Happy 8th Birthday Henry!

Henry had been asking to go bowling for months (okay, maybe it had been years) so his birthday was the perfect opportunity to do it.  Our local Irvine Bowl had a weekday lunch time special- two games with shoes, two hot dogs and soda for $10.  

So on a Thursday, enjoying the homeschool advantage, we went bowling. And Henry is proud to say he even ate 3 of those hot dogs.  Two games were a lot for this crew, so I'm hoping it got the bowling requests out of the system.  Also, grateful that no one got hurt and nothing was broken. 

That evening we had pizza and cake with our good friends, the Blackmans.  Always fun to celebrate!  Favorite gifts were a nerf gun and portable art easel.

Henry wants to be an inventor when he grows up- in fact sometimes he worries he may lose all the good ideas he has now before he is able to put them all into action.  We studied Leonardo da Vinci recently, so he began keeping a journal with drawings of his ideas and plans.  

Henry is a leader at pretend play with Natalie and Peter.  It usually has to do with some sort of animal, often pets, especially cats.  Dad got him a huge cat book for his birthday and now he puts on shows where he poses like the cats in the books.  

Henry is a adventurer.  He does need to have more explicit instructions though- like the time he was on the roof and insisted that no one said he couldn't go out on the roof.  Often his defense is airtight even if wisdom hasn't caught up with him yet. 

Henry is an observer who sees the world differently.  One of his most difficult chores is emptying the dishwasher because he finds out new things about each dish and utensil as he pulls it out- which ones balance on the others, what sounds they make banging together, how much water they can hold, whether or not he can lift them with tongs, etc etc.  Well, I guess it's only difficult for me because the job takes so long!

Henry makes us laugh.  He is also interested in all things 'spy' so I will often have him sneaking up behind me in stealth mode- and he's pretty good at it!  We love you Henry!!

Ever see one of these?

We had a produce box delievered from the local CSA and this was one of the vegetables in the box. Wow! It was beautiful, like lots of tiny Christmas trees. I had to check online to find out it is called a "Romanesco". We steamed it and had it for dinner last night- very yummy and good texture, much like cauliflower.

I'm not sure we'll do the CSA delivery often since it seemed a bit too expensive for what we got. The only reason I decided to try this one is because the local milkman did a sales call here last week and signed us up for milk delivery. In addition to milk, they can deliver lots of other food items such as the produce boxes. They arrive on the doorstep on Wednesday mornings by 5am. Not sure how long we'll stick with the delivery service, but getting that beauty (or mutant depending how you look at it) made the purchase worth it this week!

Sleepy Boy

Peter is a big guy who can keep up with his older siblings (even academically some days, as he adds his two cents to every conversation and surprises me with big words). But he is still the baby around here who finds me in the morning for some 'snuggy huggys', drinks milk from a sippy cup when no one is looking, and has a hard time staying awake for a party (or some nights even for dinner for that matter!).

On Sunday we had our first meeting of a new small group at our house. Toward the end, Peter fussed that he was tired but refused to go to bed. With a crowd of people and kids talking around, this is where he got comfortable. He loved the photo in the morning but didn't remember any of it.

Happy Art

After returning from playing at the park, I noticed Henry working feverishing on something at the school table. A bit later he came up to me, showed me this picture and asked if it made me feel happy. I wasn't quite sure how to respond, but said yeah and asked if it made him feel happy.

He said he was happy and he wanted to draw his happiness on paper so he could remember it. He said when he looks at this it makes his stomach feel funny, but in a good way. He found himself a notebook to store it with plans to pull it out when he is not happy to see if it makes him happy. That makes him an artist with a scientific experiment, I suppose.

Now, personally, I don't get this at all. There's not much artist in me and feelings don't come in colors in my world, but I have a guess that Henry will be exposing me to all sorts of new things in the coming years. Sounds like the Lord knows just what I need.

Tidepool Adventure

My brother and family drove from Albuquerque to spend the end of Christmas vacation with us and to play at the beach! Early in the week on a warm day, we built sandcastles at Big Corona Del Mar (with kids getting in the water by the end).

Yesterday we went to explore the tidepools at Little Corona Del Mar (a first time visit for us). We picked a good low tide and were able to see lots of creatures, especially sea urchins. We found one pool filled with small active fish.

It's pretty rough terrain so we were grateful no one fell and needed stitches. Even the little ones were adventurous to try to get to difficult spots. Definitely a beautiful place that we plan to go back to.