It's been an up and down week around here, so here's some highlights and lowlights:
Hayden is learning about the different seasons at school. He told me 'pretty soon all the leaves were going to change colors and fall.' This is where I am confused. One- do they not talk about how we live in Florida, and these events like leaves changing color, and snow falling, and plants springing do not apply to us? Two- has Hayden noticed that in his lifetime this has never happened? Does he think this just occurs once every 5 years or so? Does he think because he went to school and learned about it, now the leaves will fall? Either way, trying to explain to him the climate of the country got to be a little much, I just told him he'll see the leaves changing color when he goes to Ohio the end of September. This will be his very first 'Fall' experience.
This week Calib and Peyton both have the exact same homework assignments. They are both having timed multiplication tests they have to complete with 100 percent accuracy in under a minute. They start with the 2's this week. I think this is disheartening for Peyton, because usually if Calib is getting something faster we can say things like 'well, it's a different subject', but we've lost our crutch. Now, what do you say? He's older? That only worked for like the first day. I tried. I did make a kite in which all the facts for two are on the bows, and hung it up by the dinner table so we can go over them at dinner. Then, we did the popsicle stick game this time with multiplication, and they had to put all the facts in the right numbered cup in under a minute. This seems to be helping- but the under a minute 100 percent accuracy has me worried.
Tuesday also saw the addition of Madden 12 to our game library. I like this time of year for only one reason: it makes Asa (and Calib) very happy. It's like Asa's premiere of Survivor. Otherwise, I hate this time of year. First off, EVERY SINGLE YEAR, Asa complains for the first couple weeks that he doesn't like the new Madden, and that it's a lot harder. Then in less than a month he's beating teams 9 bazillion to 3, and he's mad about the 3. And Secondly, he'll come tell me something some player did. 'LaGarrett just ran for a 97 yard TD' or something. If this were really football, I would care. But, it's Madden, and I don't. But, I love my husband so I smile, say how awesome that is and pretend to care-- until at least November. Then, I have to start the 'I love you, but....' conversation. (side funny note: he just read this paragraph and after he got through a bit of it he said 'but, I'm not complaining this year- you should have seen us get this first down, we ran for'- I told him to keep reading, his response 'Oh man, I just did it')
So, as stated above, I am quite the Survivor fan. I've watched every season faithfully since season 2. Next week, it starts again- (with Ozzy *gasp*!) I am skeptical that anything could top last season, but we'll see. In honor of this Wednesdays game was Hidden Immunity Idol Hunt. I made each of the boys an immunity idol out of construction paper, goog-a-lee eyes, a toilet paper roll, and various crafty things like pipe cleaners, felt, paint, and puff balls. May I say, they are AWESOME. Anyway, they each had three clues (two they had to locate) to find their hidden immunity idol. I even color coded their clue cards, and their hidden immunity idols so they wouldn't get confused. I have that much time on my hands, people. Anyway, their immunity idol can be used to get out of chores.. up until the final four. (hehee.. that was a Survivor reference right there). It was pretty epic, and I think we'll be doing it again, although maybe making some of the clues a little easier. One of Haydens clues was taped inside his book 'My truck is stuck'. I just heard him say "I think I have to look for a clue taped to one of my trucks
Wednesday was a crappy day around here. Our rabbit, Moose, died. He was a pretty awesome rabbit. We got him the week after my dad died and named him in honor of my dad's favorite animal- the Moose. The boys were pretty devastated. This was the first time I've seen Hayden cry over the death of anyone- I guess at 5 and a half he's starting to get death, unfortunately, thanks a lot 2010. He was very upset about not having a pet to feed anymore. Sometimes being a parent just sucks. I hated having to tell them about Moose. I mean on the scale of things, I've had to break a lot worse news to them, but it still sucks. Plus, I super loved Moose, and I'm really sad about it too- seeing them cry made me want to cry. I think after awhile we'll get a new rabbit. Even Asa who likes to put bans on ever getting pets again said we should. I think besides Phenom, Moose was the only pet Asa actually liked. Anyway, I hope theres a nice rabbit heaven somewhere for him. In high school I had a Theology teacher who told us animals don't go to heaven. What an awful teacher he was. I remember nothing else of that class just him being a total jerk about pet heaven. Screw you, Mr. Whatever your name was.
Wednesday also was Peyton's chorus auditions. He didn't make it. He said the Music Teacher told him his voice was too high. Come on, he's a nine year old boy, and you expect him to be a bass or something. Lame. He knew all the words, and I thought he sounded pretty good. I guess on the bright side I won't have to wake up early every Wednesday to take him to practice. After this, and the news about Moose Peyton declared it was the worst day ever, and asked if anything could make it worse. I refrained from telling him the reports that Peyton Manning would be out for the season. I figured it could go one of two ways- either he'd think it wasn't a big deal in light of the other crapiness of the day- or he'd go off the deep end (the more likely of the two).
Thursday we invented Smachos- its a hybrid of Nachos and Smores. Basically, you just break up the graham crackers, and throw some chocolate and marshmallows on top and put it under the broiler. Friday I made the tattle monster. He's made out of a kleenex box, construction paper, part of an egg carton, some googlie eyes, and some pipe cleaners. Instead of tattling on each other the boys write (or in Haydens case draw a picture) of the event that occurred instead of running to me and Asa to tattle on each other. This is awesome for a couple different reasons. First off, we don't have to listen to the pointless tattles on each other. Secondly, these can be pretty entertaining if read instead of heard in a whiny voice. Thirdly, these can be saved for scrapbooks, for a laugh later. Plus, as an added bonus the fact that Hayden can't really coherently write anything adds to the entertainment value. I especially enjoy the drawing of Peyton taking his toys. And, its pretty funny to see Calib write 'My brothers woke me up being loud at 10:47 on Saturday morning'. Really Calib? 10:47- and I'm supposed to feel bad about that. Either way, I highly recommend adding the tattle monster to your family. It's pretty awesome. I also made an organizer for all their school papers out of two cereal boxes, and some scrapbooking paper. I'm pretty handy like that.
This weekend was the start of Swaptember- where our aquarium pass gets us into MOSI (pretty much COSI for my Ohio friends) and the zoo for free. We went out to MOSI where Peyton served us a giant rubbery fake head of cauliflower (or, as Peyton called it 'zombie brains'), Calib laid on a bed of nails, and Hayden made some of the funnier shadow poses I'd ever seen. Oh to be that young and flexible. They have an awesome new ropes course there too, so I'm hoping to go back sometime this month to go through it. We were on a schedule, as we had tickets to the USF football game that night (we did make time to quickly stop by the butterfly house though).
The game was super fun. If you pay attention, you can get tickets pretty cheap. They can't be playing any big names though- we went and saw them beat the crap out of Ball State. USF scored on the opening kickoff, and they weren't even the kick returning team. I wish for the boys sake it would have been a little more exciting after that, but it was pretty much unanswered score after unanswered score. We left after the third quarter because Peyton and Hayden were getting squirmy and it was 38-0. I guess Ball State did end up scoring once. We had a good time, even if it was super hot out. We were all sweating buckets, and it was a 7pm game. I can't even imagine what it was like the next day for the Lions Bucs game at 1 pm. (They both play in Raymond James Stadium in Tampa).
Sunday we watched football all day- but unfortunately, the Bucs were blacked out. For you non football people- that means that the stadium didn't sell out, so they don't show it on TV for anyone who lives within something like 75 miles. I don't know the exact number because I am well inside of it (I live about 20 miles from the stadium). Luckily, this season we have NFL Red Zone which basically just shows the highlights of all the games around the league. It came with the package we got for Asa being a Verizon Employee where you got to add channels like Red Zone and HBO and your bill went down $40 a month. At least we got to see bits and pieces of the game even if they lost.
Sunday also, obviously, was September 11th. I guess the boys were learning all about it in school, which is odd. It's like a history lesson to them. Peyton was asking all kinds of questions about what that day was like, pretty weird he wasn't even around then- and Calib was just a baby. Ten years went by awfully fast.
All in all, not the best week around here- but they can't all be awesome, I suppose. Here's to a better week!
Next Up: Lowry Park and Open House
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