Be Careful Who You Go Home With

Nathan came home from school today proudly carrying his adorable little pie pumpkin. He picked it out for himself at Port Farms which is where the Pre-K and Kindergarten classes went for their field trip.

Aw.... Isn't that a cute li'l pumpkin?

So little.

So round.

So orange.

Aw.

Well. This isn't the actual pumpkin Nathan brought home.

I'm not releasing the real pumpkin's identity until the family has been notified.

Little did the pumpkin know it was entering .... the HOUSE OF HORRORS.

First, Nathan cut it open with a butter knife. (So it would hurt more)

Then he pestered me to make it into a pie. (More like he wanted me to dispose of the evidence)
He helped me scrape the guts out, then put the poor little pumpkin parts in a pan of water and bake it down in the oven at 350 degrees to mush before the skin itself was removed!

MWAHAHA MWAHAHAHAHA!

ehem.

This is all that's left of the cute li'l pie pumpkin.

For now.

Speech Meet: The Showdown

Josiah participated in a Speech Meet on Friday. It all started with memorizing a poem and reciting it for his class then he came home excited that he was selected out of his first grade class to advance to the Speech Meet. This meant that he would go to another school and recite his poem there.

I didn't know until last week that it would be an all-day event. When I brought Josiah to the school Friday morning I learned that there were seven other schools involved and over 200 students. The day would be packed with speech, science, math and reasoning.

His group was to recite during the first session and I was able to stay and watch. After finding the correct classroom, there were 24 first through third graders reciting their selection to the other 23 students, three judges, and the parents that were there.

I was nervous for him. He knows that poem extremely well but I wondered if he would recite it clearly and loudly or if he would rush through it. I noticed his face blush when it was his turn... but he did it! He recited the poem clearly and loudly enough. (When I was in school I purposely misspelled a word in our Spelling Bee so that I wouldn't have to advance and do it again in front of a big crowd. I was that shy.)

At the end of the day, John and I were able to come to the award ceremony where he got a ribbon for doing an "excellent" job.

You may notice in this picture how much he loves being in front of a crowd. (Did my sarcasm come through?) How did all the other kids do? Pullease. I'm sure they did fine but I only had eyes for my son. I am so proud of him!

This is the poem which he chose to recite:

Chums
by Arthur Guitterman

He sits and begs, he gives a paw,
He is, as you can see,
The finest dog you ever saw,
And he belongs to me.

He follows everywhere I go
And even when I swim.
I laugh because he thinks, you know,
That I belong to him.

But still no matter what we do
We never have a fuss;
And so I guess it must be true
That we belong to us.

And this is Cairo, Josiah's very own chum. And mine.

Homecoming AND Homework

I received an email from John while I was gone telling me this:

It is starting to hit Josiah and Nathan that you are not here, Nathan has cried a few times and Josiah has come close but is trying to be the big brother I guess, Noah is still content knowing that you are still irking.

Aw. I didn't want my boys to have a hard time. It surprised me that my energetic, ornery-leaning Nathan was having the worst time of it. I thought my baby, Noah, may have a rough week since he doesn't like to see me leave for even a short trip to the store but his thought that "Mama irk" (interpretation: Mommy is at work.) satisfied him the entire time. Josiah? I wasn't sure how he would handle it but I think he did great.

My journey home began early in the morning, one week ago. Once the trip home was underway, I was looking forward to seeing and hugging all of my gentlemen. We called from Pittsburgh and asked them to meet us at Grandma & Grandpa's house. Upon our arrival, there were squeals and smiles and BIG hugs. Nathan kept telling Grandpa and I, "I am REALLY happy to see you!" Josiah jumped into my arms to hug me. Noah grinned from ear to ear. I couldn't have asked for a better homecoming.

Can you tell that they missed me? Certainly not from this picture.

~PART 2~

John started working the next morning so I quickly had to get back into the swing of things at home. I was told that Josiah had to do a book report for school, his very first book report, and that John saved that for me to do with him. We had three evenings to do it and John and Josiah had already read the book. The first evening, we didn't have the construction paper required but we read the book again. I bought some construction paper and I started helping Josiah follow the instructions the second night. It was not successful but now he knew what he wasn't supposed to do.

It's hard to get Josiah's picture sometimes. I had him show me his dollars that Grandma has given him for Valentine's Day. Sneaky, eh?

I'm not sure that Josiah will ever want to do another book report with me again. His report was to have six pages attached and folded accordion style. I kept pestering him with directions.

Follow the instructions. You have to focus on what you're doing. Use pencil first then go over it with markers. Write neatly. Draw the picture right here. Keep your letters the same size. You better write that word again. What is the setting? Please don't drink over your book report. Do you remember the main characters? What pictures do you want to draw that will tell the story? You don't have to draw the same pictures that are in the book. Be careful with the paper. Don't wrinkle it.

And so on... until is was finished. *whew*

Yes, I do have perfectionist tendencies. "Hi. My name is Sarah and I'm a perfectionist. I have been relaxed about the state of homework for 3 days now. Oh wait. I forgot something. 0 days now."

I think his first-grade book report turned out well. His pictures? They may need some explanation. But I think this format was a great way to get him thinking about the aspects of his book and how to tell about the story.

Pilgrims and Indians

This year's Thanksgiving brought us another Thanksgiving skit. This year Josiah was an Indian unlike last year when he was a Pilgrim but like the year before when he was a smaller Indian.

The Pre-K through second grade classes gave everyone an adorable rendition of the first Thanksgiving even demonstrating hunting and planting where a corn stalk spontaneously sprang up after the seed was planted and a bear skin suddenly appeared when the the Indians helped the Pilgrims learn to hunt.

This is an actual photograph of an early settler and an Indian solemnly walking and talking. Oh, wait. That's Josiah and my nephew, the Pilgrim!

Here they are again. Josiah used his favorite pose of stuffing something into his mouth for the picture.

You should have seen Isaac and the other Pilgrims dance the robot! It was great! My nephew does an amazingly good robot. You think I'm joking. I'm not. It's a true story. Pilgrims did the Robot; at least, our Pilgrims did.

The Good Life

Every Tuesday I go to Josiah's school to help facilitate lunch. My mom has babysat Nathan and Noah the past two Tuesdays; however, today I forgot to make plans ahead of time. Instead of calling her at the last moment, I decided to take the boys with me.

I packed them a lunch. Put them in the car. Went back into the house for the forgotten diaper bag which I ended up not needing but I'm certain the story would have been different had I not grabbed the bag. That's just the way things happen with me.

Nathan and Noah wanted to sit with the school children so I set their places at one of the boys' tables. There they joyfully ate their lunch while entertaining the older children around them.

Between lunch groups, Nathan took a potty break and delighted in the automated toilets, faucets, soap dispensers, and hand dryers! "Ha Ha Ha! The wind got my hair!" Then Noah got in on the action too. Oh, how deprived my boys have been! Have they never before used a toilet that would flush itself? Have they never before turned on a faucet without touching a handle? Have they never experienced the joy of walking by an automatic hand dryer and being blown upon? Have they never had to guess how far the soap dispenser would squirt the soap? Apparently not.

As I think about my deprived children, another example comes to my mind. One day Josiah asked me, "Why does Uncle Matt and Aunt Belinda's toast pop out?". The picture that came to mind was that of an overactive, renegade toaster that is a little too excited about popping up that toasted bread but then I remember.... we have a toaster oven. The concept of toast popping out of the toaster was new to him. I've deprived my child of a regular toast popping toaster!

Now I must ponder what other luxuries my children have yet to experience.

Nah! These boys have it easy!

School Day

We had the opportunity to experience class time with Josiah. They had been learning about the rain forests.

Josiah's teacher, Mrs. Spicher, read a story to us.

John, Josiah, and I sat together to listen to the story. See, Jessica?

The students sang a song about the rain forests' layers.

Tune: "If you're happy and you know it"
There are four layers in the rainforest.
4 LAYERS!
There are four layers in the rainforest.
4 LAYERS!
Forest floor, understory, canopy, emergent
There are four layers in the rainforest.
4 LAYERS!

Then we were able to taste test the food products from the rain forests. Josiah is trying coconut and chocolate.

After we tasted something, we marked whether we liked it or disliked it. This is the chocolate sheet. It looks like there was only one "dislike." Smart people! Josiah told me it was one of his classmates that doesn't like chocolate. Really? Go figure.

We had bananas, coconut, oranges, lemons, grapefruit, macadamia nuts, sweet potatoes, cashews, and more. The most unpopular were the plantains. You really have to cook those!

My brother, Micah, tried a lemon.

I think he marked "like."

I took the remaining part of my lemon home with me as a special treat for Nathan. He loves them!

When he finished it, he asked for more. Wow. I like my lemons in water or with other food.

It was a fun experience and I learned that the rain forests must be preserved ... because they produce chocolate.

Fiesta Night

On April 23, Josiah's school had a special night for the families to come and enjoy seeing what they've been learning. The theme was Fiesta.

Mrs. Arce is the Spanish teacher. Since Josiah is in Kindergarten, he only has Spanish class once a week. Though he claims not to remember what he learned, every once in a while he will gleefully tell me a Spanish word. So this night the students had the chance to show us what they've been learning. They sang in Spanish and the older students did a skit in Spanish. They did a great job!

Meanwhile, Nathan wished that he could be in the play! I didn't get to see much of the show in person because I was corralling the two younger boys in the hallway to prevent a rush on the stage. Oh well. John recorded it all on video.... if only I knew how to get it from the camera to the computer. *sigh*

After the performance, they did a Spanish dance and grabbed their parents to join in. John danced with Josiah; however, John said he was the one that was doing most of the dancing. Then we all ate yummy Spanish/Mexican food. Even the guacamole was so good that I risked having extreme pain in order to try a little. (My body doesn't like avocado.) No worries. I survived. Obviously.

Thank you, Mrs. Arce!

Josiah the astronaut

Josiah had a school project in October. In the classroom, they had been talking about community helpers. Each student chose a community helper which they would research over the next few days then present what they learned to the rest of the class. They could do their presentation in costume if they so desired. (As if they wouldn't so desire.) Josiah chose to be an astronaut.
An astronaut? I think. Couldn't he have been a fireman or a farmer which we have an abundance of dress-up things? I was trying to figure out how to put together a costume resembling an astronaut. That Saturday, Josiah went out with his friend, Marcie, and while they were out they found a great costume at the party store. Yay! Thank you, Marcie!
We delve into astronauts. We read our book together about space and space shuttles, we watch movies such as Apollo 13 and Rocketman (heh heh), and we spend time on NASA's website. NASA is very helpful with lots of information, videos, games.

These are the questions to which he had to find the answers:
What is their job?
What tools do they use?
What schooling do astronauts need?
What do they like best about their job?
What don't they like about their job?

We found all the answers and prepared for the big day. I'd tell you all the answers if it wouldn't take up so much space! There's a LOT of schooling involved. He was so excited that morning; he could hardly hold still. I only wish I could have seen him in action.

Ready for space exploration.

Josiah isn't camera shy when he's taking the pictures.

Thanksgiving Play

Cousins - Isaac the Indian and Josiah the Pilgrim

Josiah was a pilgrim this year at school. They sang the books of the Bible. They rode the Mayflower. They shared a thankful meal with their Indian friends. It was a very cute performance.

Josiah and some of his classmate Pilgrims

Pilgrims and Indians - Theses pilgrims even had special buckles on their shoes.

For his homework two nights before, Josiah had to think like a pilgrim and pack just a few things in a shoebox that were important to him and to have in a new life. Josiah chose his Bible Story book, toothbrush, toothpaste, a picture of our family, Play-Dough (to make anything that he may need), a notebook, and a pencil.

He took his shoebox to school the next day to show what his choices were. We had to get past the surprise of discovering that he had used his toothpaste on the bus ride home to "paint" the lid of his shoebox before learning from him how his day went. Apparently, all went well.

Josiah's First School Bus Ride

August 27th was Josiah's first day of school. We got up early, ate breakfast, got dressed and went to the porch to wait for the school bus. This would be the first time Josiah has ever rode on a school bus!

He was more excited about than me. I was thankful that he would be picked up at our driveway. It is a huge blessing in the amount of gas money it will save us for the year.


We waited and waited. Then I began to worry. At 8:00 the bus was half an hour late. John called from work to ask how Josiah did getting on the bus. "We're still waiting. I'm going to call and see what I can find out.", I reply. I called the bus company first and got the answering machine. Then I called the school. From the school I learn that the bus is running very late but that it will come. Okaaay. We wait longer. I call the school again at 8:30. The bus is still coming and has picked up the first student. It should be there any time. Okaaaay. FYI - school starts at 8:45. The students are supposed to arrive by 8:40. It takes me 15 minutes to get there from my house - that's with no stops. I'm getting anxious. At 9:00 I call the school again. Pastor Diane, the principal, is in the chapel service. Since the lady answering the phone that time was a volunteer, she didn't have any information for me. Okaaaaay.

This whole time I'm thinking that I could take Josiah to school myself but I didn't want to mess up the school bus driver if we weren't here when the bus arrived. I was also disappointed that Josiah would be late for the first day of school.

Well, we wait some more. At 9:30 I call the school again. By this time, they know my number on caller ID and answer, "Hi. We were just about to call you." The school bus arrived to school and there was no Josiah. Mmm hmmm. I thought so!! Apparently, the bus company decided that they were picking up the students at the nearest corner this year. The bus company never communicated this to the school or the parents!

Brothers waiting together.

I quickly got Noah out of bed, put him in the car seat and gave him a bottle. Nathan and Josiah got in the car and away we went. Josiah finally made it to school. Yay!

Josiah arriving to school in our family car.

Josiah had a wonderful time at school and did get to ride the bus home.

Josiah getting on the bus the second morning of school.