Fun Times

So Brishen is a busy guy this year.  Life in general is busy.  He has his online classes that keep him occupied from 7:30 until noon on Monday through Thursday plus the hours and hours of homework to go with it.  He has the school work he does for me.  He has taekwondo, robotics, homeschool co-op, Latin club, and his biggest obsession, chess club.  He just wasn't into studying for the Geographic Bee this year, but he still wanted to compete.  Until Thursday of last week, we were under the impression that he would have the Spelling Bee on Friday, so he had been brushing up on his ABCs.  I then got an email reminder of the Geo Bee for the next day.  Oops!  It seems he was brushing up on the wrong subject all week.  No worries!  The child has years of map work, map puzzles, map computer games, geography articles, geography specials on TV, and geography bee studying under his belt.  He channeled that information stuck back in his brain somewhere and pulled out a win.  He answered all three questions correctly in the final round of competition, while his competitor missed two of the three.  Montana, Aleutian Islands, Chile--good stuff, Brishen.  We are very proud.  Now he prepares for the test next month to get into the state competition.  I don't know that he'll have much time to study, though, so this may be the end of his Geographic Bee career.  These fun bees end at 8th grade, after all.

This just might be what the floor looks like on hair day at my house.

Saturday night was our church's annual Birthday Party for Jesus.  There were crafts.  There were snacks.  There was worship.  There were performances by the kids.  There was a "Santo" Claus pulling a pony for rides (not for my kids who were petrified of both Santo and the pony, but for other brave souls), and there was a petting zoo.  The pig above was my favorite, as those who know me from way back when could guess.  The goat below was funny because he was so goat-ish, trying to eat the enclosure and anything else he could get his mouth on.  My older two little ones were actually brave enough to briefly touch the goat and flash pet a chicken.  That's a big step for them.  Miss Personality still clung to Jon like we were trying to feed her to the adorable creatures.   Basia was with her friends the whole time, so I didn't get to see much of what she was doing.  She did call me over to watch her pet the snake.  I put on a brave face, trying to get the little ones to pet the "nice snake" without letting them know that there was no way in heck that I'd touch that wretched creature.

Basia actually danced in the performance.  It must have been peer pressure that got her to be part of the dancing group because there's no way in the universe I could talk her into such a thing.  She actually loved it and talked about it a lot, telling me the names of the moves and running up to talk to the dance teacher after church one Sunday when we saw her perform.  Basia is such a foreign being to me right now.  She is so different from Brishen and myself, and it is strange to see such a social child in her element.  We were eating dinner after the worship service on Saturday night, having already been there for hours, all the while Basia was hanging out with friends--all older.  She came over to me and tried to get me to go out with the friends later for pizza.  Um, no.  Twenty-three seconds later she came over to me with another friend begging to have him and his brother over the next day because "we just really need to hang out."   What exactly are her teen years going to look like?  She's gone to "The Pizza Joint" three times with a friend and his family to watch him perform at open mic night and stayed out until 10pm.  She wants this to be a weekly event.  She's 9 years old, for goodness sake.  

These hands were my favorite part of the party.  I so wish my little kids, Jon, and I could have also made wax hands.  I love, love them!

And now it's my bedtime, so I'll have to share pictures of the gingerbread house making party another time.  I bid you adieu.