Spiderman & the Convention

Caroline had a rough start to the week.  She woke up Monday morning with a stomach bug and it was a rough go for a few hours.  She was feeling sick all day and laid in bed for all of it.  By Tuesday she was doing better, but still rested for most of the day.  On Wednesday, she was practically 100% again and ready to do school.  Henry, too, was sick Monday morning.  It almost felt like he had sympathy sickness.  He threw up and spent most of Monday in bed, but by the evening, he was back to his old self, running and jumping around, and wanting to eat.  Josiah skipped the stomach bug, much to his chagrin.  He really was hoping for a day off of school.  It's not fair!!

We did make it to CC this week and we studied the artwork of Fra Angelico.  We painted a stained-glass scene with watercolors and added real gold leaf.  The gold leaf was very tricky to work with because it was so fragile and light.  Caroline seemed to figure out how best to get it to stick to her paper.  She used the back of her paintbrush and she had good results.  

When we got home from CC, Josiah had a package waiting for him.  It was the Spiderman suit that he had purchased with his birthday money.  To say he was happy would be a massive understatement.  We now have Spiderman living with us.  And, as we all know, Spiderman was a real teenager who had to do real teenage things.  When he wasn't making Spiderman poses,

he had to keep up with his chores around the house,

get the mail,

and eat and drink like the rest of us.

He even had to keep up with his schoolwork.  Learning the capitals of Europe.

And Asia.

And the Americas.

Even math had to be completed.  

When Josiah first put it on, he mentioned, "You know what I like about BrazCon?  They have cosplay."  Yep.  He wanted to dress up as a superhero at a comic book convention.  That is where Todd took the kids this weekend.  In the end, Josiah only brought his mask instead of the complete suit.  And further more, he only wore it in the car.  I was supposed to go to BrazCon with them this year.  Unfortunately (cough, cough), I had to wait at home for a rug that was to be delivered.  Todd was desperate for the FedEx truck to show up early Saturday morning, but alas, they did not.  I assured Todd that I did not slip the driver a $20 to come anytime after 9 a.m.  BrazCon (Brazoria County Teen Comic Convention) was over an hour drive from our house this year.  That meant I had almost the whole day to myself.  (cue the Hallelujah chorus🎵)

Their first station was to make hats.  Only Josiah was cool enough for that.  He's a huge Luigi fan, so that's what he made.  

Then they moved onto Spiderman tongue depressors.  They each drew a different Spiderman suit for that.

Their favorite activity was the button making machine.  They were able to comb through old comic books and magazines to pick out the picture they wanted.  They cut it out and made a button with it.  

There was a Papa John's food truck.

A few minutes after Todd texted me that they were heading back home, our new rug arrived.  So, it was completely necessary that I stayed home.  

When Caroline got home, she was in a baking mood. She had been asking to make peanut butter cookies with Hershey Kisses, so we did that together.  

This afternoon, we took up our old area rug and put down the new one.  We needed a bigger rug so that our whole couch could sit upon it.  Before, we had our couch hanging off the rug and it was scuffing up the wood floors.  This time we chose a more fun pattern.  It looks happy.  Kid and dog approved.

We're praying the week ahead is a healthy one with good attitudes and enthusiastic, disciplined students.  Ha ha.  We are not praying for that.  I am.  

The Main Event

Monday we celebrated Josiah's 13th birthday at the Main Event.  We invited his friend Bobby, and Bobby's family, to come along and celebrate with us.  We started off with an hour of bowling.  The kids had never bowled before and were very eager to try it.  I was able to give each of them the option to use bumpers or not.  The bumpers now pop up from the sides of the gutter area, so they were able to go up and down between bowlers.  Josiah and Caroline chose to use the bumpers.  Their scores reflected their usage.  Caroline still speaks about how well she did for her first time bowling - she won on the kids' lane.  Henry, ever the athlete, gave a perfect bowling stance and even got a few spares.  We definitely had a lot of fun and are planning more bowling in our future.  

  

We didn't finish our second game - we only had a hour to play.

From bowling, we sang happy birthday and ate some cake before heading off to the Gravity Ropes.  It was a fun ropes course above a section of the arcade.  The four kids went up and had a fun time crossing the obstacles.  

From there we played laser tag.  Caroline had never played before so she was really looking forward to this part.  It wasn't until we were three-quarters of the way through the game that I passed Henry and he told me that it was red vs. blue.  I had no idea.  I was shooting at everyone.  We played it a second time later in the afternoon and this time we (I)  had better strategy.    

After our first laser tag, we played arcade games.  We had two hours of unlimited play.  It was a lot.  The place is not that big, but I only saw the boys a handful of times in that two-hour block.  They made the most of their time.  Caroline and I played a few games together.  Her favorite was throwing balls to knock down clowns.  

Before we left, Josiah and Caroline did the Gravity Ropes again, while Todd and I took turns battling Henry in air hockey.  We were there for five hours!  We were really tired by the end, but the kids had a good time and that made it special.  Now we have two more years to recuperate before planning Henry's 13th.  

The kids are not just getting older, but taller!  Josiah and Caroline got new jiu-jitsu gis this week.  Both had outgrown theirs for some time now.  It's always hard to figure out what size to buy because it's not like they're small-medium-large.  For Josiah, we guessed fairly well.  Caroline's gi is a little big, but at the rate she grows taller, she should fit into it in no time.  (It's rolled under in the picture, so it appears to fit.)

For CC this week, we learned about the artist Ghiberti who was a metalworker, sculptor, and painter.  He's famous for the Gates of Paradise doors at the Florence Baptistry.  We tried to mimic relief art with very thick foil and a raised picture plate.  After the picture was 'carved' out, we painted it with black paint and then wiped off what we wanted (to give it depth).  This is Caroline's:

This morning, the kids wanted to make pancakes for the family again.  I had them double the recipe this time and Henry was none too happy that he had to use math on a weekend.  Todd and I were quick with the comebacks, That's what we've been telling you - you need math for life!  Henry spooned the pancakes onto the pan.  It was Josiah's job to sprinkle a few chocolate chips onto each pancake.  Caroline was, again, the flipper.  Josiah held that bag of chocolate chips with a tight fist.  For every chip that made it onto a pancake, at least two popped into his mouth.  Nothing like a bunch of sugar before heading out to church.  Now sit still for an hour!  

We spent some time refining Josiah's science experiment this weekend.  His original experiment, Bristle Bots, was to measure which toothbrush head moved down a chute faster .  He had a flat toothbrush head and a slanted toothbrush head.  Taped to the top of each was a battery and motor.  When we first did the experiment a few weeks ago, neither toothbrush head moved down the chute at all.  They preferred to moved in wild circles more than in a straight line, even with the chute directing them.  So we changed the experiment then to see which would reach the edge of a hula hoop first.  Each was released 12 inches from the edge.  While we got results, it wasn't great data.  This week, we went back and read all the troubleshooting questions from the kit we bought and tried it once again.  This time we were able to get both toothbrush heads down the chute with measurable data.  This was the only part of the science experiment that Josiah has enjoyed.  He is not very happy with me for making him do the Science Fair.  It's optional.  <grumble. grumble.>  When will I ever need this to be an artist?  I told him he needed to learn to speak well in front of people and answer questions on the fly.  (He's actually pretty good at this, but you can never practice this skill too much.)  He also needs to learn to write a scientific research paper.  He's not too thrilled about the whole thing, but it'll all be over in two weeks, at which point he'll totally switch gears and learn the organ systems.  

The Bristle Bot

The chute. 
And because it'll bother me - the chutes were measured and had the same widths.  It just doesn't appear so from this angle.

It was a good week.  Very chilly.  There were many fires in the fireplace.  

And a last picture of Benson in his favorite spot - sitting in the kitchen hoping to get a piece of whatever we're fixing.  He knows the sound of our deli meat container opening.  He's rushes to the kitchen the second he hears it.