Pangolins, Pottery, & Parties

It has been a week - many projects were completed to finish out the school year.  In Caroline's science class, they had to present on an animal.  Caroline did a Slides presentation on the Pangolin.  It was a good animal because most people know very little about it, so all the information she gave was new.  It had to be 3-5 minutes long and when she was timing herself, she was at 3:05 or 3:08, so she told me that she was going to count "1, 2" before switching to the next slide to get a little extra time in there. 

Practicing

Josiah has been learning about weather in his science class, so his final project was to see if the weather forecasts were accurate.  For the most part they were, except for the days they were 6° off.  To finish up his Bible class, Henry had to memorize 23 verses.  He could speak them back to me with amazing speed.  My eyes would literally scan over his flashcards because he was speaking faster than I could read.  The test itself was written, which was a lot, but he says he did well.  All three have had a number of review quizzes in anticipation of exams next week.  

Josiah surprised me with my Mother's Day gift early in the week.  His pottery projects came back and he gave me a pencil holder with my initials on it.  He also made a shallow bowl.  It is amazing that he was given a glob of clay and he created both on his very first try.  The pencil holder is already out on display.  He is hoping to go back with some or all of us to try his hand at it again.

It has been a very rainy week.  I love the sound of the rain.  I love sitting on the porch with the rain.  I do not love the next-to-last-week-of-school with 'stuck indoors' preschoolers.  Ideas have been running thin.  We have done all the things.  

Midweek the boys were able to celebrate at their cast and crew party.  They had a nacho bar and an ice cream bar.  We brought the taco meat because I was late to sign up.  They had fun and when I went to get my crockpot, they were playing Party Quirks.

That same day, Caroline tried out volleyball during an open gym time after school.  She said that one closet in the gym has the soft volleyballs, but they opened the other closet with the hard, official volleyballs.  It hurt her arms and hands a lot, but she was able to get the ball over the net.  She has practiced a lot at home over the past year and she's considering playing next year.  

Henry finished out his week with a Hobbit party eating hobbit food. Henry asked his teacher if she was going to bring the beer and cigarettes so they could blow smoke rings and drink like the hobbits.  He was disappointed to only have fruit and nuts, soups and meat, and pastries.  We are going to encourage Henry not to join the frats in college.  

This weekend, Josiah asked to go to Home Depot to pick up four foot dowels.  He's making light sabers for his next video.  He spent Saturday painting them and adding hilts with duct tape and electrical tape.  He spent some time at a friend's house while that friend 'taped' their hilt.  Josiah has watched a lot of Forged in Fire, so he was all about creating a comfortable, practical hilt.

This weekend I set up my mobile hair cutting studio on the back patio.  Caroline wanted a two inch trim.  Her stylist, yours truly, took a few liberties and cut off a wee bit more to give it a fresher look.  Henry wanted to shape up his hair, too.  Less liberties were taken with him.  

On our way out of the neighborhood, we pass this fallen tree in the water that always has a line of turtles sitting on it sunning themselves.  I've always wanted a picture of it, and this weekend, when I was driving Josiah home, there was nary a car in sight, so we sat on the bridge for a minute and Josiah got a few shots.  

A few kids have been diligently studying for their exams next week.  Another we are encouraging to study.  They have three days of exams and then a fun day the last day of school.  The preschool finishes up on Wednesday, so the end is quite near!