A Personality You Can't Handle

The kids had a great start to their week.  Josiah joined the yearbook committee at CC this past year.  Since we have a small community compared to regular schools, Josiah had two pages that he was responsible for - the Essentials class and the Faces of History page.  To celebrate completing the yearbook, they had a bowling party.  And to Henry and Caroline's delight, families were invited.  Monday night we headed over to Main Event and the kids had an hour to bowl, followed by pizza, cupcakes, and a $10 arcade card.  These kids had so much fun bowling.  And it wasn't so much knocking down the pins.  On the computerized screen, they were able to change their names and pictures as often as they liked.  They took full advantage.  Bowl, change name, change photo.  Every. Single. Frame.  But there was a lot of laughter and smiles, so we just sat back and let them.    

The $10 arcade card did not take long to use up.  Josiah was under the impression it was a 30 minute card, so he used his up extra fast.  Henry played a game of air hockey with a friend.  That was the only photo I got as I sat and talked with the other moms.  

The next night, we went to our neighbor's belt promotion ceremony at his school.  Instead of traditional gym class, they had the option to do Kickstart Kids which is a karate program by Chuck Norris.  As we sat in the bleachers, I counted 113 middle schoolers, but as they did their introductions, we learned they were from four different schools.  The best part was when the head instructor called them all to attention and all 113 of them stopped talking and sat up straight.  They showed off what they knew and even had a demonstration team whose acrobatics were fun to watch.  They called every name and gave them their new belt.  It all took exactly one hour which was impressive given the quantity of skills they demonstrated.  

This week, Josiah earned his 2nd white stripe and Caroline her 4th.  To Smoothie King they went.

Poor Benson cut himself somehow.  He had a slit in one of his paw pads, which we discovered after walking downstairs one morning and seeing drops of blood all over the wooden floors (and some on the carpet).  It was a rough spot on which to be cut, because he could not avoid walking on it, although it seemed to bother us more than him.  Our three young vet techs took very good care of him.  His back paw got a saltwater spa every time he came in from outside.  It looks much better now that we're five days out.  And he still sleeps like a crazy dog.

The kids have big summer plans.  Midweek Henry and Caroline helped Josiah clean his room.  It made his second bunk bed available for sleeping, so they wrote up a summer sleeping schedule.  Each week they are going to rotate the room where they sleep.  This week was Josiah's, tomorrow they switch to Henry's.  To get our approval, Josiah said that they could learn how to live with a roommate like they would have to do in college.  It would teach them how to respect each other's things, and morals.  I liked how he threw in the word 'morals' to make the plan sound more appealing.  They've been in Josiah's room for four nights now.  There has been a lot of noise and chatting each night, but they're enjoying it so we're going with it.  

The school days have been much lighter, which has been nice.  However, I did talk to the kids about shortening the length of them.  This past week we had several days where math lessons were taking four hours to complete.  It wasn't difficult math, it was just a sprinkling of math, have a snack, little math, read a few chapters, a bit more math, DuoLingo, typing, etc.  I challenged them to try to finish by 10:00 each day or something close to that (they're up by 7 most days anyway).  Then we have the rest of the day to do the things we want to do.  They're all on board for the eight days of school we have left.

All three kids did jiu-jitsu class this weekend.  They had some fun and did sumo for a portion of their time.  Easy rules - if you step out of the circle or fall, you lose.  They were very quick, but fun, matches.  

Henry

Josiah

This afternoon Caroline walked up to me with a smile and said, "I don't have an attitude, I have a personality you can't handle."  We asked her where she heard it and she said she made it up.  I kind of wish she had heard it somewhere.  Our hands are full! 

And the squirrels this week have been crazy!  They have multiplied and are fearless with Benson and us.  Caroline and I walked out to the car one day and there were six squirrels in the front yard.  They kept darting back and forth under the car so much we were scared to try and get in.  They've been in the crook of the tree where Benson likes to jump and they just sit there watching him.  They could easily scurry up the tree without incident, but they just sit and taunt.  

A week and a half left of school.  We're trying to finish well.