Do It Yourself Lenny

Henry's week started out well.  Monday evening, we went to jiu-jitsu in anticipation of a new stripe.  We were shocked to see the new white mats.  It was like looking at freshly fallen snow - it took our eyes some time to adjust to the brightness.  White seemed a very interesting color choice given that there are 50+ kids that use the mat daily.  I'm not sure there would be a parent out there that would advocate for white carpet in houses.  We'll see how it goes.  I  tried taking pictures of the kids on the new mats.  Caroline's face says, I see you, but I'm doing my best not to acknowledge it.  Towards the later half of class, the instructors had to sit on the mats and fight the kids one by one.  Caroline's instructor did a good job of guiding them in the match.  Josiah fought Prof Mike.  Josiah held one leg down to gain control of it, but after a few seconds of holding it down, Prof Mike flipped his whole body around.  He had crazy skills.  By the end of class, Henry had earned his last yellow stripe for the grey-white belt.  He walked off the mat, then held his throat and whispered how badly it hurt.  Well, it's a good thing you were just in close proximity to 37 other kids!  Let's talk about this outside.     

Henry debated, but decided to get his Crumbl Cookies that evening.  Although, after they were eaten, he cozied up on the couch with a sore throat.  Benson kept him company.

The cookie choices this time were: Josiah got a blueberry muffin cookie, Henry ordered chocolate cookies & cream, I got a key lime pie, and Caroline chose the classic sugar cookie.  We cut the cookies in half, then took one of the halves and cut it in thirds so we could try all the flavors.  These were all pretty good.

Henry woke the next morning at 5:00 a.m. with a very sore throat and dry heaving.  So he sat on the couch for the next several days.  The first day he slept.  The second day he read an entire Harry Potter book.  The third day he recovered/milked it.  The fourth day he started back with school-lite.  

The kids have been asking to make cake pops for a few months now.  Whenever I have gone to Starbuck's, they always ask me to buy them a cake pop.  They cost $3 for one cake pop, so my response has always been, We can make a whole batch for $3!  And then I was on the hook to do so.  After many months (years?) of waiting, we finally did it.  We made a vanilla cake from scratch and a cream cheese icing.  We blended them together and made spheres to freeze.  Then, with Henry sick on the couch, Josiah and Caroline dipped their cake pops into melted chocolate.  They were quite pleased with the results.  We had made three different trays, so we left one tray for when Henry was better.  It was also convenient that I didn't buy enough melting chocolate, so by the time I got more from the store, Henry was on the mend.   

As if cake pops weren't enough, Henry made Muddy Buddies this weekend.  I took a picture of him.  He'd look at the result and say he didn't like it.  Then he ate the piece of chocolate Chex in his hand.  Picked up another piece, took another picture, didn't like that picture, eat and repeat.  I was satisfied with the following picture.

While Henry was laid out on the couch, Josiah, Caroline, and I had a conversation about my siblings.  They were asking what each of them did for a living.  After explaining all of their successful careers, Josiah looked at me with astonishment, What do you do?  Nothing??!!  To which I humbly replied, I teach you guys!  Caroline quickly jumped in, Oh, that's easy.  Huh.  Is it though?    

Here is a little sample of math lessons with Caroline.  Ironically, she wrote this mere minutes after the Oh, that's easy comment.  Do it yourself, Lenny.

I do give Caroline a lot of credit this week, though.  Henry slept on the couch one night and he's the sort of kid that always likes company.  I slept on the other section, but my head was directly at the end of his feet and I could feel them kick and shift and push all through the night.  Needless to say, we slept in that morning.  Caroline woke, saw us sleeping, and proceeded to get her handwriting, spelling, charts, and most of her math done.  She even got a bagel out to thaw.  So the little lady stepped up!

One evening she even took it upon herself to clean Josiah's desk in his room.  It is more of a docking station than desk at this point, but it holds all of his writing implements.  Pencils, pens, fountain pens, colored pencils, Sharpies, erasers, pencil sharpeners, and on and on and on.  Caroline organized it all and Josiah was very grateful.  He wanted to do something to thank her, so he drew a picture of Benson for her from a photograph she picked out.  

Josiah had been asking to go to Goodwill a lot lately.  He wanted new dress shirts.  I finally took him and his eye immediately went to the shirts with the craziest patterns.  My knowledge of Goodwill was that their shirts were generally in the $1 range.  No so anymore!  We walked out of there $56 lighter.  I was a bit shocked.  It didn't seem very affordable if you really needed it.  We did find Henry some tan pants which he's been wanting, so that was a win.  Josiah got 5 shirts, a pair of dress pants, a vest, and a tie.  I nixed the shiny white blazer and a few other shirts that were too big.  You're slender, my boy.  You'll never fit into an XL no matter what age you reach!  Caroline saw his duds and asked if she could take a trip there as well.  

At CC this week Caroline painted in the style of Claude Monet. We had many examples of his paintings and the kids could pick and choose what they wanted to replicate.  There were many water lily options, but Caroline chose one I had never seen before, but loved.  Railroad Bridge, Argenteuil.  She really enjoys painting, but as always, she ran out of time.  30 minutes for painting is never enough time!

Caroline had a good weekend with friends.  She went to a birthday party at a trampoline park and had a really fun time.  

This week is a break week from CC, so we'll do about half a week of school and take off the end of the week.  We already have plans with friends for three of the days, so it should be a good week.