Monday, March 07, 2011

Recently

What's new at our house since March 2?
March 2 was... Tuesday?  Let's see then.  Wednesday was our homeschool art day which ended up just being a homeschool play day with the kids running wild in the backyard, jumping on the trampoline, smashing rocks with hammers on the deck, pushing each other into the pool... the usual!
Thursday was our typically long day with school lessons, then piano, then violin.
Friday I took pictures for a friend, and then took the boys to the lake park to go fishing and climb trees.  They actually wanted me to take pictures!  What?!
So, here's Brigham up in the tree:

Mosey swinging like a monkey:


And Joseph looking angelic:

The weekend was pretty typical-- we went to the CROP walk on Saturday morning (a charitable walk-athon sort of thing raising money to end hunger).  It was totally freezing cold!  Ben and Joseph went out early to volunteer along the course at about 8:45 or so, and it was pouring down rain.  By the time the other boys and I came down, it had cleared up, but the wind was absolutely biting cold, at least by our Austin-in-March standards.  We brought extra gloves and jackets for Ben and Joseph, but by the time we got there, the lady in charge told them they could go anyway.
Mosey had a birthday party in the afternoon.  A couple of weeks ago, he bought the present he wanted to give to the little boy with his own money, and completely unprompted by me.  It was so cute.  He wrapped the whole thing and wrote a little birthday card all by himself, too, again, unprompted.  The wrapping job was creative, and I think he used less tape than Ben did at Christmas time!  :-)
We had friends over for dinner with 3 young children (4, 2, and 9 months), and it was so interesting (and distressing) watching Mosey interact with them.  He is not used to younger kids, and does not at all understand that 2 year olds don't respect property: if bags of birthday candy are left out, they will happily partake, and if lego space ships left in the lego box are not put up high somewhere, they will get dismantled and used for parts.  He got really mad and started bossing the other kids around, as if he owned the place.  I had to swoop in and calm Mosey down and make him apologize.  It was sad to me to realize that Mosey has very little experience with kids younger than he is, and the concept of patience is completely lost on him.  I sure wish we could have given Mosey a younger sibling or two or three.  :-(  I guess there is always a youngest, though. 
Sunday was church day.  Joseph stood up and talked during fast and testimony meeting, a short and sweet testimony of prophets and scriptures.  I was so happy and proud of him.  That is very, very much out of Joseph's comfort zone, but he did a perfect job.  Earlier in the meeting he leaned over to me and asked how people know what to say, so I knew he was thinking about it.  I told him that they say things they believe that help them to increase their faith and that might help other people increase their faith.  I was very proud of him.
Today was Monday, my favorite day of the week.  Not.  :-)  Joseph had flute lessons again this afternoon and he came out smiling and saying he liked his teacher and he really liked flute, so I think we'll stick with this teacher for now! 
I'll end with one last picture of Mosey walking around using the "ceiling walker" that Brigham made.  I remember doing this as a kid-- walking around with a mirror facing the ceiling.  When you look into it as you walk around, you start to feel as though you are walking on the ceiling.  It's a very eerie feeling.  Anyway, Brigham rigged up this whole contraption with a mirror and a tin can so when you look down through it, you really don't see anything except the ceiling.  When the boys walked under the balcony up on the 2nd floor, it looked to them as if they were walking off a cliff.  Fun times for the boys, and so funny for me to see them coming up with the exact same idea that I had as a kid.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Bianca had her first flute lesson today, and she really liked the teacher (Beth Gallagher). We talked to Bianca on iChat, and she played "Hot Cross Buns" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" for us. She also has an amazing amount of homework for the week. I was very impressed for the first lesson, and she is really excited to go next week.

Vicki