Parties and Performances

Josiah had a very fun start to his week.  His friend had his 15th birthday party Monday evening and it was a Murder Mystery party.  They had a murder and clues to solve who did it.  They got it right just before the party ended.  

Mid-week, we went to our church's Christmas Blast.  Our first stop was the hot dog stand and, as we ate, Josiah's friends came over to eat with him.  They went off together for the next few hours, but we did pass each other periodically.  Henry and Caroline did not want to do the sledding this year, but I encouraged them to do it just once so I could take a picture in the snow.  They complied, but emphasized to me that they only wanted to slide just once.  I kept an eye on them as they progressed through the line.  There were three sets of slides, and I followed them to the far slide.  I had my camera all ready and then this kid came down before them and he lost his flip flop in the middle of the slide.  I was watching the events unfold as to who was going to get this kid his shoe when Henry walked up to me.  I missed him going down.  I quickly looked up to see Caroline reach the bottom of the hill.  Sorry guys.  You need to go again.  They begrudgingly complied and the second time I got them.  

Then we moved to the Carnival Games.  The first game we tried was bowling with giant blow up pins and a giant blow up ball.  Henry's friend was running the stand and he said, "Do you want to do hard mode?  You can double your prize?"  Well, yeah, Henry was going to try hard mode.  Henry got the pins down and was handed two full size candy bars.  That was how the games were - if you got all the footballs in, or all the rings on the pins, you would get two full size candy bars.  Later on, however, Josiah told us a story of when he and his friends did the bowling.  They had played.  His friend won.  Then they passed by their LifeGroup director, JP, who also works at the church.  Josiah's friend, Brayden, showed Mr. JP 3 full size Snickers bars.  Mr. JP congratulated him on his three wins.  No, Brayden said, This was 1 win on a doubled-up-hard-mode with a time bonus (for throwing all the balls in a certain amount of time).  Mr. JP then walked himself over to the Carnival Games and told the kids running them, "no more hard mode."  The teen workers had made up the whole thing and the winners were loving it. 

The kids did many of the Carnival Games, but stuck to the games where they were giving out the candy they preferred.  Caroline crushed the football challenge and got many Hershey's Cookies and Cream bars as a result.  The last time she went up, the woman running the station said, You look familiar.

We lit marshmallows on fire and ate popcorn.  

We did a train ride.

Towards the end, Henry finally found some of his friends and he went off with them for a while.  While it was just the ladies, we went to get pictures in the Texas snow - a bubble maker.  

And at the end we got our picture in the gift.  

The following day was Market Day at CC.  This is the day the kids can sell their homemade goods or crafts.  Nearly everybody participated, so there were many tables of cookies and bracelets, ornaments and crocheted animals.  We sold a few things that we needed to get rid of - more of a house purge than a homemade cookie table.  Josiah wanted to do a Penny Challenge like a YouTuber that he watches.  He started out with one penny and had to buy something with that penny.  Josiah bought a pen.  Then he used that pen to trade up at different tables.  By the end of the day, he had collected 20 Pokemon cards, a cupcake, a Funko Pop figure, and a wooden airplane.  All from trading.  His friend Bobby did the same and ended up with a nice Lego kit that he could sell to his store for about $20.  So they did well and they had to hustle and make deals all day long.  

Henry was not feeling well that day, so he hung out in the chair a lot or tagged along with the penny-challengers.  Caroline hung out with her friends, but neither of the two youngest purchased anything.  Caroline had a tin whistle concert before lunch.  Her class is the oldest one in Foundations, so they played very well.  

They also displayed the Essentials students' Chart Projects, which represented one of their Essentials Charts (The charts are on the different parts of speech).  Caroline commissioned Josiah to help her draw her Interjections poster.  Caroline had the idea and sketched it out, then Josiah brought it to life.  Josiah sketched it on the posterboard, Sharpied it, then added the coloring, then the words, then he signed Caroline's name at the bottom.  Caroline did contribute the word "Interjections" and its definition.  

The start to our weekend was quite busy.  Birthday parties for everyone.  I dropped Josiah off at a friend's birthday party.  Then drove straight to another birthday party for Henry's friend.  Then Caroline and I rushed to get to Awana on time.  

Josiah's birthday party was for a friend from jiu-jitsu.  Since it got warm again (75°), they made it a pool party.  Henry was sad to miss out on this party, but he had his own climbing party to go to.  His friend from church was turning 13 and this friend is really into mountain climbing.  Henry had a good time, but when he came home that evening he kept moaning, My muscles hurt soooooo much.  

Caroline had a Happy Birthday Jesus party at Awana.  They all ate cake.  

On Saturday, we went to see Henry's classmate who skated in Nutcracker on Ice.  While I knew the ice skating rink was at a mall, and while I knew that visiting a mall on a Saturday in December would be nightmarish, I did not plan on enough time to find a parking space.  By the time we found a spot we did a lovely speed walk to the rink.  This was a huge mall and we parked nowhere near the rink.  The seating was bleachers style.  The only row empty in our section was on the front row, literally 18 inches from the ice.  That suited us just fine.  We were sweating and hot from our walk in.  We sat and enjoyed the refreshing coolness.  The first half of the performance was about 45 minutes.  It was all children performers and they were doing really well.  By the end of Act 1, our bodies had cooled down and were starting to get really cold.  The bleachers were actually on the ice.  We were in the rink with just a thin carpet separating us from the ice.  So, our feet, which were resting on the ice, got quite cold.  By the end of the second act, our feet felt completely frozen.  That's why the front row of the bleachers had been left empty.  Henry's classmate skated at the beginning of the second act.  She was "Chinese Queen" which was sort of funny because she's Filipino.  She did really well.  She has been skating for several years and has been working her way towards U.S. Figure Skating.  Last summer she received gold at a National Finals in Austin.  Her goal is the Olympics, so it'll be neat if she makes it some day and we can say we knew her when.  

The weekend finished out with Caroline sharing a testimonial of her time in the hospital.  Her old 4th grade teacher at church had asked her a few weeks ago to come speak to that class about her time in the hospital.  The lesson of the day was trusting God through hard times.  Caroline went to her regular class first to tell her teacher where she would be.  She gave her story to the 4th grade class and when she got back to the 5th grade room, that teacher asked her to share her story as well.  I'm grateful she's had weekly public speaking practice at CC.  It certainly made what could have been a daunting task not so nerve-racking.  

So ends our week.