Great Wolf Lodge

We headed out to Great Wolf Lodge mid-week.  It was a super foggy drive up to Grapevine, TX.  The kids had forgotten their phones with their games on them, so they read a lot on the trip up.  I was happy for that.  Josiah borrowed the first Harry Potter book from a neighbor and ended up reading half of it on the way up and half on the way back home.  He now has a new obsession.  Google rerouted us when we reached Dallas because of an accident, so we ended up going straight through downtown with the big skyscrapers on each side.  The particular street we were on looked very much like driving through New York City, so that was fun.  I even got to drive aggressively when I found myself in the wrong lanes.  ;)  City driving.  

At Great Wolf Lodge, the kids got to see their 'cabin.'  We had kept it a surprise. It was a small room within the hotel room that had a bunk bed and a single.  They thought that was cool, but their favorite part was that they had their own TV.  They love their Cartoon Network in hotel rooms.  We also had a balcony, which was very cool.  In the early morning, while things were still quiet, we went out onto the balcony and inhaled the smell of jet fuel.  DFW Airport was literally next to Great Wolf Lodge.  We saw planes quite close landing and taking off all day long.  (But because there was so much noise from all the water slides and water features and piped in music, it was hard to hear the planes.)

(I attempted a panorama, but the kids kept walking through the picture, so here's a very rotund Josiah.)

View from our balcony

That first day we did the inside pools.  We started off in the wave pool, then ventured over to the water slides.  They had three slides that were single/double riders and two slides that were 4-5 riders.  We did the bigger slides first.  These slides were no joke.  They popped us up and bounced us all around.  I grabbed Caroline's arm on the way down the first one because she kept popping up in the innertube.  Todd did three slides and then he was done.  When he did the family style ones, he always ended up backwards because he weighed more than the kids.  Then he wiped out on the third one which formally completed his time on the slides.  I tried all five inside slides and then called it quits.  They were too much like roller coasters for my body and I cannot handle roller coasters.  The kids, meanwhile, kept going and going and going.  I stared at Caroline before she climbed the stairs to the slides and mouthed 'hold on tight!!'  She always gave me a thumbs up.

There was also a playground sort of area in the waterpark.  Part of it had a giant bucket over top of it that would fill with water and periodically dump out.  Todd was keen to do this feature.  He always got a kid to do it with him, but he enjoyed the deluge of water hitting him.  

We finished the day riding the lazy river.  We were all pretty hungry and tired by the end, so we had pizza for dinner.  The kids watched their Cartoon Network.  I tried to stay awake past 7:30 p.m.  

The following day was our one full day there.  We started off by finding a little doughnut shop in town.  It was a tiny little shop that had a 6'x2' area to stand and order.  One lady ran the front, while a man behind her kneaded giant mounds of dough.  The doughnuts were good and fresh.  Then we waited til 10 a.m. so we could try out the ropes course.  Todd sat out and acted as photographer, while the kids and I got suited up.  We climbed to the first landing and there were lots of obstacles to walk across and each side had three ziplines - one on top of the other so that the top one was very high up.  We were all excited about the ziplines, so we headed to those first.  Henry, who wanted to be first on the course, sped ahead of us.  Josiah was ahead of Caroline and I for the zipline but when it was his turn to go, he froze.  He didn't know what to do or even if he wanted to do it.  The lady who worked the course showed him what to do and was encouraging him.  While she was talking to Josiah, Henry was yelling, "Look at me."  He was high up on the third landing dancing on the zipline platform.  He jumped off and yelled, "Let's goooooo!!!!!" while shooting fake pistols in the air as he ziplined across.  Not an ounce of fear.  Josiah, staring at his own zipline platform, ended up walking off the platform giving only a very weak push.  That got him only halfway across so he had to bounce his body back and forth to reach the other platform.  After that he was willing to give a stronger push-off and he had a lot of fun flying across all the ziplines.  Caroline, too, was nervous at first, but she warmed up quickly.  She did all the ziplines and even let go for most of them. When we first started the course it felt really challenging, but once we figured out how to use the rope that tethered us, we were all moving through it fairly easily.  We climbed and ziplined for an hour.  As we were walking away from it, Henry said that he wanted to be a soldier when he grew up.  He's been wanting to be a police officer for quite a while, but he really likes to wear a lot of gear like the soldiers do.  He had pretended he was a soldier on the ropes course.  A pistol shooting, Dude Perfect-yelling soldier.

Caroline:

Josiah:

Henry:

After the ropes course we moved on to the outside pool.  It was actually a very cool morning, so the pool had to have been chilly, but that didn't stop the waterslide loving kids.  There were two outside slides as well as Caroline's favorite lily pads.  We spent time inside as well.  One area had a bunch of basketball hoops, so Henry and I shot a lot of baskets while Josiah and Caroline hung out on the playground water area.  They did more of the big waterslides.  It was very nice that the kids were big enough to slide by themselves.  We were always relieved to count all three of them as they emerged from the tunnel.  No one bounced out.  

That evening we found a deli in town to eat dinner.  It was a tiny little corner deli and Todd was sorry we only had one meal there.  They had a great menu and we all enjoyed our sandwiches.  Josiah, especially, liked their sign on how to eat their Italian beef sandwich. Particularly the P.P.S.S.

We spent that evening at the arcade.  Caroline was interested in this skipping rope game.  Basically the light went all around the circle and when it came to the bottom, you had to jump up to 'jump' over the light.  The game started.  She was successful on her first three jumps, but the lights got her on the fourth.  She really enjoyed the driving games.  Apparently you cannot die on these because she hit every wall and obstacle that came her way.  The boys played shooting games and driving games, too.  Most of the games spit out tickets, so we ended the night with 225 tickets.  And so began the excruciating process of how to spend the tickets on cheap plastic toys.  Henry, fortunately, found two army men and he was done with his share.  Josiah and Caroline just stared and thought and stared and thought.  Twenty minutes later, they both ended up with tiny squishy animals, one army man, and one hamburger candy.

🢤Caroline got her face on the video game - a masked face.

For souvenirs, Josiah chose a wand from the MagicQuest game.  The wands were in the $15 range.  The wand toppers were in the $18 range (!!!) and the game was another $15.  Josiah got a wand.  At one point we passed a father walking around the hotel with his daughter playing the MagicQuest game.  He said they had been at it for three hours and hadn't finished yet.  He didn't look too thrilled.  So we dodged a bullet by not purchasing the game.  Caroline got Slush, a big, soft wolf.  Henry chose a baseball cap.  

Friday morning we drove home.  It rained for most of the trip home and we noted that the temperature outside was between 64 and 68 degrees.  When we finally drove out of the rain into sunny skies, we watched the temperature creep up to 88° in 15 minutes time.  Welcome back to Houston.  We unpacked the car and then picked up a very excited Benson.  He had spent his first two nights away from us in a kennel.  We let him run like crazy in the backyard and then gave him a bath.  We didn't want him bringing home any little pests in his fur.  

It was a busy three days.  Todd and I emerged from it far more exhausted than the kids.  We were happy they enjoyed it all.  Now we have a regular school week ahead.  We also get to call the orthodontist Monday morning.  Josiah lost three brackets this week.  One on the drive to GWL (eating small pretzels he didn't have permission to eat), one on the drive home (eating Goldfish), and one Saturday morning (eating a granola bar he didn't have permission to eat - because they're on the no list for braces).  Argh!

A Week In The Life

Henry has been typing up a story all week long.  Whenever he finishes his school work for the day, he's been going to the computer to continue working on it instead of playing video games.  It's been a nice change.  His story, called 'Caleb's Life,' centers around a boy aptly named Caleb, which is Henry's favorite name.  Caleb's life mirrors Henry's life in many ways - he has two siblings and a dog, he swims a lot, plays outside to get Vitamin D, he likes to watch football and baseball on TV, he eats many elaborately described meals, and he plays board games. Right now the story is more of a day-in-the-life account, but we'll see if he encounters any problems in the future.  He's up to 1400 words.  Henry also has been having fun experimenting out Microsoft Word.  He tries to add pictures and charts (schedules).  He even put Microsoft Word for Dummies on hold at the library.

While Henry typed, Josiah spent a few days writing a Catman comic book.  It was a full length comic book with lots of illustrations and held together by yarn.  Besides comic books, he and I have been muddling our way through Washington Irving's books.  We read The Legend of Sleepy Hollow together and then we started Rip Van Winkle.  The vocabulary and style of writing is a bit out of our league.  We've had to keep a dictionary close by and refer to it often.  I read Sleepy Hollow aloud to Josiah and every few pages, I'd ask, "Do you understand what's going on?"  He caught on to more than I expected, but it was still a tough book.  

Meanwhile, Caroline was rocking math this week.  Tuesday morning, 6:00 a.m., she walked downstairs, walked into the school room, walked back out and asked, "Where's my math test?"  Good morning?  Breakfast?  Can you eat breakfast first?  She crushed it getting a 100%.  She said that her favorite parts of school are math tests and CC review. 

 

We also had a cool morning one day this week.  Below 75° kind of cool.  Josiah went upstairs to get his winter cap and thick gloves.  Caroline also wore a hat, though not quite as thick.  As she read to me that day, she looked like a 12-year old skater girl.  

For CC this week, we had to do it over Zoom.  There was a child on our campus who had a family member test positive for COVID, so we had to take a two week break from meeting.  Fortunately, one of those weeks was already a planned break week, so we only had to do one day over Zoom.  (And the child on our campus has been testing negative.)  We did it family style, so all the kids (and me) were crowded around our iPad and all the tutors took turns teaching different parts.  Besides the "his elbow's in my way/she's not giving me any room/that's my seat/I can't see/etc. etc.," they did well.  

After CC was over, I headed to the polls to vote.  I stood in line for a little over two hours.  The line was so long, that when I first got in it, we were very close to the campaigners handing out pamphlets.  The same people who typically have to stand a certain distance from the voters, but with the lines so long, we ended up next to each other. In the past, my stance has always been to avoid, avoid, avoid the gauntlet of campaigners that try to make conversation.  It didn't work like it was supposed to this time.  Knowing the lines would be long, I had brought a magazine with me and intensely stared at it to avoid all eye contact.  And then there was a fight.  Right next to me.  One campaigner, a man, was telling people about the new ballots and polling machines.  A female campaigner was getting mad at him because she felt he was telling people how to vote.  They started arguing and yelling and really getting mad at each other.  He told her to shut up.  She took out her camera and started taking a video of his illegal influence over the voters.  It was so incredibly uncomfortable.  There was some intense praying for the line to move forward.  After that I had two people behind me that talked the entire time.  I learned a lot about the country of Columbia and the foods eaten there...while I stared at my magazine. 

Awana started back in person this week.  We were all masked up.  The kids had a good time.  Henry really gets into the game time portion.  He got picked to be a shark in Sharks and Minnows and he took out as many kids as he possibly could.  (Basically a group of kids run from one side of a basketball court to the other.  Henry was a shark that had to tag them out as they ran.)  

Yesterday I made plans to get together with another mom that isn't doing CC this year.  We were going to get coffee and just catch up - see how the school year was going for each of us.  Commiserate.  Encourage.  That sort of thing.  I told Todd I'd probably be gone about an hour.  Well.  We ended up having a great conversation and I got home a little over five hours later.  Upon walking in the door, Caroline looked at me, and with much conviction, said, "You better not ask for a quiet time tomorrow."  Todd didn't believe I could talk that much.    

I saw this meme and it may or may not reflect our household...

Extractions

Monday afternoon Josiah went to the dentist to get two teeth pulled.  His initial worry was that they were going to take his canines and those were his favorite teeth.  He was relieved they were the teeth after the canines, but still he was apprehensive about the whole procedure.  Honestly, Todd and I felt horrible for him and wondered if we were doing the right thing.  His whole life, every dentist he's been to has mentioned he has a lot of teeth for his mouth, so getting a few pulled wasn't hugely surprising.  However, it was such a final decision.  We made it to the dentist office and I had warned him that the numbing needles were going to hurt.  He confirmed that they did indeed hurt...a lot...after we got home.  The first tooth took a while and when the dentist showed me the roots, they were facing outward like a fancy U so the tooth was really hooked into his mouth.  The second tooth came out smoothly.  In talking to Josiah later, he said he felt no pain.  Even after we were home for a while, he said his nose was still numb.  I think the dentist gave him a good bit of the numbing medication to ensure he felt no pain.  His bleeding stopped nicely and he enjoyed a week of soft foods and salt water rinses.  His favorite part was that the dentist told him he could have ice cream for dinner the evening of the extraction.  Todd and I felt really bad for him and his holey mouth.  The 'tooth fairy' owl was quite generous in it's compensation.  A little parental guilt paid out in cash.  Now that he's nearly a week out from the procedure, his mouth is looking a lot better.  He's healing nicely and, hopefully, in two years' time we'll look at his beautiful teeth with no gaps up top and see the benefit to all of this.  

Henry had a very good week at CC.  Last week he had forgotten his Essentials paper at home and he was so disappointed.  He loves reading his papers to his class.  So, this week he was able to read his older paper in his morning class as his presentation, then he read his newer paper in his afternoon class.  The afternoon class also had a title contest.  The tutor put all the students' titles on the board and they did a blind vote for the best one (you couldn't vote for your own).  There were six titles.  Two titles got two votes each and Henry's title got five votes (parents were allowed to vote as well).  He was so happy.  The winning title was Patriots Step Up.  His paper was loosely based on the Boston Massacre, however we are currently in the creative writing section, so as long as the conflict remained the same, the kids had freedom to change the characters, setting, etc.  Henry told the story of the Boston Massacre using New England Patriot's players names.  He was sooooo excited to read his paper.  He was stifling a laugh every time he read a new Patriot's name.  

For Caroline's CC presentation, she told jokes.  She had written out ten jokes from a book we have at the house.  She did a good job telling them and by the last joke she was really getting into it.  Her peers were laughing, too, which was encouraging to her.  What we didn't plan on was the timing.  The presentations are supposed to be around 2-3 minutes.  It took a long time to tell ten jokes because after she asked the joke, she'd pause, wait for someone to say, "I don't know.  What?" then finish the joke.  Including laughter, she was up there for a good ten minutes.  This is one of our favorite things about the whole CC program - the fact that the kids have to give a presentation every week which teaches them public speaking skills.  It has become normal to them and they often look forward to it.  They have no idea the skills the are gaining by this activity.  
A sampling of her jokes: 

What do pandas fight with?             Their bear hands.

What plays music in your hair?        A headband.

(Caroline's favorite) What goes ho-ho-ho, scratch-scratch-scratch?        Santa Claws

Why couldn't the beaver work on his computer?        He forgot to log in.

Knock, knock.    

    Who's there?

Yah.

    Yah who?

What are you so excited about?

Caroline also learned how to play the game Sorry! at lunch.  

The church we use for CC also has a pumpkin patch, so after classes were over we headed outside for some pictures. 

Henry refused to be Linus because he didn't want to appear to be sucking his thumb or holding a blanky.

Caroline and Henry made an obstacle course in the backyard.

 

It started off with jumping over tree branches on the ground, then they had to throw a ball to hit another branch balancing in the neck of our tree, then they picked up a victory stick and ran to the finish line.  While they were making the course, Benson proved non-cooperative.  Especially at the throwing the ball part.  In fact, for much of the weekend, while the kids played out back, he often made a beeline for any dropped ball.  He mistook their playing for the game of keep-away and he gripped Henry's football or baseball in his mouth for dear life.  He crushed the game of keep-away, and because of those skills he was detained inside.  But he's a dog who loves his human friends, so he just stood in the window watching them with a big grin on his face.  Barking and whining at times because he wanted to be a part of their fun.  

Also, Todd and I both seriously regret not naming Benson, Rooster.  He has the perfect image of a rooster in his white fur.  

Josiah should have a much better week ahead.  Not so much the doing school part, but the eating more solid foods part.  

Braces On

We started out the week with no a/c.  Last weekend was a bit brutal in the heat department.  I woke up (with Benson) at 4:30 a.m. Monday morning drenched in sweat.  I took him outside and the air was very still and very muggy.  But then 6:00 a.m. rolled around and a cold front started moving in.  The most amazingly cool breeze blew for most of the day.  By lunch time the kids were wearing jackets (because I still had all the fans blowing the cool air into the house).  It was such a contrast to how we all woke up.  The remainder of the week was almost fall weather.  Very cool over night and not too hot during the day.  On Friday we had a new unit installed and we were back in business.  Here's to another 15 years of cool air.  

In math, Caroline has taken to answering her word problems in a unique way.  She claims she doesn't know if she should add or subtract, so she turns her work in with both possibilities.  When I read the question to her, she'll circle the correct answer.  Now, she can read the questions and know which is correct, but for some reason she likes me to read them for double assurance.

At CC this week we made lungs in science.  They turned out really well and are fun to play with.  The punching balloon on the bottom acts as the diaphragm:  if pulled down, the lung balloons inflate, and if pushed up, they deflate.  

Josiah taught his Essentials class about Interjections.  His tutor is rotating through the kids to get them each to teach a part of speech.  She started with Josiah and gave him probably the single best part of speech.  He was so excited to get up there and yell out interjections.  

The kids have been into "Would you rather" questions.  They don't fully understand the concept because last night Henry asked me, "Would you rather eat a box of donuts or give up coffee for a year?"  I'm going for the donuts and the ability to still drink coffee.  Then he asked, "Would you rather eat 10,000 cabbages in a year or live with a bunch of cats?"  Well, eating 27 heads of cabbage a day is slightly impossible.  Perhaps I overthink his would-you-rathers.  Most of Henry's involved living with a bunch of cats.  

One evening, Josiah got in on the game and asked, "Daddy, would you rather live in a tent in a campsite with lots of food or would you rather not see mommy again?"  

Todd, "There's food?"

Nervous!

Todd had a birthday this week.  He got a very exciting gift of new pajamas.  The kids all helped to make his pumpkin bread as his 'cake.'  After dinner, Josiah asked to light his candles. We let him and he just held the flame to the wicks til they were very well lit and wax was cascading down to the cake.  Keep moving the flame, buddy.  Todd shared his birthday with another important event this week.  Josiah got braces.  He was not excited to get them at all.  For days leading up to his appointment, he kept asking why they were necessary.  Then the big day arrived and he laid in the orthodontist's chair with his mouth agape for a very long time.  When they were finally finished, they gave him a mirror.  He looked at himself and exclaimed that he loved them.  He is very excited that he gets to change the color of his rubber bands every eight weeks at his appointments.  He chose blue for the first set.  Next time he is planning on getting red and green for Christmas.  Festive.  After they put the braces on, they explained their little warranty program.  They'll fix anything for free in the first 8 weeks, the first three broken brackets are free, but after that they're $50 each, etc. etc.  Josiah had his braces for four days and Friday morning  he was eating a fruit cup and said, "A bracket just came out."  What?!!  It was the bracket on his back molar which wasn't even connected to the wire yet.  They said that those are the most common to fall off especially if you grind your teeth in your sleep (which, unfortunately, Josiah does).

In Benson news, he has taken to eating acorns that fall in a small section

of our backyard from the oak tree on the other side of the fence in the side yard.  At first we didn't think they'd be very harmful.  Squirrels eat them all the time.  No, apparently they're toxic for dogs.  So I came up with the brilliant idea to pay the kids ten cents for every acorn they collected.  When I came up with that price, I had been in the backyard and only saw a handful of acorns.  If anything, I thought I was being too cheap.  They kids excitedly went out there and picked them up.  That first day of picking acorns, the kids had totals of: Josiah-$1.40, Henry-$0.90, Caroline-$0.20.  I could pay out with numbers like these.  Each day they'd go out and add to their totals.  It was all very manageable.  Then, mid-week, they decided they would go to the front yard to get the acorns there in case we took Benson on a walk and he got the acorns in front.  We have FOUR oak trees in our front/side yard.  I now owe the kids $95.00.  They've already picked out a Lego kit on Amazon that they're going to split.  

To limit the bleeding of our wallets, we went to the store and got some temporary fencing to keep Benson out of the acorn area.  We put it up this afternoon and Benson clearly saw it as a challenge.  We saw him trying to bite holes through it (successfully).  Then we saw him go to the center of the yard, get a good running start, and ram the fence with all his weight.  Repeatedly.  By dinner time we had to go cut him out of the fencing.  He had tangled himself all up in it.  It hadn't been up for half a day and it's already almost breeched.  Todd took him to the vet for a booster shot this weekend and he weighed in at 46 lbs.  So he has some mass to him.  

On Saturday, we drove to a friend from CC's neighborhood for her birthday.  It was more of a neighborhood block party that happened to fall on Henry's classmate's birthday.  But we went and saw her in a car parade.  They had a food truck and other tents set up with free snacks.  They had a fire truck and a cop car.  The kids had a good time.  

Then today, the next door neighbor girls rang our doorbell and asked Caroline to go to their house because it was the youngest girl's birthday.  Caroline played over there for five hours!  She doesn't get as much girl play time as she'd like, so it's good for her to have friends who play dolls.  They also had time on their trampoline as well as a big blow up waterslide thing.  She had a good time.

It was a busy week.  This week Josiah has to get two teeth pulled as part of the braces process.  We'll be glad when that is over.  He's nervous and obviously not looking forward to it.  But he will probably enjoy the ice cream he gets to soothe his mouth post-extraction.

Broom Hockey

Tropical Storm Beta brought us a ton of rain this week.  Monday and Tuesday, in particular were drench fests.  Benson was not keen on using the wet outdoor facilities to relieve himself.  To make it harder, there were very few breaks in the rain.  Mostly it just went from hard rain to soft rain and back again.  All day long.  Our backyard was totally saturated, so we brought Benson out to a small portion that wasn't completely water logged.  While he peed throughout the day on Monday, he never discharged from the back end.  He is a very regular dog, so I was getting nervous as the day went on and was keeping a keener eye on him.  He'd stand by the back door whining a lot.  I'd take him out, but he wasn't having it in the rain.  Finally, as we all settled down in the evening, he did it.  He dropped his load at our entryway.  On the carpet.  Not the smooth, easy-to-clean tile that was literally inches from the carpet.  Right on the carpet.  By Tuesday, though it still rained all day, we had a few periods of very light rain and we took advantage of it every time.  There were no more accidents.  Rainy days were so much more enjoyable before having a dog.  

Since they couldn't play outside, the kids created a broom ball sort of game in the garage.  They all were on roller blades and they used brooms to hit a "puck" (an old karate board) across the floor.  The ladders were the goalposts.  They had practiced it a lot and wanted to put on a show for Todd and I when he got home from work.  However, for the show they were skating all crazy-like and kept falling on the hard concrete garage floor.  After one too many falls, we told them the game was awesome and it was a good time to stop or put on knee pads.  They opted to go roller blade in the rain.  

They also created their own hanging swing.  I wasn't totally trusting of the knot they had made in the sheet, but this swing has lasted all week.  And it's not so much as a swing as a resting spot.  Swinging usually bangs them into the hard wooden side of the bunk bed.  

Todd got new glasses.  A few weeks ago he had lost them at Costco.  Wearing the masks really inhibits vision and he said they must have fallen off their resting spot in his shirt and he never saw them drop.  Despite checking with the store several times, no one had turned them in.  Of course his prescription had expired, so it was a bit of a longer process than he had hoped.  When he finally picked them up this week, he said he had gone for the cheapest frames.  He tried them on for us and Caroline and I both commented that he looked smart.  

After CC this week we headed to a playground.  At this particular playground the neighborhood kids always seem to know when we're there.  They bike to their houses to get their light sabers and come to battle our kids who also have their light sabers.  Josiah was cracking all of us up.  He is an aggressive light saber battler.  He does not back down. 

Our A/C stopped working this week.  We had a repair man come out and he added some freon, but said our coil needed replacing and it was leaking oil.  Todd thought it'd be an easy fix - just replace the coil.  Apparently, the coil is a pretty big fix.  We knew our A/C was coming to the end of it's life.  Most around here last an average of 15 years because they are used nearly year round.  We are just over the 15 year mark.  The temporary fix the man did lasted about 24 hours, so we've had windows open and fans on.  It got up to 91° today.  We're hot.  We're sweaty.  But the good thing is we are at the end of the summer season and the temperatures are supposed to drop this week.  The hardest part has been bed time.  The kids aren't used to having their backs stick to their sheets.  We'll get it fixed this week and in the meantime we'll shower frequently.

This evening we had gnocci for dinner.  It was a different type of gnocci than we had had in the past, so I only put one on Caroline's plate to see if she liked it.  She ate it and said, "I love this. Can I have more snocci?"  More snocci coming up.  

Josiah's artwork of the week.  

This is Your Brain

In science we are studying anatomy and physiology.  We started with the skeletal system and this week we learned about the role and importance of bones.  One experiment, to demonstrate the importance of the skull (and cerebrospinal fluid), involved an egg, a plastic container, water, and intense shaking.  Each kid received an egg and put that egg in a small container.  It was pretty much the 80s TV commercial revisited.  This is your brain.  The container was their skull.  

Brains in skulls.

Then they were told to run around and see what happened to their brain.  Henry and Caroline's brains turned to scrambled eggs fairly quickly.  Josiah had a smaller container and his lasted a while.  He had to get some pretty intense running in while violently shaking his container to get his to explode.  

We washed their containers out, then filled each of them to the brim with water, then put in another egg.  This represented the fluid between the skull and the brain.  Again they ran.  They were determined to get these eggs to break, too, so they were really shaking their containers.  Not a one broke, which was pretty cool.  There was a lot of effort in getting them to crack.  Our skulls and fluids really protect our brains.

It was an off-week from CC, but several families still got together on CC day to go to a playground.  We've been trying to do a new playground a week to try out different ones.  The one we went to this particular week was not just nice, but was surrounded by beautiful, huge pecan trees and lots of grass.  Very picturesque. There were four families and we were all having a good time.  About the time we were wrapping up, Caroline came screaming towards me that she got stung by a wasp.  She tried to tell me what happened, but it was unintelligible through the sobs.  Another mom gave her some ice and we walked quickly to the car.  As she calmed down, she was able to relay the story.  She was climbing up the slide and as she clutched the side, she grabbed a wasp nest.  Every time she retold the story, she always said, "And then there were wasps in front of me and they were like a distraction to the ones that were stinging me."  Clever wasps.  She had four stings on her fingers - two on her index finger, one on the middle finger, and one on the ring finger.  She also had a sting on her back.  Henry, too, had a sting on his shoulder.  He had shown it to me right after he was stung, but it hadn't swelled up yet, so I wasn't sure what had gotten him.  Looking at it when we got home, it was definitely a wasp sting.  So, it was a rough evening.  Her hand hurt for a good 24 hours.  Now she talks about how she broke her left arm and got stung by wasps on her right hand.  

Henry's new puppet arrived with the arm rod intact.  Meet Officer Frank.  The kids named their puppet show, The Playroom Players.  However, we've yet to see the show because their rehearsals have continually turned into arguing matches.  Typical of the drama types.  

We got dinner to-go from a restaurant this weekend and on the drive there, the kids held their puppets out the windows and waved at passing cars.  Every time they got a wave or smile or even the slightest acknowledgement, they screamed, "I got experience points."  Henry proudly boasted that his puppet received 23 experience points on that car trip.  

Awana was done through Zoom again this week.  Henry is really liking doing it on Zoom.  Sometimes he can be such a homebody.  This week, after doing the lesson, they played a game of Reverse Charades.  One of the leader's walked out of earshot while their spouse told all the kids the 'word.'  Then when the leader came back, all the kids had to act out the word while they guessed it.  Both boys had a lot of fun with this. 

In Benson news, he's never dull.  Earlier in the week I fed him his dinner and he got bored afterward because all the kids were upstairs.  To entertain himself, he took his Kong toy, walked up the stairs to the landing, dropped the Kong so it would bounce down the stairs, and then chase after it.  I thought he was so clever.  He did this for 20-30 minutes.  Up and down, up and down.  Then he stopped.  Then he threw up his dinner.  We brought him outside where he threw up the remainder of his dinner.  Then we spent the next three days trying to keep him from returning to his own vomit.  I hosed the whole area down, put rocks in the dirt where he puked, covered the rocks with sticks and chairs.  Still he was drawn to it and tried to dig there and eat whatever he could find.  So disgusting.  After three days I gave up keeping him from the spot and prayed his stomach acid was strong enough to kill whatever he ingested.  

Benson has also become quite comfortable climbing to the second floor.  We really don't want him up there, so we keep all the doors closed.  He walks around with nowhere to go and then will just lie down in the hallway so he can be near whoever is up there.  It's sad to have all the doors shut on him, but at the same time it's like protecting a baby from tiny things they could choke on.  

Then this morning Benson got bold and jumped up on our couch time after time after time.  He'd jump and lie on it nearly simultaneously.  Not cool dog.  Not cool.

We have a regular week coming up.  Most nights Caroline asks me what we're going to do the next day.  Often I reply, breakfast, school, lunch, school, chores, and then dinner.  She's not impressed.  

Playing Games

Henry at CC. Presenting on Dude Perfect. 

We had our second week of CC, which proved to be quite the humbling day for me.  I am helping with Caroline's class and she informed me before CC, "I wanted you to be in my class the first week, but not the other weeks."  Okay then.  Only 23 weeks to go.  

There is a portion of our CC day when we do review games.  This week we had an adventure game where the kids had to hop through a forest, jump a river, climb a mountain and zipline back to start.  As Caroline ziplined back to start she said, "This is actually fun."  Again, thanks.  And later at dinner, when Todd asked her how class went, she bluntly said, "Same as last time, just different words."  

Caroline presented on a scroll she made.  I could take a picture, because, you know, I'm in her class.

Friday morning it was amazing out.  72° of non-humid coolness.  We took a card table out back and did school there.  I took a picture at the beginning of our work commemorating the first cool morning.  No less than five minutes later, two children went back inside to get their hoodies.  Southern kids.  It still reaches up into the 90's by the afternoon, but there was a glimmer of hope of cooler weather to come. 

Henry has really gotten into Dude Perfect again.  He's been working on his own trick shots around the house.   

Awana began this week.  We were able to pick up the kids' books at the church during the day.  Then in the evening we had prerecorded videos to watch as well as Zoom calls.  Watching Henry do a Zoom call is hilarious.  He played with the options the entire time.  He'd move the view from gallery to single person to speaker to gallery to the chat room to the gallery.  He did not stop messing with the mouse and the people the entire time.  Until the scavenger hunt.  Their leader had a scavenger hunt to find things around the house.  She asked them to go find colored pencils, their favorite book, something in the kitchen that begins with an 'S,' etc.  One item she asked them to find was a roll of toilet paper.  Henry ran at top speed to the bathroom and ripped the toilet paper off the wall.  Not just the roll, but the metal part that attaches to the wall.  Because, Henry.  Fortunately it was fixable, but I told him next time could he just look under the sink and get a loose roll there.  Please.  Please?

We had Family Game Night this Saturday evening.  Caroline has requested that we do Family Movie Night and Family Game Night each month, so we are doing them every other week.  Caroline picked out the game of Clue.  One boy was mad that she picked out the game (because she also got to pick out the movie two weeks ago, even though said child was given a chance to pick out a game but deferred his pick til next month) and so refused to play.  The other was busy upstairs (unbeknownst to us creating his own game).  So Family Game Night was Caroline, Todd, and me.  Because Clue is no fun with only two teams, Caroline played solo for the first time.  By the time I won (haha), she had already figured out the suspect and the weapon, so she did well.  After Clue, all of us headed to Josiah's room to play his game.  He had his broken karate boards in a semicircle shape.  At each board he had pieces of  Lego figures.  One board had all legs, the next all torsos, then heads, accessories, etc.  Josiah took control over all aspects of the game.  He rolled the die for each of us.  The number it landed on was the number of spaces we could move forward.  Only Josiah could move our figures.  For Todd, it took him four spaces to reach the first board.  I made it in three.  Caroline reached it in one space.  Since there was only carpet between each board, you were never sure how many "spaces" it took to get to the next board.  When you reached the board, before you could get the Lego piece to build your figure, you would have to answer a question.  Josiah very cleverly had a wheel that he 'spun' using only sound effects.  Then Josiah would pick off one of the Lego figures from the wheel, put that figure in the 'hot seat' and he'd ask you a question about the movie related to that figure.  It was a really well thought out game.  He had nothing written down, but he continuously came up with new questions.  The figures on the wheel were characters from the Avengers, the Lego Movie, Nightmare Before Christmas, etc.  Unfortunately when it was my turn, the wheel was always against me giving me Nightmare Before Christmas questions.  I, of course, fell asleep during that movie and so didn't know any of the answers.  I don't remember what happened to Caroline and Henry.  I think they got mad over missing questions.  So in the end it was just Todd and I and we tied.  This was actually the second game that Josiah made this week.  

The Wheel

Earlier, Josiah had created a different Lego game.  This one involved his Ninjago castle and Todd and I were again hopping on old karate boards.  We've noticed that all of Josiah's invented games involve him controlling it.  He controlled the dice, how many moves it took to move from board to board, and what happened during all our ninja battles.  This particular game was just between Todd, Josiah, and I and we laughed a lot.  No matter what Todd suggested happen in the battles, Josiah would shoot him down that it was a bad idea.  It was a fun evening with him.  He's a creative little guy.  

Todd took Josiah to the orthodontist this week.  Todd went because he had the most questions and the most skepticism.  ;)  We have two options to correct his overbite.  #1- Extract two teeth up top and push those teeth back.  #2- Push his bottom teeth forward.  Option #2 seemed sort of ridiculous for his mouth, so really there was only one logical choice.  After the appointment, Todd and Josiah went to the grocery store.  Josiah is not the kid to go to any store with, because you will always end up buying far more than planned.  This time they came home with Pop-Tarts.  Three boxes of frosted Pop-Tarts.  I have never bought them, so the kids were having them for the first time.  I told the kids to enjoy them because I wouldn't be buying them; they were pure junk and had no nutritional value.  Henry read the box and piped up, "They're a good source of 3 B vitamins."  No.  No, they're not...  

Benson watching his humans play outside.

Todd took Benson to the vet this weekend to get a shot.  He was able to weigh him and he is now 42.2 lbs!  He's doubled in size since we got him.  He still has super long legs, so he definitely has more growing to do.  With his growth, he has matured in his sleeping.  Now he's been sleeping til 5:00/5:30 a.m. which is really amazing.  His wake up time had been 3:30 a.m. and that was getting rough.  His new puppy love is zippers.  He's destroyed the one on his dog bed and eaten two off of the kids' jackets.  He has also had horrible gas this week.  Really, really horrible.  And lots of it.  Hopefully we'll get some cool weather this week so we can open our windows and air the place out.  

Josiah finished up the weekend with going to his very first Life Group.  In junior high and high school, our church does life groups.  They are small groups that get together once a week to grow deeper in their faith and, according to Josiah, play a lot.  They are separated by gender, so his is a small group of sixth grade boys.  When we asked him what they did he said they played a lot and ate Teddy Grahams.  They were also given books that they work through for the year.  He had a lot of fun.  It is really hard to believe he's so old.  

This week we already have a week off of CC.  We postponed our start date by two weeks, but kept all the original breaks.  So it's just a normal week at home.  Hopefully cooler.  Hopefully we can open some windows.