I forgot to bring my camera the first time we went on an extremely sunny day, but remembered to bring it today and it was overcast. In fact, it was raining on us by the time we left. We were out in the water when it started to rain and Grandma said to the boys, “Oh, no, we might get wet!” They just laughed. She’s a funny gal.

One of my favorite things to do at Grandma’s beach is make dribble castles. The sand is so fine that you can dig a hole, fill it with water (or let the waves do it for you), grab a handful of wet sand, and dribble it in a pile. I like to make bridges between two spires and make a bunch so the king and queen have plenty of places to cross. What can I say? It sparks my imagination and I’m a kid again.

I was way too excited about my creation and took pictures of it before it could get destroyed (either by natural disaster or the toddler).

Hope y’all are having a great summer!

The last one we did was from an actual poem that Sarah wrote last year. None of us have ever heard it before. She has it memorized and with our encouragement, she recited the whole thing for us. One of her friends from 6th grade used to share her poems between friends and Sarah said they were kind of depressing and emo, but one day this poem just came to her. She said I could blog it.

Drops of rain fall to my face.
I wipe them off to leave no trace.
People drive by thinking I have no fears,
But they can’t see
That the rain’s really tears.

Another flash of pain strikes through my chest.
I stumble back inside, thought I know
I can’t rest.
In this house I turn away from everyone I know
I hurry to my room to pack up everything and go.

“I don’t know where to flee”
Thinks the voice inside of me.
Then I find
That I can’t.
‘Cause the hatred’s pointed at
Not him,
But only me.

We were pretty impressed, and I made a mental note to read more poetry to my children. Zack and Seth became inspired and started rhyming about poop and stuff. They thought they were hilarious. I asked Sarah to write her poem down with the date so that I could have a record of it. The boys decided that they would write theirs down, too. Here’s Seth’s:

Poo fell on my face. I Die.
Chicken’s Die, too.
(this dosn’t Make Sence)
Chickens poo on my face
From this day on…

After that, he wrote another nonsense poem, crumpled up the page to make it look old, and then gave it to Josh to read aloud. It went like, “Ugaa Ugaa tuagar par ma. are tee pee po pa.” Silly kid. We thought it was funny that he tried to make it look old, but then the date he had written at the top was 4-25-10.

I thought Zack’s was going to be just as silly, but it wasn’t bad. Josh said, “What’s it about?” and he answered, “It’s about a guy who comes in the house and shoots everybody.” Josh said, “Ok, now read it again.”

I heard footsteps on the floor.
Then I heard it on the door.
It was at a bad time.
And it was no friend of mine.
I tried it slow at first,
but it ended with a big burst.
I can not write any more.
I just lay here on the floor.

After hearing it in context, there was a little silence after he read it, and then all at once we said things like, “Whoa” or “Wow” or “Holy cow”, and then, “Good job, Zack!” It didn’t have a title when he read it to us, but after typing it up, I noticed that he put a title on it, “Just a Man”.

Now there is just one thing I would like to know… where is he getting his inspiration? He wrote it in ten minutes and then drew a cartoon picture on the back that had nothing to do with the subject of the poem. As Zoe would say, “What heck?”

You guessed it! The log cake won first place (big pack of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups). Second place (bag of M&Ms) was the miniature camp ground cake. Third place (Butterfinger candy bar) was the giant “100″ made up of brownies and blue & yellow icing. It didn’t matter who won because all of the boys were very proud of what they created. I talked to a few brothers who were more than willing to throw their little brothers under the bus with exclamations of, “He just measured the water, but I made the cake!”

I suggested making Banana Pudding since Josh has been craving it lately. He even got a recipe emailed from his dad which he forwarded to me, begging and pleading for it to be made. I’m all about killing two birds with one stone these days. I read the recipe and felt it was simple enough for the boys to do together. In the interest of full disclosure… They did spill the milk all over the counter while mixing the pudding. The cutting board did flip over off the table and on to the chair. A banana did jump from the peel and on to the floor. (They asked to eat that one — gross, huh?) It was very hard to take myself out of the picture so that they could do their thing. I helped them decide what to put on the finished dessert. I drew the fleur de lis on to thin cardboard, but while Zack was cutting it up, he confused the positive and negative spaces so when it came time for the sprinkles, the design was not as tight as it could have been, but I felt he did a great job. He used both yellow and blue sprinkles. (It’s the sixth picture from the bottom.)

These are the only pictures I took and I did with my iPhone, so they’re not spectacular. I can’t believe I didn’t take a picture of the sign I did (with plenty of last minute help). I’m hoping that someone did and will email it to me. If I am so lucky, I’ll post it later.

For Grandpa Randy, Josh reports that the recipe is a very good one. Here it is below for those who are curious. The only thing we did differently is we had double the pudding and we were unable to let it set overnight. Sprinkles are not necessary either. In fact, they kind of just dissolved into a blurry mess, so I don’t recommend it.

BANANA PUDDING

1 box Nilla vanilla wafers
4 to 5 bananas
1 lg. Jello vanilla instant pudding
3 c. milk
8 oz. Cool Whip
8 oz. sour cream

Line bottom of 9 x 13 inch pan with vanilla wafers. Cover with slices of banana. Mix pudding mix with milk. Add Cool Whip and sour cream and mix. Pour wafers and bananas. Repeat layers. Set overnight.

We finished reading a chapter in our history book about Ancient Africa last week. Because Ancient Africans left few writings and artifacts, what we know of the time period is based mostly on oral history passed down. A favorite character in many stories is Anansi the Spider. We read a couple of stories, but the one that stood out is Anansi and the Make-Believe Food.

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up.

Anansi’s village has no food, so Anansi decides to leave in hopes of finding food for the village. He walks a very long way until he sees a pillar of smoke. When he finally arrives in the far-off village, the cassava are there asking him how he would like to eat them (roasted, boiled or fried). He tells them he’ll eat them however he wants them to, so they all yell, “Roasted!” and jump into the fire. Before he can eat them, he sees another pillar of smoke from another far-off village. The cassavas tell him that it’s the village of the plantains. Anansi decides that he likes plantains better and heads off before eating the cassava. The plantains in the plantain village are all the eager for Anansi to make a meal of them and decide to be, “Fried!” but, yes, he spots another pillar of smoke from a fire and is soon leaving for the village of rice without eating a plantain. When he gets to the rice village, they yell, “Boiled!” but Anansi leaves for yet another pillar of smoke from a far-off village. When he gets there, he is dead with exhaustion and finds that he has returned to his own village. They boil up a stew of fish bones for him since that’s all they have. No one ever finds the three villages again and the moral of the story is “Don’t be greedy, eat what you’re given.”

My moral would be to eat a bit from each village before going to the next one, but I can see how no one would really learn anything from that. Also, could there be anything more gross to eat than fish bone soup? I think they called it right when they chose something so universally disgusting to compare with the other three foods.

While reading the story, the kids laughed about the food coming to life and asking to be eaten, choosing how they would be prepared, and then preparing themselves to be eaten. When I pulled out the plantains I bought from the grocery store to surprise them, Seth said, “Wait. Plantains are real?” We all laughed and Zack yelled, “Fried!” We tasted them before frying them and they all agreed that they were kind of like a hard banana. After frying them, they decided they tasted more like potatoes. That explains why Seth didn’t eat more than one. He can’t stand potatoes.

Sarah decided that if you could fry a plantain, then why not a banana? I thought they might turn to soup, so it was a good experiment to see how they held together pretty well. I’ve had cooked bananas before, but they are usually in some kind of batter and turn hot liquid-like on the inside. The bananas cooked faster and got a little burned, but Sarah liked them better than the plantains. I really like plantains, so I got to eat a fair amount today.

Everyone was feeling pretty good after this object lesson, so I decided to give them their tests on this chapter. They cheerfully took them with their plates of plantains beside them and I thought, ‘This doesn’t happen in public school.’

Watching the Olympics.

This past week, I’ve noticed that Zoe has acquired more language. She is starting to use these phrases in coversation:

“Sure.” (I asked her if she wanted to wear a certain article of clothing and got this answer. Two minutes later, I asked her if she wanted something to eat and got this answer.)

“Oh, gosh,” has turned into “Oh, my gosh.” (We have been trying to discourage this, but between us laughing when she says it and saying it ourselves, we have not had much success.)

“What heck,” for “What the heck?” (I haven’t heard her say this, but Sarah tells me about each instance when she does.)

“OK?” has turned into, “Are you OK?” or “It’s OK. It’s OK.” (She asks you if you’re OK if you trip, cough, or sneeze. She tells you that it’s OK when she hears something really loud and scary outside, like thunder and rain.)

“What doing?” has become “What are you doing?” (She opens her arms wide, tips her head to the side and bounces her arms with each syllable when she says this. It’s beyond comical.)

“It’s hot. It’s hot. It’s hot.” (She says this when she sees steam coming up from the stove or when she has a plate of hot food in front of her at dinner. She won’t stop saying it until you agree with her and repeat back to her that yes, it is hot.)

“Wa-wa-watch” (She says this when she wants to watch Baby Signing Time or The Princess and the Frog on Boxee.)

“I see you.” (She says this in a sing-song voice when playing peek-a-boo.)

“Mommy hold you.” (She says this when it’s time for a nap or to go to sleep and I don’t give her a bottle. It means she wants me to hold her.)

“Rub-bub-bub-back” (Another bedtime phrase that she usually says whining after she has flipped herself on to her tummy and wants you to rub her back. She is snoring within 90 seconds.)

EDIT: Some I forgot to mention are:

“Peck-kick-kick-kick et up” (She so often hears me tell her to “pick it up” so when she accidentally drops her napkin or fork at dinner, this is what you’ll hear her say. She adds multiple kicks for emphasis — if you don’t hear her the first time or if she’s in a particular hurry.)

“Open-nen-nen-nen-et” (She says this when she finds a snack that she can’t open on her own.)

“Want some?” (She says this like a question, but not because she’s offering you anything. It means she wants some. Usually gum or candy, but can be for whatever snack you’re eating at the time.)

“Sauce” (This is an oldie, but goodie… and she still uses it for “soft”.)

ANOTHER EDIT April 4, 2010:

“Pee pee Potter” (She says this for “peanut butter” but I often hear her singing it over and over again. “Pee pee POHhhhhh-ter, pee pee pohhhhh-ter. The kids get busted if they copy her, but I catch myself singing it, too.)

Wow, it’s really dusty here. Glad I just picked up some Pledge to take care of the mess that has accumulated in my absence. (No really, this stuff works great and smells really good, too.) I just took care of 71 spam comments. People find me whenever I post something to Friendfeed or Facebook and then my poor blog is attacked. I still haven’t figured out how to disable comments on some of the pictures I have saved as their own entry. I don’t know how I did that. I don’t know why I did that. I just write here from time to time. Hopefully, now that things are straightened out a little, I’ll get back into more regular posting.

When I started homeschooling this school year, my blog turned into a weekly update for how things have been going. Our education goals have dropped off a little. You know how life happens… first it was the visit from Nana Koko that wreaked havoc on the daily grind and we played a lot and did a lot of field trips, then it was Thanksgiving when we fried a turkey, and then Christmas break came and I only let the kids take one week off while we were at Grandma’s house. Since the new year began, we have gotten back to the daily grind. And it’s fun! I still take a few days to get my work done during deadline week, but for the most part, things have been back on track.

The most exciting change that has happened in homeschooling is that the HEART homeschooling group and Juergen’s Gymnastics have finally cut a deal and the boys will be doing gymnastics once-a-month. I know the sessions are few and far between, but I’m hoping to keep the boys doing their stretches daily so to keep them progressing forward between sessions as much as possible. And they have the Wii Fit. And they play outside on their bikes/razor scooters/ripstick on nice days, like today.

So… other than homeschooling, I’ve been reading books. Even though I have less time now, there is always time for reading. Like when the football game is on, I sit next to my husband in the living room and read. While he is bouncing up and down and yelling about Brett Favre throwing an interception, I’m in another world altogether. These are moments that I truly enjoy. Especially when the laundry’s done and the kitchen sink is clean and everyone is fed and watered or put to bed.

Other things have happened, like Seth turned eight in December and got baptized in January. It was such a peaceful and smooth-going baptism. Everything and everyone was nice. During “intermission” we asked everyone to write a note to him and it was great to read what people wrote. Many of them referenced Grandpa Randy’s talk on baptism (Randy and Niki were both able to attend which was an incredible blessing and miracle considering their unique circumstances). Seth has a nice collection of encouraging words from those who attended. I like that it is also a record of all who attended because I know from experience that when you’re the reason for an event it’s nice to go back and see who was there cheering you on. Seth is currently awaiting his very own set of scriptures which we forgot to order until about a week ago. His set is going to be green. He’s excited to be getting his own pocket hymn book, too, which will also be green. We somehow forgot to get one for Zack, so he’s getting a black one to match his scriptures. These are traditional gifts that we give to them when our children turn eight and are baptized.

As is the custom in our church, Seth also became a new Cub Scout. He could hardly wait to get his uniform. He wears it so proudly. And the Wolf Handbook was devoured in the first hour of it reaching his hands. He had the Bobcat Badge taken care of in his first week of scouts. He has slowed down a little since, but he is still very excited to be a Cub Scout. His enthusiasm has brushed off on his older brother who is a Webelos. Zack has quite a bit to do in the next five months in order to get his badge and Arrow of Light award. It is part of our homeschooling goals to give more time to these scout goals. I have given them a project of learning about the Food Pyramid and presenting it to the family while also taking inventory of our own eating habits from a week of recording everything we ate. I haven’t seen any more action on this, so I’m making a mental note to get out my whip. What? Indiana Jones has one. It’s for cracking, not whipping.

Speaking of whipping… I made another yummy dessert topped with homemade whipped cream tonight. Ever since Zoe’s 2nd birthday (just about two weeks ago), I’ve been craving another yellow cake topped with vanilla pudding, whipped cream, and blueberries. It is so good and so light. You could eat the whole pan in one sitting and not hurt a thing. I’m guessing. I didn’t really do that, but I have a feeling that I could. Everyone just had one piece for dessert/refreshments for Family Home Evening. We played Uno tonight. The first game lasted about 30 minutes. It was so long that we only played two games. The second one was quick. And we were able to dig into our desserts at a decent hour.

Come to think of it, we had dinner at a decent hour, too. All thanks to Josh – he reminded me to put it in the oven around 2pm and also gave me the idea on how to cook the pork I defrosted. I rubbed a pork tenderloin with minced garlic, poultry seasoning, and celery salt, threw it in a foil bag, and roasted it in the oven for about three hours. It was falling apart when I took it out. It was the easiest thing ever. I threw some potatoes on the rack to complement the pork. I got the loin half price, so dinner tonight was about 10 bucks for our family of six. Zoe held her own, too, she ate everything. I kept looking at the floor to see if she was throwing it down there, but no… the times, they are a-changing when the toddler gets more food in her mouth than everywhere else. She even ate the rosemary-salted carrots. The rosemary was grown by Randy and Niki’s neighbor down in Port A. The neighbor mixes it with sea salt and puts the mix in little jars to give as Christmas gifts to the neighbors. We just happened to be in the right place at the right time and scored our own little jar since Randy and Niki still haven’t used up the one they got last year.

Health-wise, we are taking turns with the sore throat and headache cold. I believe it was Zoe who started it. Then I got it last week and now Sarah is really starting to feel it. So at church yesterday we barely got through singing Aloha ‘Oe to a dear friend who is moving to Indonesia. While sitting in church the week before, I felt inspired to sing to her despite my lack of singing voice. I recruited Sarah to sing it with me in the Young Women room after their opening exercises. Since the YW President served her mission in Hawaii, she knows all about this custom of singing “Farewell to Thee” to members who move out of the ward. We sing and then bring lei to give and show our love. Everyone cries. You tell yourself that you’re not going to, but the beauty of the music (even when I’m singing it) creates a portal to your heart and allows all that feeling to come up and out. While practicing the song, I even told the girls not to cry, but everyone was crying by the time we were done with our singing. Arwen, our friend and former YW President, was crying before we began. Instead of flower lei, we gave cookie and candy leis. It was a very nice day at church yesterday. We came home very uplifted.

Aloha `Oe by Lili`uokalani

Ha`aheo e ka ua i nâ pali

Ke nihi a`ela i ka nahele

E uhai ana paha i ka liko

Pua `âhihi lehua o uka

Hui:

Aloha `oe, aloha `oe

E ke onaona noho i ka lipo

One fond embrace, A ho`i a`e au

Until we meet again

Translation:

Proudly sweeps the rain cloud by the cliffs

As onward it glides through the trees

It seems to be following the liko

The `ahihi lehua of the vale.

Chorus:

Farewell to thee, farewell to thee

Thou charming one who dwells among the bowers

One fond embrace, before I now depart

Until we meet again.

I wanted to write after witnessing my first Eagle Scout Court of Honor and record my feelings before they flit away. My heart was full listening to the scout leaders, Congressman Poe, and the five young men receiving their Eagle Scout Award. A lot was said about the young men becoming the future leaders of our church, our city, our state, our nation… Words to describe them reflected the Scout Law—like courage and honor. Congressman Poe, who was a judge for many years, stated that in all 25,000 of the criminal cases he oversaw not one of the offenders was an Eagle Scout. He believed it to be a testament to the good of the Boy Scouts of America program. The boys are just too busy doing other things to get into any trouble. When he was done speaking, he presented each Eagle Scout with an American flag that had been flown over the White House along with a certificate of authenticity.

As each of the young men stepped up to the podium to say a few words—all of them were grateful to their parents, scout and church leaders, coaches or some particular person who pushed them to earn this award—I looked at my oldest son wearing his Webelos uniform and imagined him achieving Eagle Rank. I thought every boy in the room is dreaming about becoming an Eagle Scout and every mother in the room wants her son to live up to the Eagle Scout ideals. I couldn’t see my husband sitting in an “Eagle’s Nest” on the stand, but I thought of him and what it must have felt like for him when he got his Eagle. Both of his brothers are Eagle Scouts and his dad was their Scoutmaster for many years. The fathers of the five boys each had a chance to speak and a few got choked up while expressing their love for their sons. There were jokes about being tired, being literally pushed, and reference was made to Philmont Camp when someone lost the food on the last day. So much work went into getting those boys to set goals and then achieve them.

So much work went into the Court of Honor. One of the moms expressed to me how much like a wedding it felt in the way of preparing for it. The building was exquisitely decorated with pictures of the scouts, pictures of eagles, statues of eagles, banners reflecting the Boy Scout motto “Be Prepared”, American flags, little evergreen trees and other patriotic memorabilia. Afterwards, they served food catered by Chick-Fil-A. They added to the brownies and cheesecake with Blue Bell ice cream and cake. I got to help serve the cake. I was instructed to give one piece per person unless it was one of the five new Eagle Scouts. They could have seconds if they wanted. A lot of work went into setting up the event and lots of work went into cleaning up after the celebration. I took the kids home while Josh helped take stuff down and set up the building for church tomorrow. When he got home, Josh reported that it was awesome being a part of the clean up crew, too, because everyone helped. Scouts know and do their duty.

I know it’s going to be a lot of work getting my boys ready to go out into the world and lead successful lives. I’m glad that we have the Scout program to help them learn to set goals and then get that awesome feeling when they have achieved them. I’m glad that we were able to attend the Eagle Court of Honor so that my boys could catch the spirit of scouting and my Webelos could continue to work hard to get his awards. Seth will get his uniform next month and he is very excited to be a new Cub Scout—even more so now that he has attended an Eagle Scout Court of Honor.

We took a field trip to the Children’s Museum of Houston. We used to have season passes when we first moved here and it was one of our favorite places to go. We haven’t been there in a while and I thought that it would be more of the same stuff, but I was pleasantly surprised and amazed to find it renovated now with three floors. There was way too much to see before they closed and the five hours we were there went by very quickly.

We finally moved away from the puzzle area and found a lab room. Zack donned a lab coat and safety glasses to assemble different molecule models.

Seth assembled a few also, and this one is just so appropriate for him.

The lab coats didn’t fit Sarah, but she put it on anyway along with a silly pose.

I left the big kids with Nana and took Zoe to the second floor where the Tot Spot was located. It was my favorite spot in the whole place. It was toddler heaven. I think if we were there during the summer time then it would quickly change to more of a hell when crowded with kids, but the day we went it was wonderful. Zoe had plenty of room and space to explore.

Kids love to flip the switch! This little exhibit is dedicated to the simple act of turning on and off a light switch.

This one makes the real sound of a toilet flushing. It was my favorite. I got Zoe to do it more than once and tried it a few times myself. The little underpants sitting on the floor below the bear on the potty made me giggle.

Zoe really liked the flowers. I had no idea that they spun and it’s such a great little display since kids can and will touch everything. It was an excellent discovery.

Crawling through the tunnel merits a bit of tongue concentration.

This was Zoe’s favorite. She walked over this tactile walkway over and over again.

I can’t believe I got a picture of the two little boys (Zoe’s looking down on them in the plastic ball pit) that we played with. This was before the little one decided that I was trustworthy. He followed me around with his arms uplifted like he wanted me to pick him up. So I did. He kept doing it, so I did more than once. His dad was there and laughed about it. The big brother and I got into a war with the little plastic balls. He started it and then my Zack got into it. The big kids took a break to see Zoe in her element and were told they couldn’t play. So… the lady came to stand by us and frown disapprovingly at us just as the war was winding down. I thought we were going to get kicked out. We left shortly after that to give the poor lady some peace.

This is what the boys were doing while we were upstairs… they were in a giant climbing thing that was all three stories tall (Lower Level to First Floor to Second Floor). They had a blast. You have to be at least five years old to go in it.

Back to the Tot Spot… here’s another display that is pure fun. The door bell rings, the light switch turns the porch light on and off, and the doors swing open to reveal a mirror.

We went outside for a little tricycle and rocking fish play. It was a nice day, so not too hot. Plus, most of the outside area was in shade.

We had to let the boys paint their faces. Sarah didn’t, but I sat Zoe in front of the mirror to do simple flowers on her cheeks and nose. She cried because I wouldn’t let her take the bowls with sponges out. We calmed her down and Sarah ducked inside a little puppet theater. She put a bird out and Zoe was absolutely mesmerized. She thought it was all real until Sarah lifted the curtain.

They had stations set up throughout the museum for Trick or Treating. Even though we didn’t have costumes on, we got bags from the front and went throughout the museum collecting candy. After we had gone through the line at one station, a camera began shooting near us and a lady asked if we would go through the line again so that the camera could capture Zoe.  The Channel 2 News was there with the weather man, Frank Billingsley, doing live shots.  I took a picture of Zoe with him, but she was tired and wouldn’t stand by him or smile. He was great, though. Josh scoured the news later that evening, but he didn’t find any footage of her.

We discovered the craft/invention room on the Lower Level. Zoe’s eyes popped out of her head that there were so many Lego blocks and she was allowed to touch them.

The last thing the kids did was check out the changes that were made outside.

Well, there is actually one last thing you must do as you leave the museum… you have to put your sticker (the one they give you to wear and show that you paid) on the pole across the street. Sarah helped Zack to get it at the highest point they could.