Tea lover

I don't know if I've mentioned the tea obsession of our smallest boy. If he hears the word tea, he immediately runs to the drawer and finds his travel mug and carries it to you saying "peas, peas". Very sweet - unless you refuse his request. On Saturday morning he drank most of my tea, all of his tea, and the rest of his brother's tea. His goal right now is to subsist solely on bread products and tea with scrambled eggs and yogurt if he must. You'll notice a lack of plants in this diet. Unfortunately we often have to insist that he include these in his day but it does make for some difficult dinners.

 
 

Here's what happens when you're 5, and you spend a lot of time with your math-obsessed older brother:

If his kindergarten classroom had access to proper math layout software, that would have come out:

But it wouldn't have had the adorable square, nor the backwards four.

October favorites

Since this is really the only record of our lives (and a spotty one at best), I wanted to write down what the boys have been up to. Mr. 7 read most of the Warrior series this month thanks to a generous contribution from Great Nana and Mr. 5 enjoyed Geronimo Stilton but Commaner Toad is still at the top of his list. We also read through The Odyssey - an abridged version for kids but still a rather complete story. I tried to paraphrase a bit when Odysseus met up with Circe and then Calypso but it's always hard when Mr. 7 is reading over your shoulder. I don't know if I had ever read all of it and it is quite a story but next time I probably won't read about people being eaten to my children while riding the train. You get some odd looks.

One day, Mr. 7 decided he needed to collect a book from each era of history starting with the Stone Age and moving through Classical, Medieval, Renaissance, Exploration, Enlightenment, Romance, Modern, Post-Modern, and Information Age. This was inspired by Innovation, a game we borrowed for the weekend from Google. Luckily Usborne (and the library) did us pretty well until we got to Exploration and Enlightenment. He was so disappointed that we couldn't find books on these eras (after we had trekked our books all over the library looking - turns one book to cover these eras just doesn't exist) that we gathered books from our house to cover each of the remaining eras. Luckily we have way too many books! For Enlightenment, we found Darwin, John Locke. For Romance, some poetry by Blake and a book on Monet and one on Beethoven. For Modern, we threw in Karl Popper (but not Ulysses). For post-modern, we showed him some him a picture by Jackson Pollock (he did not seem impressed) and The Monster at the End of This Book (now adopted by Mr. 1). And we have many books from the Information Age. There were others that I can't remember but you get the idea. It was actually really fun putting it together and they sat in a huge pile in our living room until they were knocked over by Mr. 1 and banished to the office and from there diffusion just takes over.

 

Mr. 1 learned to walk backwards and to turn in circles which we does quite proudly. Mr. 5 and Mr. 7 are enjoying piano lessons and we played lots of soccer which is happily now over. With practice for Mr. 7 on Friday evening, practice for Mr. 5 on Saturday mornings, and games for Mr. 7 on Sunday afternoons, it was just too busy but everyone seemed to love it and we've signed up for the spring at their insistence. Tomorrow Mr. 7 and I go to our first rehearsal for the The Space Opera which is put on by the North Cambridge Family Opera. We had to try out (but luckily they let just about everyone be in the chorus which is what I was hoping for although Mr. 7 is hoping for a solo). I think it will be lots of fun and we hope everyone in Boston will come see us April 2nd, 3rd, 9th, or 10th.

Adventure calling...

 
 

And he's ready to answer.

Leaf piles

Mr. 5 asked all week if we could rake the leaves up into a big pile and jump in it so we asked our neighbors to not rake so we could do it (what of course that means is that our wonderful neighbors have been doing most of the raking which we really appreciate). Of course we were at the park and almost didn't make it home in time to rake. Luckily we had some good friends to help and we had a great time making a big pile and jumping in it! They kept yelling to "get the leaf man" and I was a bit worried about Mr. 1 and the swinging rakes but we survived. I love fall in New England. There's nothing like the satisfying crunch of leaves under your feet - or the sound of kids laughing together while gathering the leaf men and throwing themselves into the pile with them.

 
 
 
 

Book lovers

Mr. 1 loves to read - especially Bear Snores On, All Aboard, Freight Train (yes another train-loving-boy - Mr. 1 and I actually spent most of the evening building train tracks and playing with trains while the older brothers programmed with Dad) and tonight's favorite The Monster at the End of This Book (which I read 5 times tonight before bed at his insistence). He will bring his book and pull you to the couch in order to read which is really hard to resist. Luckily we have some able helpers in Mr. 5 and Mr. 7 who take good care of their brother.

 
 
 

Halloween circa 1982

When we asked the boys who they wanted to be for Halloween, they immediately chose Tron (from the 1982 movie of that name) and Copper (Tron's imaginary best friend who is very powerful and protects Mr. 5 from any bad guy that might be around - with the GGA's help of course). And they chose Sark for Mr. 1. Hmm... Where were we going to find these costumes - particularly given that Copper's fame has not yet spread.

So I ordered shirts and pants and glow-in-the-dark tape and made the costumes based on a picture Mr. 7 drew and the lightcycle clip from Tron on YouTube. The boys were pleasd with the results and they really did glow in the dark.

Luckily the boys debuted their costumes at the Google Halloween party where Tron is widely known and appreciated and they were happily identified correctly by many. On Halloween night Mr. 7 explained to every house who the boys were and some information about the movie, passing his love of this classic. We're still working on our Halloween candy and probably will be until Christmas (when I secretly throw all the the Halloween candy and replace it with the Chistmas sweets).

 
 
 
 

Favorite friend

Meet Andy (short for Androcles) - he is Asher's favorite friend. Sort of a Winnie the Pooh to Christopher Robin. Or an AAA to Mr.5.

 
 
 

It's good to have a friend!