Henry was all about jiu-jitsu this week. He went three days in a row so he could receive his second red stripe. His original intention was to go four days in a row. He wanted to see if he could earn two stripes before we head east in June. Alas, meningitis curbed his plans. Thursday rolled around and he finally had his 11-year well check. They gave him two vaccines, one in each arm. By Thursday evening, his arms were hurting pretty bad, so no jiu-jitsu. He has continued to say his meningitis arm hurts. I'm not sure if it was the tetanus or the meningitis, but one arm is hurting still today. He says if he flops his arms out in front of him they feel better, so every now and then he stands and just flops his arms like a crazy boy.
Both Henry and Caroline finished their math books this week. They took their final tests and were happy to have it completed. Henry, however, was not happy the following day when I produced a final exam that covered his entire book. It was six pages! So unfair, I was told. He took it begrudgingly and did fine. Henry has his math skills down. His challenge is reading the directions. Now they both get a reprieve in math lessons until I order their new books. No doubt I'll be greeted with big smiles when I pull out the flashcards tomorrow.
Caroline does a lot of her reading with Benson.
Saturday morning, we had a Cracker Barrel breakfast. I had a year's old gift card and we finally put it to use. This may have been our very first meal where everyone ordered off of the adult menu. The boys both ordered Mama's Breakfast - bacon, eggs, and a stack of three gigantic pancakes. All three kids took a good bit of food home which served as both dinner and breakfast the next morning.
Saturday afternoon, the boys and I drove a long way out to a friend's house. This family has six kids and they were putting on a music recital as well as having a graduation party for their high school senior. For the recital, four kids played the piano, a different child read a published short story, and another read three original poems. Three of the kids played very nice piano pieces. Some were familiar. All were very good. Then, towards the end, the one son who is in 9th or 10th grade sat down to play. He proved to be quite talented. He said he had been working on the first part of Deux Arabesques by Debussy for three months and wanted to play the second movement(?) but had only been working on it for three weeks. He started playing and it was clear the boy had skills. Later I learned his goal was to become a concert pianist. I think he'll make it.
After the music, we helped set up for the graduation party. The kids played and when the food was ready Henry enjoyed a plate piled high with brisket and sides. While we were away, Todd and Caroline tried out a new chicken salad restaurant. The menu consists of multiple options of chicken salad. When their bellies were full, they headed to Lowes to get one of the paint colors for Caroline's room. She picked out a blue for the top half and a green for the bottom half. Of course, the green is from Lowes, the blue is from Home Depot. The guy at the paint counter was very nice and showed Caroline how they colored the paint. Todd said he opened up the machine thing to show her where the colors came from. Now we're on the hook to get her blue and we can get started on her room. She is going for a garden theme - green for grass and blue for sky.
Henry and I were hanging out back with Benson one day and Henry snapped some pictures of the blue sky and a selfie that he wanted to make sure was shared.
Since it is Memorial Day weekend, we wanted the kids to know what Memorial Day really meant. Todd has been reading stories of Congressional Medal of Honor recipients so we could hear of their bravery and sacrifice. The Congressional Medal of Honor Society has a website with all of their stories telling how they earned their award. They are inspiring and sobering all at the same time.
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