Market Day

I had noticed that during meal times, Benson would casually walk to the table and quietly hang out under it.  He didn't beg.  He didn't whine.  And this week I found out why.  During lunch one day, Henry, very matter-of-factly, said, "I give Benson some of my food at every meal."  Oh, Henry.

The boy and his dog.

The boys' hair was getting really shaggy, so they each got a trim this week.  It's still long up top, per their request, but at least it isn't in their eyes anymore.  

Mid-week, Josiah had his last KSM meeting for the year.  To celebrate they had a pancake dinner and were told they could wear Christmas sweaters - ugly or nice.  Josiah didn't have a Christmas sweater, so he drew his own t-shirt.  It turned out really well.  The sad part is he uses washable markers, so all that hard work gets washed away.  He's requested to keep this shirt for a while for that reason.  Actually, this one may be kept for all time. 

At CC this week, we had a Market Day.  Several moms had been advertising to do this for months now and every time they talked about it during morning assembly at CC, Caroline would turn in her chair, look back at me, and vehemently shake her head 'no.'  She did not want to participate in Market Day.  She did want to come to Market Day, however, because it was also the Christmas party.  As this week approached,  I decided that I did not want to be stuck walking around for four hours with nothing to do because we weren't selling anything.  At least if you sold something, you would get a table and a chair and a place to be.  So, the day before we made pizzelles, put six in a bag, and asked a dollar per bag.  Todd asked if we turned a profit.  Definitely not.  But at least I had a table and a chair.  We actually went to Market Day with $45 in ones.  That was to make change and so the kids could shop around at their friends' tables.  By the end of the day, we sold all but two bags of pizzelles and left with $4 to our name.  Our three kids generously helped out their fellow classmates by buying their goods.  They bought rocks, cake, stuffed animals, balls, slap bracelets, and many other items.  I bought homemade sourdough bread and homemade lip balm.  

For the Christmas party portion, one family brought a piñata and the kids had a fun time trying to break it.  They actually went through every single person that was there and the piñata was still not broken.  The last person to go was the man who had been holding the rope the whole time.  He took one whack and broke the stick in two.  After that, they just let the kids tear into it.  Caroline said that she only ran up to destroy it.  She didn't want any of the candy.  

The boys taking a hit at it.

Caroline standing in the center, walking away.  Destruction complete.

There was also a CC Memory Review time.  The kids went with their classes to seven different stations.  Each station was a different subject and a different game.  To go over Latin, they played Hot Potato.  For geography, they did a Nerf gun.  Math, they balanced beanbags.  Another was the Grass is Lava, another they did the Limbo.  By doing it this way, they were able to go through the previous 12 weeks memory work.  They had seven minutes at each station before a loud buzzer went off.  

Josiah had his last day of Latin tutoring for the semester.  His friend's mom picked him up in the evening and instead of coming home, they took a detour and saw a friend perform at the tree lighting in Sugar Land.  They played games, got Starbuck's, free light-up hats, and Chick-fil-a.  Josiah was tired when he got home.  

We had a busy Saturday.  Caroline requested we decorate the tree, so we accomplished that.  The kids made sure they got every square inch covered.  I think we only used half of our ornaments, although I keep some of the breakable ones stored away until the potential for them falling/getting knocked off is much lower.  

It was Henry's turn to put on the star.  I did offer to get the ladder, but Todd hoisted a very solid 80 lbs on his shoulders to Henry's delight.  

Saturday afternoon, Caroline and I trekked across town to a friend's dance showcase.  Caroline's tutor has two daughters who dance and this was their company's performance.  Unfortunately, they were in a car accident two weeks ago where they got rear-ended.  One of the daughter's got a concussion and was unable to dance.  (Her head is getting better.)  The other daughter is in Caroline's class and we did get to see her.  When we got the program, there were 46 dances in 2 hours.  It was fast paced!  Caroline had fun figuring out who the parents were for the dancers.  Though we were told at the beginning that no photography/videos of the performances were allowed, as soon as someone's child was dancing, we'd see the cell phone go up to record it.  We found it quite humorous.  If my child was dancing, I'd do the same.  Caroline also used her super powerful eyesight and kept me informed of the name of each dance.  She was able to read it when the stage lights were up, but even then it was incredibly dark where we sat.  

While we were watching dance, Todd and Josiah watched nature take its course.  A big falcon landed on our shed.  When it turned around, they saw a snake in it's beak.  Todd said Josiah got loud when he saw it.  

When we got home, we decorated our Ikea gingerbread cookies.  We should have known that with it being Ikea, we'd have to assemble something.  We opened the box and there were only cookies.  We'd have to make the icing ourselves.  Their recipe called for lemon juice in with the sugar and eggwhite, so it had a nice tangy flavor.  Since we had to whip it up ourselves, the kids took the opportunity to make different colored icings.  They had a lot of fun decorating their cookies.  My goal over the Christmas break is to make my own gingerbread and see if we can make gingerbread houses.  

Henry's gingerbread man was already broken, so he gave it some blood....

Next week, Josiah finishes up his semester at CC.  It will be bluebook exam day, so this will be a week of heavy studying for him.  He will be tested for an hour in each of the six subjects.  His class started their cartography exam this past week since that portion takes so long.  Josiah said he drew all the countries, so all he has to do now is label them.  He keeps telling me he's under a lot of pressure, yet I have literally told him that all I want from him is to do his best.  We've never done this before, so this is a learning experience.  (He will be doing these bluebooks twice a year for the next 6 years.)