Today we learned about Polar bears.  Wow!  We had no idea how big they really are until we did this project!  We measured and drew a life size , though admittedly skinny, Polar bear and put him up on the wall in our family room (which happens to have a vaulted ceiling).

They are actually 10 feet tall when they stand on their hind legs.  That is REALLY BIG!  Especially when compared to our family’s heights.  That’s what the boys are pointing to.  We found that a Polar bear is twice as tall as Mom, and five times the size of Liberty.

Reagan drew the head all by himself.

This was one of those projects that was totally spur of the moment.  It just grew out of their excitement and we went with it.  The trick is being open to those moments! 

Today was a record setting day for us.

1. Levi decided he did not like the taste of the sacrament bread and so he SPIT it back into the tray and picked another one instead. In horror I grabbed both of the pieces he touched from the tray as fast as I could, passed the tray on to Rock, and then reprimanded Levi for such an act. Whereupon he started to cry very loudly and had to be taken out of sacrament meeting. I was feeling bad for coming down so hard on him about it, (though, can you blame me? I was only thinking of the very unlucky person behind us who would have gotten a soggy piece of pre-chewed bread!) until I found that the reason he was crying was not a. because he felt bad, or b. that I was too hard in my reprimand, but because c. he hadn’t gotten any bread.
Record #1 set today: First child of ours to actually spit out the sacrament bread back into the tray. If this isn’t the biggest case of “Don’t eat the dandelions!” I don’t’ know what is!

2. Liberty was fussy and had to be taken out. When she calmed down we came back in and continued listening to the meeting. All of a sudden we heard a loud BAM! and then a wail and I turned to find that Liberty had launched herself in a nose dive back into the next pew and was now laying on the floor screaming. For a split second I looked at Rock in utter shock that he had missed this and he looked back at me in shock that I had missed it and then we both looked at the parent in the pew behind us in shock that HE too had missed this. Then, I half replicated her nose dive over the pew just to get her off the floor and ran from the room with her hugged tight to me as she continued her wailing. Luckily, she was not injured, just frightened. Favorite comment from a bystander: “Wow, your kid sure doesn’t bounce does she?”
Record #2 set today: First one of our children to fly over the back of the pew head first into someone else’s pew.

3. Liberty was fussy two more times during the meeting and had to be taken out. Rock brought her back in for the closing song figuring that she would be able to last that long. Nope.
Record #3 set today: Most times in one sacrament meeting that one of our children had to be taken out.

4. Ok, this is a good one. Reagan gave a talk today in primary that he wrote all by himself about choosing the right. It refers to something he did for me a few weeks ago that I already posted on here, but it’s infinitely better in his own words! Here it is, spelling mistakes and wording exactly as he wrote it:

I’m going to tell you that besides dad I sleep the most! So one morning mom woke me up way after all my brothers (as usual) and I could seriously tell she was not haveing a verey good morning. So I did my jobs trying to be as good as possible and after I finished I started drawing. Mean while Mom was frustrated with my brothers and trying to make fudge. then she realized she had forgotten the vanilla! She got out the blender and sure enough right after she turned it on, Liberty, my baby sister started screaming. Then the blenders broke. Now imagin you sitting in the livingroom drawing while your Mom is having a HORROR morning!!! I didn’t feel verey good abaut that. So I snuk into Libys room. She stared at me like I was a maniac, but I didn’t care. I changed her diaper, got her dressed, and did her hair. Mom loved this and I was happy for the rest of the day. When you do something good Heavenly Father blesses you or makes you happy. in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
Record #4 set today: First child of ours to write his very own talk! The oohs and awes in the primary room from all the other moms over his diaper changing ability AND writing his own talk and the fact that the kids laughed at the right spots expanded Reagan’s head size by quite a bit. He was flying high when he stepped down from the little primary podium today. And I have to admit, so was his mom.

To finish up our study on knights, we went to Medieval Times!  For those who don’t know, it’s dinner theater in a castle where you watch knights joust and sword fight all while you eat a medieval dinner!  Here’s the link to a video that shows you what it’s like.  http://www.medievaltimes.com/lyndhurst/abouttheshow.aspx
This was one of the coolest things I’ve ever done!  And it was SO fun to take my super excited boys to it.  We sat at tables surrounding an arena and watched the King and Knights of the Realm act out a real tournament.  The stage fighting was so awesome Reagan was worried someone was really going to get hurt.  They even had a falconer there and he let his Peregrine falcon fly up and around over our heads!  That was definitely the highlight for Cade. 
Before we went, I let the boys play the games on the website.  Try em out, their lots of fun and pretty fast!
http://www.medievaltimes.com/lyndhurst/crush-the-castle.aspx
http://www.medievaltimes.com/lyndhurst/dragonshot.aspx

Speechless with awe.

The restrooms

We sat in the yellow knight’s section.  He didn’t win the tournament and was actually “killed” in a sword fight, but he was fun to root for.

The boys have been anxiously awaiting our study of medieval knights and castles all year and we just spent the last two weeks learning about everything from weaponry and jousting (the highlight) to chivalry and the feudal system. We learned about many of the famous knights and what it actually took to become one. We also included the Armor of God in our study.
The boys designed their own coat of arms.

The Cheetah (of course)

Cade’s new favorite color is yellow.

They designed their own castle.



They can now tell you about all the different parts of a castle. Do any of you know what a garderobe is? How about a bailey?

They also made their own catapults.

We have been wanting to take the boys to one of these for a while now and decided upon last weekend to do it.  Being the novices that we were, we thought it rather odd that people were selling earplugs outside the parking garage.  “C’mon I thought, how loud can it be?”  The closer we got to our seats, the more little kids I saw with ear protection and adults with ear plugs.  That’s when I started to worry.  And sure enough, as the trucks started up their thunderous engines we were all deafened.  I have never EVER heard anything so loud!  Poor Levi tried to be brave but started to cry and I had to rush him out the door (no easy feat in a stadium) and stand in a really long line to buy $20.00 (!) ear protectors.  I was kicking myself because of course we had a 50 pack at home that cost only $2.00.  If only I’d known!!!!  The other boys suffered through ok and we managed to have a good time.  Needless to say when we were done, our ears and arms hurt.


Yes, we looked ridiculous, but it was so painfully loud I did not care!
 

Here’s a video of one of the races.

Levi has been sick the past few days, but not quite sick enough to need a nap… or so I thought.   During quiet time he was in the basement playing. When I opened the door to check on him, I found him like this:

Totally out with the lights on.  This may be common in your households, but not mine!

That sure sounds really old. (At first, I wrote “hideously old” but I’ll save that title for Forty). On my birthday the boys made me breakfast in bed, sort of. Rock woke up to find them all in Liberty’s room with her naked on the changing table having been waked up way before she was ready to get up. They were trying to change her diaper and get her dressed. He quickly and somehow magically put her back to bed and she actually went back to sleep. He then shooed the boys downstairs to prepare their breakfast downstairs.

When I came downstairs Reagan said to me, “We tried to make your birthday exciting since you are getting older.” Gee thanks!
They took me to dinner at our favorite restaurant that night. The next day Rock took me to see Lion King on Broadway! Sorry for the bad pictures. All we had was my cellphone….

And here are a couple random funnies for ya.  The other day we were busy moving all the furniture around to make a better home office for Rock.  When I came down to check on Libby, I found her like this:

Later that night after we had moved the three boys in together to make Rock’s office, Levi came up to me and said, “Mom, can I sleep with Libby in her room cause she’s my favorite person in this house.”

I think she’s everyone’s favorite, Levi!

As Cubmaster this year, Rock was in charge and also very busy with job interviews, so he and Reagan decided to go sleek and simple.  Reagan did everything but the wheels this time.  
 

The Grey Wolf
 
Though he didn’t set any world (or ward) speed records, he had a good time.  And so did Liberty.  She wandered all over the place getting into things….. 

First she scored some lip gloss,
 
then some tissue.
 
In the end she decided to share the loot with a friend.
A good time was had by all!  So looking forward to next year when we get to make TWO Pinewood Derby cars!

We were beginning to feel jealous of our Seattle friends and family because of all the snow they’ve gotten. But the snow finally came a few weeks ago and I’m just now blogging it. It didn’t snow a ton, but enough to get out and play in. The boys got to break in their new sleds and Libby got to play in her first snow. She’s been preparing for weeks now….

Hopefully we’ll get some more, but with the way our weather has been lately, I’m not holding my breath.  Unfortunately, this means we’ll get to hear more moaning and whining from Reagan.  He has been so spoiled with snow in his life that he thinks nature owes him several feet of snow every year.  Rock and I, on the other hand, are happy that we haven’t had as much as last year.  Shoveling our driveway is NOT fun.

Back in November we decided that it was time to find a different job, preferably one where Rock could work from home. He has loved working at Fog Creek, but his three hour commute into NYC was wearing on him too much. We also knew we wanted to go back to the west where it’s cheaper and closer to our immediate family. So…after a grueling interview process at several different companies Rock accepted a job at a company called TrackAbout. http://corp.trackabout.com/ They are paying him almost the same salary we are making now AND he gets to work from home! Now he’ll have more time to help out with our homeschool and to pursue his hobby of coding for the Kahn Academy. http://www.khanacademy.org/
Now instead of fabulous catered lunches overlooking New York Harbor, he’ll get to have chicken nuggets and apple slices overlooking the sandbox. But I’m so grateful he is willing to “sacrifice” to be at home with us! And I think he’s very happy to trade in his NYC walking shoes

For his slippers

His office will now be exactly 3 steps from his bedroom instead of 3 hours. Woohoo!

During this whole process, and after an actual interview in Boise, ID, Rock and I feel like Boise is the place for us next. It is right in the middle of both of our families, I have a brother and aunt in Boise, and we can afford a nice house with land for our boys to explore and run free on. (Reagan has informed us that he wants a yard like Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. ie. climbing trees, lots of room to hide in and a stream with fish in it.) Rock and I both want a drier climate and with all the great amenities of the Boise area I think we’ll be happy there. We’ll probably move in June when our lease is up here. We have loved our time here in the East. And have loved spending time with all our eastern relatives. It’s been a huge growing experience for all of us. And now we are looking forward to being back in the west and near many of you again!