Pool Parties and No-Slumber Parties

The kids started their week hanging out in their couch fort.  Benson enjoyed this one as well.  He joined them inside for a while and when all three kids were in it, he stood (laid) guard.  They had an air conditioning system - a fan positioned to blow in from the top.  After playing with this fort, the kids gave themselves a challenge.  They could only stay in one room for the rest of the day (or until someone broke the pact).  Henry got the dining room and worked on his puzzle.  Josiah got the living room and rested in the fort.  Caroline got the breakfast room.  There was a common area that they were all allowed to enter - part of the kitchen for provisions.  They continuously argued over the border of the common area, so the challenge did not last long.  

Henry finished two puzzles this week.  As soon as he finishes, he takes a quick picture, and promptly destroys it to go on to the next.  

They did two couch forts this week as well.  The second was dubbed Shanty Town.  

School has continued on, mostly just math.  Caroline has decided she does not like improper fractions.  The staunchness of her stance was evident when it took her ten hours to do one math lesson.  She finally hunkered down at 8 p.m. one night and completed her work.  It was then that she noted, Oh, it's not as hard as I thought.  Yeah...I think that is what I was trying to tell you...

Despite her revelation the night before, the next morning she was still strongly opposed to improper fractions.  She threw out the classic, When will I ever need this?  And wouldn't you know it, we doubled our rice recipe for dinner that night using improper fractions.  3/4 cups + 3/4 cups = 6/4 = 1 1/2 cups.  

In his free time, Josiah worked on many stop motion videos using his Legos.  Most had a Star Wars theme with Yoda as the hero, however he did have a Star Wars meets The Beatles as well as Michael Jackson.  He does a really good job with them - he is very creative.  The amount of concentration it takes to film one is amazing.  He had one that was 576 frames which equaled a minute and a half playing time.  When he wasn't doing that, he was practicing his drums for a few Beatles concerts this week.  He attempted to sing and play the drums at the same time.  The best song this evening was when he sang Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band and his voice kept cracking.  John sounds a little different from his album.

The kids were able to do some night swimming at the neighbor's house early in the week.  At the end of the week, Josiah's class had a pool party.  Families were invited much to Josiah's chagrin.  He did not want his family to cramp his style.  But come we did.  It was a friend of a friend's house way out in the country.  The kids stayed in the water for nearly the entire 4 hours.  They came out only to enjoy the potluck and the ice cream bar.  

Caroline enjoyed the water chairs.

There were piggy back races.  Whenever Henry was on someone's back, he said he pushed them along to win.  Literally pushed them.  

Caroline had her second sleepover this weekend.  This was for a friend who lives even further out in the country than the pool party house.  When we arrived, three big dogs greeted us at our car.  Big outdoor country dogs.  It was a nervous introduction for Caroline.  Inside, however, they had three tiny dogs which she really enjoyed.  This family has cats and goats as well.  Lots of animals!  Caroline only knew the birthday girl at this party, so I was praying she would have fun with the others.  At 10:30 a.m. the next morning, I was standing over a sleeping Caroline trying to wake her up to come home.  She was not happy to see me.  I later learned it was because she didn't want to miss the birthday breakfast.  We also later learned that they had stayed up until 7:00 a.m.!  So, more party than slumber.  Cranky McCrankerton resided with us the rest of the day.    

It is really hard to believe that May is coming to an end.  May is usually our easy month, finishing up school, putting away the old and taking out the new, organizing, enjoying the calm.  That was not this May.  It was filled to the brim and I have a feeling the summer is going to feel much the same way.    

Parks & Rain

One child started out their week in a not so fun chair.  Cavities were filled.  Blame was placed on their maternal genes (deep grooves).  Hopefully the pain and discomfort was just enough to prompt proper, regular brushing...

Said child also got a look at the bill so they could see their future if they didn't take care of their teeth properly.  

Caroline earned her last yellow stripe.  Next up is a new belt.  They have three different groups in jiu-jitsu based on height.  Caroline has hung out in the middle group for a long time now.  Most of the kids near her height were eager to move up to the biggest group, often just moving themselves up by standing in it one day.  Still, Caroline hung out with the mediums.  Even after days when the instructors would move her up, the following class she would put herself back in the mediums.  There was some comfort in knowing you could defeat every single kid in your group.  Alas, she has finally (permanently) graduated to the tallest group.  There are many her size in it, which gives her more of a challenge.  

Caroline also did not tell the boys she was earning a stripe, so when her name was called, they perked up.  They knew a treat was coming.  

Mid-week, we met Caroline's friend at the park.  The boys decided to come this time.  Henry spent a lot of time climbing the amazing oaks.  Josiah helped little kids on the zipline a lot.  Caroline and her friend walked around chatting for several hours.  We left when the hangry pains set in.

 

Later that day, the kids were invited to their neighbor friend's Kickstart Ceremony.  He warned us to get there early to ensure we got a seat.  We left the house 45 minutes before the ceremony which was just down the road.  By the time we walked into the gym, it was standing room only.  Caroline really enjoyed the young lady who performed with the num-chuks.  

The following day we met up with friends to get Italian Ice.  They had something called Gelati that was layered soft serve, Italian ice, soft serve, Italian ice.  Caroline chose vanilla soft serve with cake batter Italian ice.  I got the vanilla and strawberry combo and it was quite good.  After treats were eaten, we headed to a neighborhood playground.  Henry found himself another tree and sat in it the whole time.  Caroline and her friend made videos of themselves rolling down the grass.  Afterwards they were both incredibly itchy.  It was more than just rolling in the grass itchy, more like pesticides were on the grass itchy.  So we headed home to shower.  

After this second park, with all the mosquitos and the heat, Caroline said she was going to make her own park when she grew up.  It would be encased entirely in glass with an air conditioned playground inside.  Thinking about the glass walls, she noted, I don't know how many dead birds there will be.  The boys quickly dubbed it the Dead Bird Park.  Good concept, needs some tweaking.    

The next day, Caroline went over to the same friend's house for her 10th birthday party.  It was Caroline's first slumber party and she was equal parts excited and nervous.  She wasn't sure she wanted to do the sleeping over part.  When we got there, they had super cute tents set up.  All the friends arrived quickly and she was perfectly fine.  There was no late night phone call asking me to pick her up, so all went well.  

The next day, after a little resting, we asked Caroline about her time.  They stayed up until 2 or 3 a.m.  We couldn't fall asleep.  They painted on canvases, watched a movie, and talked a lot!  Needless to say, she had a good time.  

This weekend, we went to the Rain concert.  They are the Beatles tribute band that Todd and Josiah saw last year.  We went as a family this year.  Josiah was excited to go all week.  He kept asking if I was as excited as he was.  That excitement continued up until an hour before we left.  Because he started his week at the dentist, we have been encouraging him to eat more vegetables with his meals.  Strongly encouraging.  So, he had a little avocado and a little salad with his dinner the night of Rain.  He ate some, but said it was making him sick and he physically could not eat any more.  We got to the concert and Josiah kept saying how awful his stomach felt.  We found our seats and he said the stomach pains were getting worse.  Right before it started, he took a trip to the bathroom and instantly ridded his stomach of all the greenery.  After that, he felt much better.  I have no idea how a bland avocado and a few leaves of lettuce could prompt such a rejection.  He only missed the first song and a half and was able to enjoy the rest of the music.  

Henry was not keen on going to the concert.  He reminded us of this fact quite a few times in the days and hours prior.  We told him we would take note of that for next time.  He made it through. 

Caroline really enjoyed all the songs she knew.  She sang along and got into them.  But her lack of sleep from the slumber party was catching up with her as the night went on.  She finally succumbed to sleep the last 30 minutes of the show.  

The best t-shirt we found had written on it: I'm still pissed at Yoko.  

Before going in - the excitement was palpable with these three. 

Purged of all greenery

Henry is on his summer puzzle kick.  He picked the hardest one to start.  Josiah joined him, building one map puzzle after another on top of each other.  He did two different U.S. puzzles, one Europe, one Africa, and one of the world.  

The kids chose to sit three in a row on the way to church this morning.  It reminded me of when they sat three in a row a few years back.

We are grateful for another week.  

Whata Week

Henry started out his week as a sickie.  It seemed to be a bad head cold for the most part, but he threw in a little retching to keep it interesting.  On his worst day, Josiah let Henry play his Switch, but only if he wore latex gloves.  No spreading germs around here.  Henry had a slow week because of it, but was still able to celebrate his Memory Master dinner Friday night.  This year only four kids went for memory master, so it was a pretty small crowd.  They played games and ate, posed for pictures and had cupcakes to celebrate.  It was a nice lowkey evening. 

 

Henry's first and last memory master medals - he's grown a bit.  (Ages 12 and 7)

Todd picked up Henry's cold, so he's had a bit of a rough week as well.

 Josiah went to the orthodontist.  They put the final wire on his bottom teeth this week.  On his next visit, they are going to put the final wire on his top teeth.  The orthodontist said, "we're still pushing for the finish line, but his teeth look good."  As we walked out of the office Josiah muttered, I don't think he has the same definition of 'finish line' that I do.  In Josiah's defense, he's been at said finish line for a good 8 months.  He's ready to cross it!

Midweek, our neighbor friend had his middle school orchestra concert.  He invited us, because for, one, he's the type of kid to invite everyone to everything.  Very much a people person, but, two, because they were playing Eleanor Rigby by the Beatles.  They had the school's choir director sing the lyrics, and he chose a more operatic voice, so it was an interesting rendition.  Caroline sang along and played the air drums.  

What's a girl to do while waiting for the concert, but kick up her heels in the hallways.  -->

The next day, Josiah had a five hour yearbook meeting.  Five. Hours. They met at a library and worked on their page spreads.  Josiah was in charge of the Faces of History pages as well as another class page.  They enjoyed a Chick-fil-a lunch and celebrated finishing the whole thing by being treated to Italian ice.  He was exhausted by the time he got home.  

For Mother's Day we had dinner and a show.  We went out for tacos and when we came home, we made choco-tacos with pizzelles.  

Later in the evening, the kids put on a play.  They had been practicing it for quite a few days.  The boys were two young brothers, Johnny and Jimmy.  Caroline played the role of their older sister as well as their mother.  When in mother mode, she spoke with a British accent and was quite harsh with her words.  She yelled at the boys for making a mess and then said, "I'm going off to the shops."  I hesitantly asked her if she modeled her character after me and was relieved when she said no.  

At the end of the play, Josiah gave me a trophy.  He has been painting it for two weeks now on the kitchen countertop.  He would add super thick layers of paint and let it sit all day to dry.  Originally he said he was making a stage for his stop-motion animations, but it was an award all along.  

They also gifted me with Whatashirt and a Whatacoffee-cozy. 

For Mother's Day at church, my class of 2-3 year olds gave me a much better day.  Last week, I had three kids pee on the floor (two just missed the toilet while sitting on the toilet) and two incident reports - if they fall in class we write it up in case a bruise shows up later.  It was rough!  Today they were much more chill.  The most we had was one little girl who sang Old McDonald at the top of her lungs for a very long time.  At one point she stopped and said, "Nobody's singing with me." before getting right back into it.  

Caroline created a Mother's Day collage:

And so ends another week.