Singing Through the Holidays

Henry started his week out with some game time fun.  His Latin tutoring class was over for the semester and they had a game day to celebrate.  He was there all afternoon playing Trivial Pursuit, Headbands (Latin words edition) and Bang!  When he got in the car, he commented on how hungry he was.  

I thought they had food?  Did you eat anything?  

Yeah.  Four slices of pizza.  

That ought to tie you over.  

Concert Season has begun here.  On Monday evening, I was treated to three performances by three different artists.  Henry rapped Weird Al's Amish Paradise.  (It is a very funny parody.)

Caroline followed up by belting out Frozen's Let It Go.

And Josiah finished things out with Shake Your Booty.  He had a few back-up dancers that thoroughly enjoyed their roles.  

We've had other songs throughout the week as well.  Mostly solo performances by Josiah.  He has found a karaoke app and enjoys it a lot.      

Tuesday we all headed outside to get some yardwork done.  It goes much faster and much smoother with four hands on deck.  Many hands make light work.  Josiah mowed the front.  I did the weed whacker.  Caroline and Henry did the blower and swept.  It was great.  As I was trimming the shrubs in the front, the kids had fun with the blower.  In the homeschool world, the mowing would fall under Life Skills/PE Class.  The blower, however, would be Physics.  We witnessed Newton's Laws of Motion as they shot garden gloves off the end of the blower.  There was family bonding to be had.  It was a three for one.  

We did some baking this week as well.  In Henry's CC class, they were bringing in food from the country of their origin for their final day.  Henry chose German soft pretzels.  It has gotten a lot cooler here, so our first test batch of dough did not rise as well as we had hoped.  We also later realized we didn't use enough yeast.  We got things corrected for the second batch and they turned out a lot better.  On CC day, Henry never emerged at lunch.  He just hung out in his class and ate all the good foods.  He had empanadas from Columbia/Venezuela, a Filipino cake, Filipino vegetable and rice noodle dish, African roasted turkey necks, and Chinese potstickers.  He loved it all.   

Both boys had their blue book assessments this week.  Henry was very nervous going into it, but at the end of the day said they weren't as bad as expected.  He had to draw and label all North and South America as well as Europe.  (countries with their capitals as well as all the U.S. states and their capitals)  From memory.  He did well!

Josiah did his tests/essays in the morning, while in the afternoon he read his Tom Sawyer paper and did an Escape Room for Science.  Josiah situated himself between two smart friends (knowing they would be in teams of 3).  Josiah felt he could help the one friend who he knew hadn't read the chapter (he'd been out of town).  But he also chose these two friends because they would work hard to win.  It paid off and his group was the first to finish successfully.  

Caroline's classes celebrated the end of the semester as well.  In the morning, her class had a pizza party.  In the afternoon, her Essentials class had their annual cupcake party.  She enjoyed her first cupcake and then went back for a bowl of sprinkles to reminisce when she did that many years ago at Sweet Tomatoes.  This time, however, her belly did not appreciate the influx of pure sugar and food dye.  She came home with both a bellyache and a headache.  

Friday morning we had our pipe replaced in the front.  First came the digger who dug a perfectly rectangular hole.  Exposing the pipe revealed there was a complete break.  It was replaced and the rest of that line was fine.  cha-ching!

This weekend Caroline made peanut butter oat balls.  She discovered an old kid's cooking book and tabbed a few pages of recipes to try.  She liked them a lot, as did Henry.

During the Sunday morning service today, Caroline sang the Christmas songs with her WAM group.  She told me ahead of time she was not going to do the hand motions.  She told the truth.  I told her I expected to see her belt it out like she did Let It Go earlier in the week.  She did sing it out, but maybe not with the same gusto.  During the second service, Josiah and his friends sat in the second row, so she got a good shot of them.

Caroline is in the red long-sleeve shirt with her hands firmly at her sides.  🡇

We're finally getting weather cool enough for Benson to enjoy the sunny spots on the floor. 

This coming week is full of birthday parties and Christmas parties and a special ice skating performance.  Even though CC is over for the semester, school continues as well.