Friday, 5 minutes post boys down for nap...

One possible ending to Seth's "video game." The superhero loses his legs. 

Ahhh, Friday. We're at the end of a hard week. I'm throwing in the towel for the dinner I was going to make. I told the boys that if they cleaned up the playroom before nap that I'd take them to the children's museum after nap, and then we'd meet Daddy for Mexican. I don't even care that I'm on my third day without a shower. Note to self: must find cute baseball cap, stat. 

Seth has had some attitude issues this week, and they've all been full of wild energy. I don't know what it is. Seth and Evan chase each other around the house, Evan dumps out a whole crate of fake food and chases Seth around with the plastic box, attempting to hit him in the head, they fall to the ground wrestling. I've been making them go outside to play rough. (The dumping of the fake food makes me want to scream because getting my 4-year-old to clean up is pure torture these days. It involves lots of punishment and very little progress. Ahem.) Ben has a sense of when I'm going to try and sit down to read with the boys, and he makes sure to take that time to get into whatever mischief he can find. Yes, he's deliberate about that these days. Baby timeout has been getting a lot of use.

BUT... 

- They love the little book on tadpoles that I bought from the thrift store this week. They ask to read it over and over and over again. 

-We've learned a lot about bones, and Seth has made his own bone models out of q-tips. He pulled out a book of animal skeletons and cut and taped them to replicate a turtle. And this was all completely on his own initiative. He figured out to use the q-tips without any hints from me. 

- We crafted this week, and I even put up their q-tip painted fall trees on the hall wall.

- The house may be dusty, but I pulled out my November decorations... acorn salt and pepper shakers, paper squirrels taped to blocks that I printed off Martha Stewart Living 3 years ago, plates of a fall leaf and turkey, the chalkboard platter I was given at Holidays Fit for a King (loved it!)..

- Seth created his own "video game." This involved me taking pictures of his hand drawn scenes and posting them in order on Picasa. He "plays" the game by using the arrow keys on the keyboard to scroll through. If you go too far, all the way to the last frame, you lose. Your superhero loses his legs. The game is called, "Don't Go Too Far." I couldn't figure out why until I watched him play.  

- The game is a huge hit with the preschool set. His friend, Anna, wanted to play it over and over when she came over. Evan is also intrigued. Watch out, XBox, there's a new guy in town. 

- Despite the crazy, we're getting into a school routine that works for me. Or maybe its that I've let go of having a time schedule to get things done in and have become ok with it being out of order on a lot of days. 

- I've found a Charlotte Mason reading group that I like, and I'm going to go back. Experienced moms talk about how to implement parts of her original homeschooling volume, and last meeting, we got a sample lesson or two of how to do a Bible lesson Charlotte Mason style. One of the moms brought crates of books that she has picked up at used bookstores that are "twaddle free" or specific to Ambleside for the moms to pick through. It was great! 

- Seth is marching in his first parade tomorrow with his Tiger Cub den. I hope someone takes pictures for me. (We've decided that I'll spend the morning with the little boys because they wouldn't enjoy the parade, we suspect). I think that he'll LOVE it. Since I despise downtown traffic on a parade day, it's probably best that I stay far away anyway.