Twelve is Swell

Josiah made it all night sleeping next to Benson last Sunday night.  He was determined to do it a second night, so to make it more cozy he added a second layer of couch cushions.  The bed itself was quite soft, however any movement upon said bed caused the cushions to part leaving great voids between each section.  Not exactly conducive to good sleep.  By 4:00 a.m., Josiah gave up and moved back to his own bed.  Wise choice, young man.

Caroline spent President's Day at church doing a Winter Retreat for 4th and 5th graders.  The theme was Escape Room.  When she got in the car, she said it meant "escape from sin."  Nothing wrong with that!  They did have a real escape room, and she said her group was able to make it out.  It was an all day event, so while she was having fun, the boys and I worked on some school.  Josiah had a full day of school. (He writes out his own weekly schedule of when he's going to complete everything.  I had to remind him of that fact when he was having to do the most work that day....)  Henry worked on his end of year Faces of History project.  He read and outlined an entire book.  Even though Caroline was exhausted at the end of her retreat, she still found it in herself to go to jiu-jitsu that evening.  Her powerful motivation was that she needed two classes this week to get her next stripe.  Crumbl Cookie was calling.  She slept hard core that night.  

The next day, Caroline earned that stripe.  She got her cookie.  

The boys made the jiu-jitsu facebook page.  

The day before Henry's birthday, he decided that everybody would sleep in his room.  To make it even more of a pre-birthday bash, they all dressed up as Henry.  Camo pajama pants and grey t-shirts.  We dragged a mattress in for Josiah, but Caroline got the cot and that was about as comfortable as Josiah's couch cushion bed next to Benson.  One of the big reasons that Henry wanted them in his room was because he had a strict 6:00 a.m. wake up time for all members of the household.  

While they stayed up late chatting in Henry's room, Todd and I did some deep thinking.  Henry wanted all of his birthday gifts hidden with hard clues.  We've been hiding their gifts for so many years now, that finding new spots is not easy!  Todd had good ideas and we got the gifts hidden before too long.  Then, at 6:00 a.m. on the dot, all three of them were hovering over me to make sure I got up.  The scavenging commenced.  

Henry's birthday card held the first clue.  It was a puzzle in the shape of an "L."  The only thing shaped like an L is our sofa.  X marked the spot and he got his second gift.  

This gift had a multiplication problem on it that had five decimal points.  He had to solve it and then we had three possible answers.  The two wrong answers led him to spots that had "Try Again" written on them.  The correct answer led to his next present.  

His next gift had a rebus puzzle.  We had rhymes, riddles, "the classic spot," and lagging which meant his computer desk.  He likes to say things lag when he's not doing well in his video game.  Eventually, all the gifts were found.

He got some great gifts from so many.  Legos and Nerf guns.  Headphones and games.  My favorite gift that we got him was a tank top that says, "I flexed and the sleeves fell off."  He'll never wear it out of the house, but it'll be funny to see him wear it to bed.  

For breakfast, Henry opted for bacon and eggs, which, for the price of eggs right now, made it a gourmet meal.  I made enough eggs for everyone, but only Henry and I ate them.  That meant Benson benefited greatly and had a very hearty egg breakfast.  He wasn't complaining.  They spent the day working on Legos, playing video games, eating, Legos, video games, in an endless cycle.  

For lunch, Henry opted for Chipolte.  A massive burrito hit the spot.  All three kids like Chipolte a lot.  

Dinner was a Henry original.  The menu:  Orange chicken, fried okra, green bean casserole, and rolls.  I did not realize you had to blanch the green beans first, so I sort of ruined that dish.  Crunchy green bean casserole... We do not have it often, but when we do, it is Todd's dish to make.  

For his cake, Henry wanted a chocolate cake with vanilla ice cream in the middle.  It looked like a whoopie pie pre-icing.  Henry was very specific with the icing - homemade buttercream.  No store-bought container, no cream cheese in it, just the basics.  He also wanted a light layer of icing - just enough to hold it together.  (The boys are not looking forward to Caroline's cake because she said she wants a frosting cake.  Mounds of frosting cut into slices.)  We sang to our new 12-year old.  They were tired that night because they didn't sleep much the night before.  

It took Henry three days to get his Lego Police Station put together.  It was one of those 18+ kits and they have a ton of details. The interior desks had typewriters and old style phones.  After it was made, Josiah asked if we could get him the adjoining bookstore that was in the picture.  Uh, you can pay the $200 if you want.    

The game Henry got was Chinese Checkers because he had played it at a friend's house and liked it.  He and I have had quite a few Chinese checkers battles this week.  We play three games at a time to see who gets the most wins.  Then, throughout the day we play two more sets of three games to see who is the grand champion.  I completely forgot that you could hop, but Henry was quick to hop his marbles all the way across the board.  I learned quickly to up my game.  

At CC this week, we learned about Van Gogh.  We painted Starry Night and three years ago and it was a huge hit.  At that time, we had a family member pencil in the outline to Starry Night on canvases.  This year the kids got construction paper and their own creativity.  It was not a favorite! 

After CC, Josiah and a few classmates went to the mall to hangout.  They stopped in Barnes and Noble to take a picture with their favorite childhood books.  He had a good time.  

Caroline spent Friday on a cleaning spree.  While I was working on school with the boys, she had gone mysteriously quiet.  She emerged from the school room hours later with an announcement.  She had cleaned all three school desks along with their shelves and the art/painting shelf.  I am thoroughly enjoying this zealous interest to clean and organize the whole house.  

It is rare to see this much "desk" on Josiah's desk.

This Friday was Go Texan Day, which is the unofficial start to the Houston Rodeo.  At Awana, they had to come dressed as cowboys/girls.  

This weekend we participated in Caring for Katy.  It's the day our church closes its doors and does service projects in the community.  This year we were at a house that belonged to a missionary's father (who had passed).  Todd spent Saturday doing demo work.  They had to take down the old fence and put in new posts to harden overnight.  Sunday, many worked on putting up a fence.  There was drywall repair, furniture building, and landscaping.  The kids did a lot of the landscaping.  We started by clearing rocks out of one bed.  We planted, moved rocks around, cleaned up debris, and worked til our backs were sore.  The kids had a backyard project of planting around a tree that they did all on their own.  They had a lot of fun with the many tools lying around, especially the post digger.  In the end, it looked a lot better.  Todd and I are hoping we can get out of bed tomorrow without too much pain.   

Long Days

We've hit the February slump around here.  School days have been incredibly long.  Greater attention has been given as to whether Benson likes the latest couch fort over any lessons in math, history, or English.  

At least when we are at CC, Caroline goes all in for her Essentials class.  She is always volunteering to diagram the sentences and she got picked to do so this week.  

They also played Around the World with their vocab words.  Caroline was all excited at the beginning, pumping her arms in the air, saying she was going to win.  I warned her about getting too cocky.  She started the game by standing next to her tablemate.  The definition of the word was read and the kids have to say the correct vocab word. Whoever says it first moves on.  Caroline then went around the room and successfully beat out every kid.  She was pretty proud of herself.  All that studying paid off.  

After English grammar, they do writing, and Caroline is not a big fan of that portion.  I really like the writing program, but I think she hits the post-lunch slump and starts to tune out.  By math games, she's all-in again and they had a lot of fun playing Valentine's BINGO.  

Earlier in class, they played Minute to Win It during review time.  One game was to stack Froot Loops.  Another was to use popsicle sticks to put the Froot Loops in a cup.

For art, they learned about Berthe Morisot.  They used joint compound mixed with paint to make it really thick and textured.  There were three painting options, but Caroline & Henry both chose the vase of flowers.  Towards the end of the time, Caroline used her finger to blend the vase colors.  Sadly, we only have one more week of art before moving on to orchestra.  Art is definitely a family favorite.  

The kids were able to pass out Valentine's during their classes as well.  Henry came home with almost his entire lunch uneaten but very little candy.  Who knows what he ate all day.  All three kids came home with their carrots and grapes still in their lunches.  Why did you eat the candy before the healthy foods?  

This weekend Caroline was on a cleaning frenzy.  She cleaned all the countertop areas in the kitchen.  Then she took everything off the refrigerator and put it back how she liked.  She sneakily put a picture of the three kids over the chore chart.  She even mentioned how much she liked that picture.  I have often moved the picture lower to show the chart.  She repeatedly covers it again.  That doesn't mean the chores won't get done!  

Henry worked on some Etch a Sketch art.  He did a ton of vertical and horizontal lines and titled it, "The static TV screen."  

Henry came up with his own joke as well.  

    Q - What did the beaver say when his house fell apart?

          A -  Oops!  I better get busy as a beaver.

        Why? What did you think I was going to say?

Henry likes to walk close to the edge of things he's not supposed to say.  We always have to tell him, if the implication is there, it's the same thing.    

Josiah is currently spending the night in the upstairs hallway with Benson.  It was suggested that he open the playroom door and sleep just inside of it so he would at least be on carpet.  No.  

Benson's bed could come right up to the doorway so you'd still be right next to each other.  No.  

You're not going to sleep well on the hardwood floor.  That's okay.  I'll put the couch cushions down.  

They're going to slip on the floor.  I'll put a blanket under them.  

If I was a betting person, I would say we'll have Mr. Cranky McCrankerton tomorrow morning.

Benson Turns 3

Josiah earned his own stripe at jiu-jitsu this week.  So many of the sibling sets there get stripes on the same day and they always take a sibling picture.  Not so with our kids.  Josiah purposefully timed it so it would be on a different week than Henry's stripe so he could get the new menu at Crumbl Cookies.  This particular night, he worked hard for that stripe!  It was a tough evening of jiu-jitsu.  The instructor divided everyone up into groups of 4.  Then he numbered the kids in the groups 1 through 4.  He gave them a starting point (mount, guard, etc.) and then yelled out 1 & 3 or 2 & 4 or 1 & 4, etc., Those two people would then battle.  He would periodically change their starting scenarios, but besides that they were doing some intense battles for nearly the whole class.  There was very little time between rounds, so they were really working it.  The parents were getting tired just watching them.  

Josiah wasn't too keen about the choice of cookies at Crumbl.  He ended up with the classic chocolate chip.  Henry picked the chocolate cake cookie, Caroline was very excited to get the Circus Animal Sugar Cookie, and I chose Kentucky Butter cookie since the kids thought it sounded gross.  However, it became the favorite after taste-testing everyone's picks.

Since we had a break week from CC, we made plans with friends.  On Tuesday, we had friends from CC play at our house all morning.  On Wednesday, Henry had a friend spend the afternoon with us.  Wednesday was also Benson's 3rd birthday.  Since it didn't bother him much, we changed Josiah's "14" balloons to "4 minus 1."  Josiah also made him a sign for his bed upstairs.  Happy Ben Day

In the afternoon, we baked him special birthday treats.  The dough was made of applesauce, peanut butter, and oat flour.  I rolled it out and used a glass to cut out disc shapes.  Caroline came downstairs as I was cutting them out and was not too happy to have dog discs, so we pinched them and made them into wonky shaped bones.  Because all the ingredients were "familiar," the kids wanted to try them along with Benson.  And then they became fans.  For the remainder of the week, Caroline kept asking, "Can I split a treat with Benson?"  She'd give him half and eat half herself.  I tried the corner of one and they were not that good - very dry and peanut buttery.  

Josiah's big day came on Thursday.  His whole class spent the day at Main Event.  If they got there before noon, they could purchase unlimited laser tag, bowling, pool, & the ropes course.  They did all the things and had a great time together.  I asked him how much the food cost just out of curiosity.  He explained what he paid for the chicken tenders (of course) and fries.  Then he went on to add, he also got an Oreo cheesecake jar because they just looked good enough to try.  Arcade games were extra.  He went with a certain amount of money and I forewarned him that when the money was gone, it was gone.  He was generous, though, and let everyone do a little with his arcade card.  

This weekend, Caroline wanted to get some pictures on her wall.  She started with Great Grandma's paintings as well as her balloon wall.  She's waiting until we finish art this quarter at CC before hanging up her remaining paintings.  

Todd treated the kids to Liquid Death this weekend.  Their schtick is that the water comes from the Alps and they have a cool name.  Their tag line is "murder your thirst."  Caroline has enjoyed saying that.   The kids savored their over-priced water in cans that looked like beer.  That was the main appeal.  Josiah was too sophisticated for a can and poured his in a glass.  

To watch the Super Bowl, the kids set up the living room with a different seating arrangement.  It was sort of ironic because they had zero desire to actually watch the game.  And the least interested among them, Benson, had his bed put front and center.  He laid down facing away from the TV and promptly fell asleep.  

We have a regular school week coming up.  The kids asked if we were getting Valentine's Day off.  I don't think so....