Turning 11

Henry's week started out with a winter retreat on Monday.  It was for the 4th and 5th graders of our church.  They met at the second campus, so it was a new building for Henry, which he liked.  They did a lot of Bible study and a lot of playing. During their down times, Henry was outside playing football or inside playing ga-ga ball.  He seemed to have a good time given the enthusiastic retelling of his day on the drive home. 

Ga-ga ball (a little like dodgeball, but in a more confined area): 

For Henry's birthday this year, he asked us to hide all his gifts.  He wanted all but one to have clues on them, so it was a scavenger hunt.  We wanted to hide them in different spots than in the past, so we made the clues harder.  When Todd and I started hiding them the evening before his birthday, we quickly realized that Henry could hear where we were.  It was only 8:30 p.m. and all three kids were very much awake (but Todd goes to bed early because of Benson, so we were hiding them then).  Instead of allowing them to hear every gift being hidden, we messed with them and opened and shut every door in the entire house.  Even the attic.  Even the garage.  The last gift Henry wanted to find without any clues.  We stuck that up on the top of his door frame on the inside of his room (after he had left in the morning).  All his gifts were a surprise, though, because he never gave us any gift ideas.  Except one.  He had one gift idea.  A $450 Lego kit.  So, basically, no ideas.  

I awoke at 5:30 a.m. the morning of Henry's birthday to all three kids chattering away.  Henry said he woke up at 2:18 a.m., 2:19 a.m., 2:20 a.m., 2:40 a.m., 3:30 a.m., 4:00 a.m., and on and on.  Josiah said he had been up since 3:00 a.m., briefly napping from 4:00-4:30 a.m., and was back up ready to celebrate.  They all slept in Henry's room together.  It was Henry's way of preventing one sibling sleeping too late on his big day.  (The sibling who did not wake up every 30 minutes throughout the night.)  

Henry opened his cards first, and then set off on his gift hunt.  He kindly let his siblings help him with the clues.  They were pretty quick to figure them out.

Caroline's card:

Josiah, too, hid his gift for Henry and gave him a map to find it.  Josiah also made him a birthday surprise movie theater in Minecraft.  

After opening all his gifts, they went upstairs to try them all out.  They played til 9 a.m. when they decided they were starving and we finally headed to the donut shop to get Henry's special birthday breakfast of Shipley donuts (seriously good donuts).  

After their sugar rush, they tried out Henry's new Spiderman video game.  They played with his new magnets a lot, too.  

Henry drove his new remote control car everywhere.  He learned how to turn the car quickly and slide into a spot like they do in the movies.  Like a sliding parallel parking job.  He practiced that a lot!  

For lunch, Henry had us eating at Chipotle.  None of us have actually had it before, except Henry.  All three kids ordered the burrito and they were massive.  Josiah and Caroline agreed with Henry and thought they were wonderful.  Best. Ever.  Josiah asked why we had never been there before.  

Henry chose a dinner of orange chicken, chicken fried rice, and fried okra.  It was quite the meal.  And of course, with Henry, there was a chocolate cake for dessert.  (And those were dark red candles...)

We had a much earlier bedtime because of their ridiculously early start to the day.  There was little protest and they were asleep fast.  

The kids were happy to have had a four day weekend, but even with all that break, there was not an ounce of enthusiasm to start school Wednesday morning.  I had to go over Josiah's cartography assessment with him.  Last week at CC, Josiah had an Asia assessment in his cartography strand.  He had to draw all of Asia and then match the capitals with the countries.  He did the assessment in class, but then I graded it at home.  This is what he gave me for the capitals.  I looked at it, looked at him, and said, "Absolutely not!"  I don't know what was going on with the curlicues around Bahrain.  He had to do it again and SPELL out the capitals.  We practice these daily, so it wasn't a knowledge issue here...

Caroline had Go Texan night at Awana.  "Go Texan Day" is the unofficial start to the Houston Rodeo, which starts this week.  She had a don't-mess-with-me-cowpoke face and a smile.

Todd got clever with my birthday balloons. I had already gotten an early birthday gift last weekend.  Four new tires and four new tire sensors.  A very middle-aged gift.  But I also told Todd that I wanted a new flower pot for the kitchen.  It was my intention to combine two plants into one pretty pot.  I found the one I wanted online.  I did read the measurements of the flower pot.  It seemed like it would have worked.  Todd bought it and it was absolutely massive.  Definitely more of the outdoor size than the kitchen countertop size.  So we exchanged it this morning and the new one fits nicely.   

Keeping with Henry's Asian dinner theme, Todd, with Henry's help, cooked shrimp lo mein for my birthday dinner.  We now have one very excited little girl whose birthday is in a little over a week.  

The Will to Win

Josiah drew a picture for the family as his Valentine's Day gift to us.  He had asked each of us our favorite superhero and then drew them as a family.  Todd picked The Thing, I picked Ironman, Caroline's was Lock Jaw, Josiah Deadpool, and Henry Spiderman.  

That same day, Caroline went to jiu-jitsu and earned her second stripe.  She's a tough competitor and almost always gives her opponents a hard fight.  

That's Caroline in the foreground with her back on the mat. 

They mistakenly gave her the stripe several weeks ago, so the picture with her instructor was from then.  The other picture was the day the stripe was earned.  

The next day, they had a Double Under battle at jiu-jitsu.  It started off with 31 kids.  They were paired up and whoever won the round would go to a separate area.  Then they did more rounds where the winners fought each other and those winners went to a separate area.  After several rounds, it finally came down to Henry and another kid.  Henry was already really tired because his rounds were long and tough.  The battle was Double Under - it meant that you had to get both of your arms under your opponent's arms and hold them there for 3 seconds.  Sort of like you're hugging their torso (squeezing, more likely).  Unfortunately for Henry, the final round was with a much shorter kid.  There was an advantage to being shorter in this case.  Henry gave it his all, but the other kid got him in the end.  Jiu-Jitsu has really made the kids very strong.  

And then there was the Science Fair.  Josiah got his board ready and practiced his presentation several times at home.  It sounded good to me, so off we went to CC with a lot of stuff in tow!  He set up his area and posed for good measure.  

The judging went on while all the other classes were in session so we wouldn't be a distraction to the judges.  Josiah had two judges come evaluate him.  He said they were really hard and asked him a lot of questions.  He knew one of the judges and was a little scared of her knowing her propensity to ask hard questions.  Later, though, she found me and said Josiah did a really good job with his presentation and that she liked his project a lot.  It was very creative like him.  She mentioned that he didn't seem nervous at all, either.  Josiah does speak well in front of others.  That should serve him well for life!  I wish I had that at his age.  I wish I had that now!  I almost missed the award ceremony, but thankfully had gone into the sanctuary just in time to see Josiah's friend Bobby win first place.  Second place was presented.  Then there was a tie for 3rd place.  Both students had earned 86 points.  They announced the first name.  A girl from a different CC campus.  Then they announced Josiah Cockrell, Bristlebots!  Wow!  What a sweet surprise!  Josiah was ecstatic.  I can't help but wonder if it was Josiah's Variables that put him over the edge to the winner's circle.  

Because of his win, he asked to celebrate with some Whataburger.  We did this weekend.

The younger kids learned about Michelangelo at CC.  They were able to paint their own frescos.  Most chose to use watercolors on the wet plaster, but Caroline chose pastels.  They had complete freedom to paint whatever they wanted.  They turned out really nice.  We still have to add a layer of glue to the top to seal in the colors, especially the pastels.  It should give them a shiny finish, too.

This weekend has been an adventure in using past Christmas and birthday gifts.  At Christmas, we were gifted money for a fancy food company.  We had a hard time choosing between sweet or savory.  We went back and forth so often that we failed to make an order for weeks.  It finally came down to the decision that we did not want to ruin any fancy savory dishes that we would have to cook ourselves, so we ended up choosing a sweet treat we would never make in a hundred years.  A Piecaken.  There was a pecan pie on the bottom, followed by a pumpkin pie in the middle, with a spice cake up top and a bit of apple pie filling to round it all out.  I have to say the reviews have been mixed among us, but something we all agreed on was that the spice cake was the best!   

Caroline pulled out some old gifts that she had never completed, too.  She spent some time on Saturday painting by number.  

She also loved on her dog.  She loves hugging him.  He's a good dog.  

We have quite the week coming up.  Another birthday celebration is in the works.  All the kids are excited to get President's Day and Henry's birthday off.  We only have to do school two days this week.  (Technically, three, but they never count CC days.)

Benson Turns 2

Benson turned 2 this week.  We made him treats out of oat flour, applesauce, and peanut butter.  Caroline was a little disappointed that we didn't mold them in the shape of bones.  Benson wouldn't care if they were circles or bones.  When they came out of the oven, I sneaked a bite of one just to see how they tasted.  Not great.  That little bit had a sticky/heavy taste and it was not sweet.  Benson liked them, though, and that's what mattered.  We saved his hat from last year and tried to put it on him while we sang Happy Birthday.  He was a bit less cooperative this year, but through the power of screenshots, it looks like he let it stay on.  There was, however, quite a bit of head shaking on his part to get it off!  He's a good dog.  He puts up with a lot at times.

Benson has also been enjoying the warmer weather.  We've gone from the low 30s to the 60s.  He has spent so much time outside, hours and hours each day.  We've caught him napping on the dirt several times and I always paused to make sure I could see his chest rise and fall.  He's never really napped like that before.  He was just enjoying the warm sun.

Josiah had an orthodontist appointment early in the week.   It was no surprise that he chose dark red and dark blue rubber bands for this 8-week stretch.  The colors of Spiderman.  Henry, too, is a big Spiderman fan.  He is constantly doing Spiderman-like parkour over our couch.  He'll jump over it with his hand out shooting imaginary webs.  Literally all the time.  

Henry told me recently that he was going to call me "mom" from now on.  No more Mommy for this boy.  He's stuck to it, too.  It sounds a little forced and weird at the moment, but I'm sure it'll be natural by next week.  This weekend, he transferred it to Todd as well.  It's 'Dad' from now on. Caroline, meanwhile, said she was going to call me 'Mommy' until she was 18.  Upon further reflection, she lowered the age to 16.  I have a feeling at 16 it'll be more like an eye-rolling, agitated, annoyed Moooommmm.  

The kids had a very good Saturday.  Their friend Bobby came over to play all afternoon.  Lots of Super Mario Bros, Fortnite, light saber battles, piano playing, regular games, and good eating.  It's always a good day when their favorite friend comes over.

We have a busy week ahead of us.  Josiah has his Science Fair this week and he is not exactly 100% ready.  The project is done, the paper and reports are done, but the display board is very blank at the moment.  We will probably regret not finishing it this weekend.  I'm looking forward to this time next week when it is all behind us.  

Flipping for Belts and Pogo Stick Counts

Josiah earned his grey-white belt this week.  When the instructor puts new belts on the kids, he usually gives them words of encouragement or advice.  While he tied on Josiah's, he said that he was really good at jiu-jitsu and that he deserved the belt.  He mentioned how Josiah stays calm even when he doesn't win a round.  It was really nice and encouraging for Josiah to hear.  And, of course, when you get a new belt, you get flipped.  Josiah enjoys that part as well.

We were busy all week, but this weekend we went out to celebrate Josiah's achievement.  He picked Chili's for their awesome chicken tenders.  

We've had some shaggy haired menfolk around here.  They've been growing their hair all winter it seems.  Henry's hair was covering his eyes, which he claimed made it difficult to do his math work.  We solved that problem.  After he completed his school work on Wednesday, we headed to Great Clips.  Caroline, too, wanted to cut her hair, but she was unsure how much to cut because she really liked putting her hair in a braid.  She bit the bullet and cut off 5+ inches.  She said the hair dresser used a razor and cut off the big chunk all at once.  Then she trimmed it up so it was straight.  Caroline was behind a screen for most of it, which was how she wanted it.  She was hoping to surprise us, so all I was able to see was her hair drop to the ground.  She loves the new length and is even considering going shorter (but not as short as Ramona Quimby she keeps saying).  Just to try it out.  Thankfully, Henry is able to do his math again. No longer hindered by his luxurious locks.  (The picture doesn't do his hair justice.)

By the time our CC day came around, the weather was turning very cold.  The morning we drove to CC, the temperatures were in the 40s.  But as the afternoon progressed, the temperatures were dropping.  Not only that, it was raining as well.  Many families did not stay for the afternoon classes, but we stuck it out.  It was not supposed to dip below 32° until 6pm, so we figured we could make it home before the roads iced over.  Henry's afternoon class only had five kids on campus.  Typically there are fifteen.  While Henry was in his class, Caroline finished her Henry Huggins book in after-class.  She is a huge Beverly Cleary fan at the moment.  She's read all the Ramona books and has moved onto the Henry Huggins series.  

The next morning we woke up and it was 25° with a 'feels like' 13°.  The schools all around our area cancelled due to the icy roads.  Even Todd was home from work.  The kids begged to have a day off as well.  The temptation was too great, so we had an "ice day."  Josiah still had his Latin tutoring because it was over Zoom, but other than that, we had a relaxing free day, albeit a cold one.  The kids spotted a few icicles, too.

Caroline said she had been looking forward to playing outside in this cold weather.  She and Henry worked on their pogo stick counts.  She asked me to go outside to watch her.  25° is  not my favorite, so I stayed inside our heated house and counted her bounces through the window.  Henry decided that he wanted to beat the world record for pogo stick bounces.  He had reached over 600, so we looked it up to see what he would have to work towards.  206,864.  A man jumped for 20+ hours to achieve that number.  So, Henry has a new goal.  This evening, he worked at it again and reached a new high of 659 bounces.  Then he collapsed on the couch because his abs hurt so much.  Caroline broke her record, too, and jumped 84.  

We've had some very cold mornings all week.  Benson still gets up for his early morning constitutional, however he and Todd have only been walking around our front yard area.  Even Benson isn't too keen to take a stroll around the neighborhood when it's freezing out.  Back inside, he immediately curls up in bed.  He has a big week coming up, because on Tuesday, Benson turns 2!