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.