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.