At the beginning of the week, one little girl was quite excited to be turning double digits. We memorialized her last jiu-jitsu class as a nine year old.
The night before her birthday, she let the boys move in. They played games on her loft (geography bingo) and chatted until it was late. One brother got the cot and the other the mattress. Dark circles under Henry's eyes the next morning indicated who got the cot!
Like her brothers, Caroline wanted her gifts hidden, but she did say she didn't want her clues to be as hard as Henry's. We made them tough enough to make her think. The hardest was the clue with five math problems whose answers corresponded to a letter of the alphabet (1=A, 2=B). Then she had to unscramble the letters in order to figure out the word. Putting them in order proved hardest, so we did it Wordle style - I told her what she had in the right spot with each guess. The word was DRYER because her gift was next to the dryer. Actually, it was behind the door because I was doing laundry the night before and forgot to move it. But BEHIND THE LAUNDRY ROOM DOOR would have been too many math problems on a birthday morning.
Before she opened her gifts, the boys gave her their card. In it, they had more division problems that they said had to be completed before the first gift was opened. At least they were easy ones. She did them all without a single complaint! No Tears, No Fears!
Her gifts were a plenty. Almost all were decorations for her room, which she loved. Fake plants and a wall collage, a marquee sign and a Smores Squishmallow. The big gift was a LED sign that spelled out her name. She was quite happy to get that up on the wall. Now it stays on every night and she uses it to read/sleep by.
Birthday breakfast was not sugary! She chose Canadian bacon, egg, and cheese English muffins. They were so good. We stopped making them when Josiah got braces because I thought they'd be too tough to eat. I was wrong and they were delicious. They're back on our breakfast-for-dinner menu.
All morning the kids played games. Benson and I got a nap in because it was so quiet! Sushi was the lunch request. Caroline likes the California rolls. She is a huge fan of sticky rice. Todd had bought two packs of sushi, so it was quite a bit. I asked them to leave some for Todd. Originally, they did, but then they kept snacking on it throughout the day. The next day when Todd went to have some, he discovered one package had one piece of sushi left. The other pack contained only the strip of ginger. You've got to be fast around here.
For dinner, Caroline chose Smashburger, which is the best burger ever. At home, she helped decorate her cake. She chose a white cake with cookies and cream ice cream in the middle. We tried a different buttercream recipe because she said Henry's was too sweet. After mixing it together, she changed her mind from white frosting to purple. I tried. I only used 3 drops of blue and about 25 of red. Even still, we were always trying to get it from looking like the color of cement. It was purple, just not a very vibrant purple. We both worked on the lettering and she placed the candles just so.
The next day we headed to Rodeo Houston. Todd, Henry, Caroline, and I walked around together. Josiah stayed with his Challenge B group for the entire day. It had been four years since we had been, but it remained the same - even the rides. We got there early and right off the bat, Caroline wanted to try the first roller coaster we saw. She rode solo because Henry was still warming up to the idea of spending the day at the rodeo.
Todd took them both on a very high Ferris wheel next.
They rode the swings.
We met up with Josiah and tried the Hall of Mirrors and a second Ferris wheel.
We headed over to watch Mutton Bustin' which was quite the experience. We watched 25 kids ages 5-6 try their hand at hanging onto a sheep as it 'ran' the distance of the pen. Three kids made it all the way to the end. Kids fell off at any point and while some stood up with smiles on their faces, there were quite a few tears as well. We were slightly reassured since they wore hard vests and helmets.
While we waited for our lemonades, we noticed what else the food truck sold! Pickle pizza was at quite a few stands. Todd settled on Tex-Mex, but said if he could do it over, he'd try rattlesnake or alligator. The sun had zapped our energy by the time we ate, so we made it a leasurely meal.
There is a extremely large building that houses the animals and shops. We walked through there, but what the kids really wanted to do was ride the escalator. There was really nothing on the second floor that would interest them, so we rode it back down. Cheapest ride ever.
As we were heading towards the end of our time, we passed a giant screen where, if you stood in a particular spot, you could see yourself. Caroline tried it out.
We had enough tickets left for one more ride for the two kids. Caroline was saving it for the battering ram type ride, but when we got there, it was closed (for maintenance apparently, so I'm glad they didn't get on that one). Nothing was the right amount of tickets, until we came to the end of the carnival section and found the flying ride. That was how they finished out their time at the rodeo.
Josiah's group stayed for several more hours. He had a great time with his classmates. He even came home with $5 left over which was a bit shocking that he didn't find something to spend it on.
We had CC the next day and quite a few families from our campus had been at the rodeo. We all sort of straggled in. Thank goodness it was our last meeting before spring break. For science we made straw bridges and tested their strength by placing weights on them. Plank bridges made out of plastic straws and masking tape were incredibly strong. After proving their strength, the kids in Caroline's class got creative. One added a slide to her bridge, flags were added, one added trusses and made it a suspension bridge. Next time we meet, we'll take the straws and build as high as we can.
At lunch, the Challenge 1 class came around to show us the oobleck they had made. It is just cornstarch and water, but when put together with the right proportions, it hovers between solid and liquid. If you walk your fingers across it, it feels solid, but if you let your finger rest, they'll start to sink. They let the kids hold some in their hand. They would break a chunk off while it felt solid, but then it would 'melt' in their hands and drip down. It was such an oddity and Caroline really liked it. This weekend, while we were eating dinner, she asked if she could make it. In typical fashion, I said, Sure, we can do that sometime. And then she got up, googled a recipe, and started measuring things out. She did it all herself. Then she and Josiah played with it after dinner. Fun was had. Messes were made.
This weekend Caroline said I had a 100 IQ. She meant it as a compliment. That's the highest score for a math test after all. Todd has taken my average intelligence and run with it. He finds it hi-larious. So that's been fun.
Henry has reached a milestone of his own. This past week his weight hit 100.0 lbs. He was pretty proud of himself to get to triple digits. Josiah said he wanted a party when he hits 100. He has four pounds to go.
We are now officially on spring break. Henry still plans to work on his year-end paper. Caroline has plans to clean all the rooms in the house. Josiah plans to relax and not do any sort of school work.
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