On the drive home from the orthodontist, Josiah thought he'd be clever and find out what he was getting for Christmas. He asked to use my phone to text someone. He then texted Todd:
The worst part, Todd almost answered him.
For media-free Monday, the kids played with Brain Flakes. They were very secretive in the school room making up all sorts of creations. Then, after Todd got home, they presented us with all that they had made. I was gifted a trio of flowers from Josiah, a single rose from Henry, and a bouquet from Caroline. Henry made Josiah a pencil and paper. There were sunflowers and blue flowers and a single slice of pizza.
They may not like media-free Monday, but they do use their time nicely.
And since they did not have the best attitudes for school on Tuesday, they had another media-free night. The excitement around here was palpable. Henry spent a lot of his time that day drawing a picture of himself. He got out his favorite baby picture and sat down and worked at it for over an hour. In the picture, he was 11 weeks old.
Henry also earned a second stripe on his belt.
Mid-week our church had it's annual Christmas Blast. We've done this for several years now, so we knew that we had to get food first. We got hot dogs and chips. We followed that up with Smore's. Caroline told us ahead of time that she was going to set her marshmallow on fire because she liked it that way. She did as she said she would. Henry was not as big a fan of carbon on his food, so he knelt down and cooked his to a nice light golden brown. Josiah ate his cold because of his braces. He was about as excited to do that as it sounds.
This year they had carnival games instead of their bounce house obstacle courses. I was under the impression that everyone won. That's what I told Caroline. When she got to the first game where she had to knock over a stack of cans, she chucked her beanbags all willy-nilly and didn't hit a single one. That's when the man running the booth said you had to knock over three cans to get the prize. Upon hearing that, she fought to hold back tears because she wanted the full size M&Ms. Henry was up next and won some M&Ms and shared with her. Later the boys tried their hand at a football toss. Both got two out of three balls in the net, so they got full-size Hershey cookies and cream bars. They love white chocolate, so they were really happy to get those.
We also did the sledding hills. They had the sledding lines better organized this year, so it went much faster. Caroline enjoyed the sledding the most.
We finished the evening walking through the garden area which told the Christmas story of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus. In the middle of the garden, they had a foam blower going so that it looked like snow. The kids were a fan of this, so Todd and I sat down while they stood in front of the blower to get covered in 'snow.' They did this repeatedly and were very happy by the amount they were able to collect on their heads.
The next day was CC for Josiah. We dropped him off to take his blue book exams. The day before, while we were reviewing his materials, he asked if I would be happy if he got 50% correct. So we had (another) conversation about grades. (1) 64% is failing. (2) Always aim for the 90s. When it came time to pick him up, he said that he did well and was proud of himself. Then he asked for Cane's for dinner to celebrate.
For the cartography portion of blue books, Josiah had to draw all of North, South, and Central America as well as all the islands in the Caribbean. He also drew all of Europe. Then he had to label each country and name its capital. He now has a new appreciation for countries that name their capitals after their countries/provinces. Quebec City, Quebec. Mexico City, Mexico. Guatemala City, Guatemala. Panama City, Panama. And then there are others: Tegucigalpa, Honduras. Paramaribo, Suriname. Ljublijana, Slovenia. Pretty much all of Eastern Europe posed a challenge. They are not graded yet. Josiah asked if I could put his score under the Christmas tree to open on Christmas morning. I'm not sure we'll do that...
He did have a good day at CC, though. One kid brought doughnuts to share in celebration of his birthday. Another family had their uncle cater lunch. He owns a Mediterranean restaurant and brought food for all the Challenge classes. Josiah said he had pasta with a sort of alfredo sauce. He didn't try any of the other foods, but he did enjoy his pasta.
That night, Henry was proud to get Benson to sleep on his bed all night. He learned that sharing a twin bed with a dog that is nearly your same size lying down is a little tight and slightly uncomfortable. We may have to get Benson a dog bed for Henry's room.
By the end of the week, we met up with some friends to play at the zipline playground for a few hours. The kids decided to dress like triplets for the day.
Saturday morning we usually have pancakes. Henry took it upon himself to make them this weekend. He did it all solo. He even colored them green because Caroline said it would be more fun if they had a little color. The only thing I did was flip his giant pancake.
Todd wanted to have a family movie night on Saturday. He picked Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Henry asked me if I had seen it.
Me - Yes.
Henry - Was it funny?
Me - I was Josiah's age when I watched it, but I liked it then.
Henry - Is it black and white?
Me - Things were not in black and white when I grew up!! (This is not the first time the kids have asked if I grew up in black and white.)
Caroline - I always picture everything black and white when you were a kid.
She means that color did not exist. Literally, the world was black and white; color only came into existence for her generation.
When Jessica Rabbit came on the screen, the men in the movie reacted to her appearance. Caroline watched for a few minutes and then asked Todd, slightly incredulously, "They think she's attractive?"
Todd, incredulous at the question, chuckled - Yes.
This is our last week of school before winter break, so it should be a good one.
And a last picture of Benson at his resting spot at the front window.
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