Millipede Mazes

The big boys started Cub Scout day camp this week. It's just a 3 day gig, Monday-Wednesday. Ben took them down there this morning early (7:45!), and I went and picked them up this afternoon. I think I'm slowly learning my lesson. I will never let them go to something like this where I'm to pick them up without giving them a note explaining how I can't walk and so I need them to come to the car. I can't walk over and get them. This was the same drama as their gymnastics camp over Christmas. The adults won't let them leave without a parent coming to get them, but they see me in the car and want to come over, and the adult doesn't listen or doesn't understand the situation, and so then the boys are in tears by the time they finally do make their way over to me. Frustrating for everyone involved, I'm sure.
Also, these kinds of events really highlight one of the disadvantages to homeschooling. My boys are simply not used to being in large groups of kids with only a few adults in charge. There are all kinds of rules that have to be followed that seem ridiculous to my boys. Brigham got in the van and said, "It was just like being in public school again, mom! They make all these rules that don't make sense that we all have to follow!" My boys are good, and they *did* follow the rules, but they weren't happy about it. We talked all the way home about why they have the rules the way they did (because some of the boys *won't* be as well-behaved as they are). Also, they played kickball, which Joseph and Brigham had never played and didn't understand the rules. I promised them we'd teach the game to them tonight.
I think they're ok about going back again tomorrow, but they did have to be talked into it. I encouraged them to try to make friends with the other boys, follow the rules, try to understand what some of the purposes are behind the rules, and just shrug off whatever annoyance they may feel.
Meanwhile, Mosey and I had a day to ourselves! I asked him what he wanted to do this morning, and after reviewing all the choices, he chose to go to the mall. The mall? OK, whatever, it was his day! So we went to the mall and perused a few stores. He rode the carousel, got a bug net at the dollar store and a small stuffed animal (yes, another one) at the Build-a-Bear Workshop. He drank a peach-strawberry smoothie and tried to talk me into taking him to a movie (they were all playing at a bad time, so it didn't work out). Then he went with me to the fabric store and then home where he painted some pictures until it was time to go pick up the boys.
Tomorrow the free kids movies start, so we'll go see something, and then there is horseback riding in the afternoon. He'll get another lesson all to himself! (He did last week, too, while Brigham and Joseph were at their end-of-the-year Cub Scout swim party).
It was fun to spend the day just with Mosey. He is a pretty great companion. We went up and down the two levels at the mall a couple of times, and he wanted to ride the escalator while I went on the elevator. It was so funny to watch him running down the hallway. He is wearing his brothers' hand-me-down pants, and I haven't adjusted the waist straps, so his pants are always threatening to fall down. So he's taken to running with his elbow crooked out, holding up the waistband of his pants to keep them up. It's so cute. And I really need to adjust his pants. :-)
This past weekend was Stake Conference, which freed up our Sunday schedule, but was awfully busy for Ben who had to play the piano and the organ at the priesthood and adult sessions on Saturday. So he was gone all afternoon while I hung out with the boys, went to the grocery store, picked up dinner at Sonic, and then watched "The Count of Monte Cristo" on Netflix. It's a great movie! It followed the plot line of the book pretty closely for the first half of the movie, and then, for better and for worse, diverged quite a lot for the second half. It is a great book, but does have some pretty weird, not-very-family-friendly elements that were definitely better left out of the movie. But the complex plotline of the book is part of what makes it so interesting, and that just wasn't possible to replicate in a 2 hour movie.
Sunday afternoon was relaxing and low-key. The boys made millipede mazes in the play room.
Yes, we're still battling millipedes. I've read up on them, and our house is unfortunately in the way of a millipede migration. Millipede colonies will migrate when there is sufficient population pressure, and with our recent wet weather, it's not surprising that they've multiplied. So the millipedes (hundreds of thousands of them sometimes), will start to migrate. They'll go in a certain direction, and if your house is in the way, too bad! They'll try to crawl over or through or around or any way they can to get past it. So if there are any small cracks or holes, they'll find them. We've been pretty diligent in spraying on our back porch, but several still make their way in every night (they migrate at night). So the boys have taken to making millipede mazes with kapla blocks, and having contests to see which millipedes can navigate the maze. They have been naming the millipedes, too. So far, I think Minda has been the winner. There have also been John, Mike, Jason, and others. Jason was the 2nd best millipede maze navigator. I guess if you can't beat them, you may as well have fun with them!
Let's see, what else. It's been pretty hot. Thankfully so far not as bad as last year! The boys have been swimming almost every day, and have gone through an entire humongous bag of frozen blueberries.

That is blueberry juice on Brigham, not blood! At what age to kids stop getting food smeared all over themselves? :-)
I'll end with one more picture of a Brigham block creation. This is a ship. Inside, he had several decks, occupied by animals, soldiers, knights, etc. On the front deck there is an archer protecting the ship.

Brigham is a little weary of the babyish alphabet blocks. He's been after me to get some white spray paint so he can paint them. We tried, and failed, to get white spray paint last Friday at Walmart. We got there and there were no motorized carts. I like Walmart except for their unreliability when it comes to carts. They need more. They frequently don't have any available, or the ones they do have available are just about out of power. I've had to have the boys push the dead cart back to the front of the Walmart on a few different occasions. Anyway, we sat in the front of the store for nearly 30 minutes before giving up. The boys bought gumballs from the gumball machines and we had a nice conversation about credit and debt and wise money use (spawned by Mosey begging to get another gumball: "It's only 25 cents, mom, what difference does that make?!"). But finally I just sent Joseph and Brigham to the back of the store to get a couple of things that I had to have, but they couldn't buy the spray paint, of course. They are getting to be pretty competent little shoppers. Pretty soon I won't have to go into the store at all. I can send them in with my list and they can take care of it themselves! They still get weird looks when they go up to the checkout counter to pay for things all by themselves (Joseph's been going into the pet supply store on his own to buy crickets for Spots while I sit out in the car for months now), but they are very confident and do a great job.
That's it for tonight!