CC For All Three

The boys both earned stripes over the past few weeks.  Josiah chose Baskin Robbins since we'd never been there before.  Henry opted for Smoothie King.  The cool treats were very nice considering the oven we are currently living in.  It has been so hot.  The temperature has stayed a constant 103-104° with no cloud cover, 1% chance of rain every day for weeks now.  The last rain we had was during the 4th of July week.  We water our yard mostly to help our foundation.  Even the roadways have started buckling because of the heat.  They rise up like a mountain and act as very jagged speed bumps as we travel down the road.  The neighboring city has been hit with water restrictions - they can only water their yards twice a week based upon the last digit of their house number.  We need rain.  When we walk outside it literally feels like walking into an oven.  The only saving grace for the lack of rain is that it keeps the mosquito population way down.  

Monday morning, Henry was dead set on trying out the new griddle.  It did not go exactly as planned - the ones in the middle of the griddle cooked so fast that it left the inside still raw.  Meanwhile, the pancakes on either edge took forever to cook.  We decided we needed to read our manual before trying that again.  

Josiah, however, has been thoroughly enjoying the new oven's air fryer setting.  He air fries his taquitos nearly every day for lunch.

CC started up for Caroline this week.  She was quite happy to get back into the swing of things.  She enjoyed seeing her friends again as well as her new tutors.  You can tell it's going to be a fun class this year.  

In Josiah's class, he had to recite part of the Declaration of Independence.  "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal..."  He did really well even when the original language got all wonky a few sentences later.  Next up is the Preamble to the Constitution, but we have a song for that, so it should be easier.  
In Henry's class, they've moved on from Canada and have added the United States for Cartography.  He has to draw each individual state (and label), but he's been doing well.  For Henry's science, they had to do a report on geology.  It could be anything from geology, so he chose amethyst.  He chose amethyst because he likes how it looks in Minecraft.  Then he got into a conversation with his Latin partner and Minecraft seems to be a big influencer for a number of students doing this particular report.  Josiah, too, picked obsidian when he did the same report two years ago. Why?  Obsidian was cool in Minecraft.  See.  Video games do help us learn.  

The kids had a good weekend.  All three kids got to spend time with different friends.  At church, we had Promotion Sunday where all the kids moved up to the next class.  Caroline moved up to her 5th grade class and discovered she had Henry's old teacher, Mr. Gil.  Now, when Henry had Mr. Gil, they went to the game room nearly every week.  But when Caroline got to Mr. Gil's class, he said that they were going to move up to 6th grade soon enough and that they would need to learn a lot before then.  So, for Caroline, he's what she dubbed 'a teacher-teacher.'  As we walked to the car afterwards, Henry said it was his class that ruined going to the game room every week.  Thanks, big brother.  

For the boys, their promotion involves moving from one table to another, but all the tables are in the same room, so it's much less of an event.  

We're now in full-swing with school around here.  The days are very full.  This cutie just goes along with it.