International Festival

Henry accompanied me on a grocery run this week.  He typically prefers to stay home, so it was interesting to see the aisles he asked to go down.  His siblings usually like to look at the toy aisle and then ask to buy anything with sugar.  Henry did ask to look at Legos.  After browsing the Lego kits, we hit the dog aisle and came home with a flying chicken for Benson.  Benson loves it, but is not quite keen on "drop it" so we can throw it to him again.  It turns into a tug-of-war to get it from him, which is really just another game from his perspective.  He loves it, though.

Josiah earned his first strip on his grey-white belt.  Since the time change, the sun now anoints each stripe picture.  Henry didn't go to this class, so his siblings texted him a photo of them celebrating with Smoothie King.  (They did bring one home for him, but he was a little worried they wouldn't.)   

During the last six weeks of CC, we do orchestra for the fine arts strand.  This year we are listening to pieces by Bach, Handel, & Mozart.  This past week, a mom in our group gave a viola demonstration in which she played a piece by Bach.  She spoke a lot on the viola, the kids asked her a ton of questions, and she took the time to explain it all.  It was incredibly informative and interesting.  So nice to have live musicians!  

The following day, we drove Josiah to his Latin tutoring and stayed in the city where he does it.  We did a Costco run and then headed to a park to play until Josiah was done.  After a competition swinging battle, Henry asked Caroline if she wanted to run the bases on the baseball field.  She did.  They walked over to the field empty handed.  Henry stepped on the pitcher's mound, while Caroline stood ready at home plate.  Henry wound up and threw her an imaginary ball.  Caroline swung her imaginary bat hitting the ball high and deep.  Henry ran to the outfield, caught it, threw towards an empty 2nd base, while he ran to catch the same 'ball'.  Meanwhile, Caroline made her way around the bases, and though Henry tried to get her out at home, she made it.  It was pretty funny to watch from a distance.   

Who swung higher? 

This weekend our church hosted the 1st Annual International Festival.  They had bouncy houses,  obstacle courses, and games for the kids.  They had a lot of food options from food trucks/vendors.  From Venezuelan to Thai, African to Peruvian, French, Italian, Filipino, there were a ton of choices.  Henry tried a Venezuelan arepa with shredded chicken and it was really good (he let us all try it).  Caroline got a sausage on a stick.  That may have been Texan.  ;)  They had a stage with different performances all afternoon.  We saw the Soaring Phoenix Lion Dance group followed by Irish Dancers.  

We didn't understand the concept of the picture at first which is why Josiah is holding the Leaning Tower of Pisa in Mexico.  

They had one man doing caricatures.  We got in line for that soon after we arrived.  Though waiting in the line exercised the kids' patience, they humored us and held out.  An older gentlemen with artists pencils and Crayola black markers did a great job drawing the kids.  They were really happy with the results.  Josiah wanted to have one with just him in it, so that's how they got divided.  

After church today, Todd and Josiah went to a meeting about Josiah's summer Mission trip.  The pastors talked about what they would be doing and all the logistics of the trip.  They also spoke about how the kids can help pay their way by mowing lawns or babysitting.  It is good to sacrifice your time/talents/energy to help pay your way.  Todd talked to Josiah about making sacrifices (of his time) to help out more.  Josiah responded with, "I already sacrificed my kitchen."  Not exactly what we meant...  This week we gave his kitchen to another family in our CC group.  Josiah would have kept it forever, but it is good that other little kids can now enjoy it as much as he did.  

The Christmas Josiah got the kitchen he just shy of 2 years old.  We actually couldn't get him to eat breakfast that morning because he only wanted to play with the kitchen.

Caroline likes to read in bed before falling asleep each night.  Since her birthday, she has made a stuffed animal throne where she reads and often sleeps.  

And so another week begins.  The younger kids only have 3 more weeks of CC.  We have started the countdown.