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.