at 2 p.m., it still counted at 8 p.m.  They played Pictionary in her bed (without a yell or fuss) and then slept side-by-side as if they were the best of friends.

Despite the rain at the beginning of the week, Henry kept begging me to mow the backyard.  Uh, yeah you can.  We had to wait a few days for the yard to dry out, but then we gave him the go-ahead while the motivation was still high.

This weekend we enjoyed a meal from the Skeeter's.  Since they have not had any ball games this season, they decided to sell their stadium food.  It wasn't the hot dogs or fries they were selling, as Josiah anticipated.  This was the "fancier" stadium food - pork tenderloins and chicken with three sides, rolls, and cookies.  They made the pick up experience fun by allowing us to drive around the field.  The kids enjoyed seeing Swatson.  It was good food, too.  We've been eating it all weekend.

After watching church on TV this morning, Todd went for a walk with Caroline while the boys went outside to play.  Henry is notorious for coming in every few minutes for every random thing.  (This is really no exaggeration.  When Bobby's mom was here she experienced it herself.  We got a good laugh over it.)  I experience no peace and quiet when they're outside because the garage door is constantly opening and being slammed shut.  The boys were not out there long before their neighbor friend came over to play.  They opened the door at one point to say their friend had a question for me.  He asked if the boys could go with him to play at his aunt's house this afternoon.  She lived 30 minutes away.  I said I would have to talk it over with Todd when he got back from his walk (although it was already a pretty firm 'no' in my head).  They were cool with that and the door shut.
Two minutes later Josiah came in to say that their friend's dogs would not be coming with them.
Two more minutes pass and it's Henry at the door.  Their friend's mom said it was okay for them to come.
Five minutes later and it's Henry.  They're not actually going to his aunt's house which is 30 minutes away.  They're going to a garden, which is a little closer, so it is probably 29 minutes away.
Five minutes pass and it is Josiah coming in to say their neighbor's dad said the dogs were coming and that our boys couldn't come.
Two minutes later, Henry comes through the door to relay the same story.

Then they finally just play for a while.  Caroline and Todd make it home from their walk and Caroline stayed out to play.  When all three kids finally came in for a late lunch, Caroline walked in from the garage saying, "They're going to drink beer."  What?  "They're going to drink beer.  [Friend] said they were going to drink beer.  He can drink beer."  What?  He's 10.  No he can't.  I thought they were going to a garden.
Henry walked in saying, "They're going to a beer garden."
Biergarten.  Yeah.  That would have been a 'no' to going with them then.

Josiah's puppet arrived this week.  I think it is impossible to convey the excitement he has had for this puppet.  Up until this evening, there had not been any puppet shows, because, to Josiah, the puppet has been more a part of the family than a puppet.  It is a chef named Al Dente and Josiah walks around with him on his hand all day talking for him as if he is a regular part of the family.  This evening he put on his first puppet show.  There is no doubt there will be more to come.  This kid is a performer.


And an artist.  We bought more sidewalk chalk.

Blueberry

Green Eggs and Ham Sam I Am

Caroline wanted her rainbow to be included, too.  :)

Muppets and Puppet Shows

The week started off well for the kids.  Their friend Bobby came over for a Nerf gun battle.  Like last week, he came over in the afternoon.  And, again, our kids were excited from the moment they woke up.  Henry was all suited up in his Nerf gear by 8:00 a.m.  He walked around all morning with the giant gun hanging out of the backpack, consistently hitting the blinds and everything else in his path.  Take the backpack off!  They had a fun battle and towards the end when the heat got to be too much, they cooled off with the hose and a short water gun battle.  The afternoon was completed when our three kids showed Bobby and his mom their bike trick.  Josiah, on roller blades, held onto the bike handles of Caroline and Henry who whipped him around the circle and then flung him forward when they reached a certain point in the road.  The trick went off without a hitch, but then as our friends were getting ready to go, Henry thought he got bit by a fire ant.  A minute after he got 'bit,' the small red dot had grown much larger and it was clear it hadn't come from a fire ant.  All Henry could say was that the insect laid in parts on the ground where it happened.  We googled it and it looked like a wasp sting, which we have wasps everywhere here.  Wasps, fire ants, and mosquitoes.  There is no walking barefoot in the summer around here.  We tried a new thing and put lemon juice on it to neutralize the venom.  Along with icing it, it seemed to help a lot.




We spent some time learning useful skills like how to mime-walk down a staircase.

Josiah has developed a new obsession.  Muppets and puppets.  He has been begging me to watch a video with him to learn how to make a puppet like the ones they use on Sesame Street - the type that have metal rods to move their arms and your hand can make their mouth talk as well as control their eyebrows.  So we indulged him and watched a YouTube video...or two or three or four.  What we watched was a man in his workshop with clay and pottery tools and felt and tons of types of foam and glues and cements and cutting tools I've never seen before and a sewing machine and even hand stitching that had different names I've never heard of.  I was looking at Josiah like, besides a needle and thread, we have none of what that man has.  Nor do we have the same skill sets as this man.  So we told him he needs to start on a much more simple model.  And Amazon is sending us that model.

Before watching the puppet making videos, Josiah had taped coffee stirrers together to make long rods and then taped them to his Kermit stuffed animal.  He has put on three puppet shows so far with Kermit as the host.  It is a similar format to The Muppet Show.  He actually does a really good job of capturing Kermit's voice and mannerisms.  This evening, Josiah asked me if doing puppets was a good career choice.  Well.  How much money do you want to make?  He ended up saying that if he was a teacher, he would use puppets in his classroom to help.  Or if he was a doctor he could use the puppets with his patients. 

Josiah has had a sort of throat clearing tic this entire quarantine.  He has dealt with tics in the past and with all of them, they run their course and eventually disappear.  We've always been told to just ignore them and they'll go away.  But this particular tic had the added annoyance of being vocal.  We could hear him clear his throat every few seconds over and over and over again.  It would get worse as the day went on so that by evening time the throat clearing was nearly constant.  The quarantine did not help in that we are always together, always hearing it.  It was driving him crazy, and us as well.  Finally, Todd did some research and discovered that tics in children can often be helped with magnesium.  So we went to the store, got the proper dosage and tried to give it to Josiah.  The only problem was they were horse pills for his little mouth.  So we tried to crush them up in ice cream.  Neither worked.  Our next step was bananas for the magnesium they had.  We've made him eat a banana a day (definitely not his favorite fruit at all), for probably two weeks now, and his tic has just about disappeared.  It is such a relief.  It is a relief for him to not have this annoying thing he cannot control.  It is a relief for us to not have to hear it and I imagine his throat is feeling so much better.

The bickering has seemed to ramp up this week, especially between the youngest two.  Fortunately we have five days of rain in the future, so it's going to get awesome here this week.  To help with the arguing, or at least to put a pause to it, Henry has helped in the kitchen a lot.  He helped cook chicken pot pie one night.  Then another night he made minestrone soup.  I thought the kids would balk at a tomato based soup, but they actually all liked it.  There was only one side-eye glare from a family member questioning cooking soup on a 91° day.  Hey.  It's Day 85 of quarantine.  The other option was cereal for dinner.

Josiah made vanilla pudding.  We're getting these boys cooking!  Also, when I went to do laundry this weekend, I didn't do the boys' clothes since they mentioned they wanted to do it themselves (last week when we switched places).  It was far less exciting to do it this week.  But they did it.  Yay.

Todd got word this week that instead of being able to go back to his office in June, they've pushed it off til August.  He was then told that he was no "spring chicken" so he wouldn't be in the first phases of coming back.  At this point he misses his office.  A lot.

My quarantine meme of the week.  ;)

Trading Places

This week we had a water gun fight planned with a friend from CC.  He was scheduled to come over Tuesday at 1:00 p.m..  I was woken up at 6:15 a.m. Tuesday morning to Caroline rattling off, "I already finished my math work.  A noun is the name of a person, place, thing, activity, or idea.  Can you listen to my Awana verse?"  That was three subjects rapid fire and my eyes were still opening up and trying to focus.  The kids were so, so excited to see a friend again.  They all finished school really early only to have hours and hours to wait and anticipate.  Finally Bobby arrived and our neighbor friend came over for the battle as well.  While they got themselves wet, I got to sit and chat with Bobby's mom and play Blokus together.  It is crazy to think that I had not really talked (in person) to anyone outside of the family in eight weeks.  We had a nice time together and we're going to try to do it again next week.  Either a Nerf battle or a bike day.  That way we maintain our distance, but still enjoy each other's company.

In food news, Todd made an amazing Lo Mein dinner one night.  It tasted just like Chinese take-out.  We've lived here for coming on six years and have yet to find a Chinese take-out restaurant so we were so excited to find a recipe.  We even cooked bok choy for the first time to use in it.   Now we need a fried rice recipe and we're game.

Since they were the parents,
I didn't tell them to spray oil on the pan.
The brownies stuck.  

The week was fairly normal - school, play outside, eat, bed.  Then came Saturday.  I do not know how it started or when the idea ignited in the kids' head, but they wanted a day where they switched places.  The kids would be the parents and vice versa.  It went from a flippant idea to, very quickly, this-is-going-to-happen-and-it's-going-to-happen-tomorrow.
Though we never really officially signed onto the whole thing, Todd and I went into it with the goal of showing the kids that they leave their things everywhere. All. Day. Long.  The kids went into it with the goal of eating cookies while staying up late watching TV.  Saturday morning, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. so I could go downstairs to watch TV á la Josiah.  Of course, I am not Josiah, so I fell asleep 20 minutes into the movie while the kids joined me (but I got the TV, so I won).  They were in charge of breakfast.  At 7:30 a.m., Josiah asked, "Do you want pancakes or brownies?"  Uh...are those the standard breakfast choices?  I picked toast.  I received toast and ate it while the boys mixed up some brownie batter.  While I was eating, Todd came downstairs, shirtless á la Josiah again.  Then he put his shirt on backwards and picked up a football and started running all over the living room, throwing himself repeatedly on the couch.  That was Henry to a T.  Every day his shirt is on backwards.  Every day.  Throughout the day, when the kids made us any sort of food, we ate as they usually do.  Messy.  Chewing with mouths open, talking with food in our mouths.  Todd made me laugh out loud because when I looked over at him, he was eating his lunch over the table, with his plate off to the side.  Totally what they do.  Eat over your plate!!  The kids never picked up on this one, though they did have to clean up his mess later.

Note placement of plate.

The after lunch mess.  I was starting to twitch at the sight of it.

Todd and I fought over who got the paper towel roll.  We bickered about who got to do what, who got to go first, which piece of cornbread we got.  He drew a picture in the school room and left all the pencils out, several on the ground.  I started drawing my own picture with all the markers, but kept leaving it on the table saying, "I'm going to finish it later."  We had fun with it.

All throughout the day, Todd kept yelling out, "Henry!  Henry!  Henry!  Henry!  Henry!"
Henry, "yes..."
Todd, "I love you."

The kids, meanwhile, believed that they could do as much media (Netflix, TV, movies, video games) as they wanted.  That's not quite how we live.  After we had finished lunch, and the kitchen was in total disarray, the kids all disappeared to play Minecraft.  Nuh uh.  That's not how I leave it.  So we called the kids back down and said that if they wanted to be the parents then they needed to act like the parents.  We don't play Minecraft and we don't leave a messy kitchen.   Then it got to be the fun part.  They got to do dishes, clean the counters, put everything away, fill the dishwasher.

In between they also managed to do a ridiculous amount of media.  While they did their own laundry, they sat there playing Minecraft.  They tried to tell me they weren't until I called them out saying I heard Caroline talk about respawning animals.

Caroline spent a lot of her day sneaking off with the iPad.  That's adulthood to her.  Endless Netflix binging.

They had fun, we had fun, but Todd and I were incredibly grateful for the day to end.  I spent this morning really cleaning the kitchen and getting the dishes under control.  They did ask to continue doing their laundry, though.  Just so long as they realize they don't get to sit there for hours playing on the iPad.  And so another week begins.

Flyovers and Features

This week things were starting to get back to normal in Texas.  Restaurants, hair salons, and other type places were allowed to reopen at 25% capacity. However, we're still hanging out at home with no plans to fully enter into society in the near future.  The quarantine has some of us cracking around here.  On Tuesday it was Henry's turn to crack.  He had been playing Minecraft with Josiah for an hour and ten minutes.  I went up to tell them to turn it off and Henry totally and completely fell apart.  It was classic - falling on the floor, kicking the legs, yelling nonsensical sounds.  I had to hide my chuckle because of the absurdity of it all.  We have not had a tantrum like that in a looooong time.  He had stamina, too.  Even an hour later he was still spouting off at the mouth about the whole thing.  Long story short, he said that in those 70 minutes of Minecraft being on, he only actually played for ten minutes.  Just ten.  Josiah was doing other things with the game the entire rest of the time.  Sorry, buddy.  Many hours later when I told him he was going to take a break from media for three days he had the audacity to ask, "Why?"  Well, let's go over the events of the afternoon...

We discovered a man who rapped Dr. Seuss books on YouTube.  He was quite entertaining and the kids loved watching his videos. That prompted Josiah to create a Dr. Seuss Build and Grow project one morning.  I was slightly offended that he gave me the Grinch, but seeing my project had the fewest steps, all was forgiven.  Of course, we had to line up first.  At the sign-in desk we were given our assigned project as well as our bottle of glue. 


My directions were simple:

And the finished project:

Henry got The Lorax door holder:

Caroline got a fish from One Fish, Two Fish.

The next morning we were given Pete the Cat Build and Grows.  It was a very similar project except with a blue cat.  That same afternoon, Josiah pulled out another craft for us to do.  Cup People.  I figured we had nothing but time, so I gave my cup person an ombre dress.  (I swear we are doing all of our schoolwork, too.)

On Wednesday the Blue Angels flew over the whole Houston area.  From the map it looked like they were going to fly right up the highway close to us.  We hung out in a movie theater parking lot with lots of other folks.  We spotted the planes in the distance, but then noticed that they were far off the path of the highway.  It was cool to see them in formation, but we missed the quintessential whoooosh sound.

Waiting for the planes. Henry, always trying to look gangsta.

The Blue Angels.

Then today, there was another flyover called the Lone Star Flight Museum's "Fight to the Finish Flyover."  It consisted of more World War II type planes.  This time we studied the flight plan very closely and drove to a spot with a better viewing area.  We were able to see the planes fly over - probably at least 15 of them - but they were really high up in the air.  We could definitely hear them and their unique engine sound, but they were so high up that they came out as dots in all my photos.
(When we got there, Henry wasn't having it.  He wanted to go over the back seats in the car, but he's too big/heavy to do it and there was lots of grunting and groaning and whining and complaining involved, but he pulled it together for the planes.)

This week we have taken many walks.  Many, many walks.  Yesterday alone we took three.  The weather had been amazing and we have spent a lot of time outside.  The kids spent a lot of their time riding bikes and roller blading.  One day they were out there so long practicing tricks for a show they were going to put on.   From what I could tell, the main trick had Henry and Caroline riding bikes parallel to each other with Josiah in the middle holding on to each of their handlebars.  They zoomed around our circle, then shot Josiah off like a cannon.  They came in that evening all excited.  They woke early the next morning and each designed a t-shirt with their team name on it.  They dubbed themselves the "Cool Kids."  CK for short.  Their performance got delayed that day because Caroline spilled hot chocolate on her shirt, so I threw it in the laundry to be cleaned.  Then after hers was clean, Josiah fell outside, scraped his elbow and got blood on his shirt.  Another one in the washer.  They were not able to do their performance without clean uniforms.  So, now they have a show scheduled for this coming week.  Pictures to follow.  They may wait to give the performance until Josiah's friend comes over for a water gun fight we're having this week.  A bit of pre-battle entertainment for the afternoon.  It seemed the easiest socially distant outdoor activity.  The kids are really excited to play with an old CC friend again.
 


The kids have painted and drawn a ton this week.  Josiah drew a picture of the Grinch and kept asking me if I would "feature it in the blog."  So, feature it I am.  Along with his Paddington and Cat in the Hat.

The best picture Josiah drew this week, however, was of Todd.  At first he just drew the picture on the left and said that was Todd today.  Then, when Todd complained that he looked a little aged, Josiah went back and drew Todd, "from the 70's."  Apparently he was a dancing machine back then.

Caroline drew our family.  When she came to show it to me she had her hand covering a section near her feet.  She said the hidden part was her dream.  Then she uncovered it to show a puppy.  Of course, Henry chimed in, "Why do you get to hold the leash?"  Already fighting over a pet we don't even have.

The kids have been helping their fake pets stay safe.  Face masks were made and distributed. (For the record, Josiah has finished his spelling words for the year, so now I am taking every word he misspells on a daily basis and putting it on his weekly test.  This week we have added "official" as in 'Official Nurse' on the face mask.)

For Mother's Day, Todd and the kids all made me nice cards.  Henry's card threw me at first because it was a mosaic he had painted and in the middle it had the letters TOM.  All together like that.  It took me a minute, but I figured it out as, "TO: M."  When Todd messed with him about it being Tom Brady, Henry took it back and added an OM to make it more obvious. 

Todd was emailed by the church earlier in the week to have the kids draw a picture of me.  He sent in the picture and the church played a display of Mother's Day pictures before the (online) church service.  Mine made it in there.  Henry clearly sees me as a caffeinated Strong Like Ox mother.
Todd picked up some pizza for dinner, which was great to have a night off of cooking.