Ups and downs

We capped off a great weekend with Nana and Papa with a great Superbowl party. We left right before the third quarter and the boys really wanted to watch the end when we got home. Thanks to the power of the internet and streaming, we were able to watch the final sad moments of the game. Mr. 9 cried at the Patriots loss, the first time he has actually cared about the fate of a sports team. It was a great night.

Monday morning everyone slept in a bit... Except Mr. 6 who was up right at 7am after going to bed after 10pm. Mr. 9 and Mr. 2 followed about 30 minutes later. We had a hard time getting started and an even harder time keeping on task. Especially my early riser who couldn't concentrate for more than about 2 minutes at a time. We ended up getting through the majority of our work somehow (math, grammar, spelling words, a bit of reading) and then I just let them play with legos while I read. It was 50 degrees outside so we ate a quick lunch and I tried to get everyone outside for a bit of sunshine before quiet time. Of course Mr. 0 needed a new diaper and Mr. 2 was cranky and so it was a good 15 minutes of scrambling before we could actually get outside. I was pretty sure we didn't have enough energy to make it to the park so we headed to the backyard. On the way out the door Mr. 9 asked if he could take out a camera and I told him no. The boys tend to walk around viewing the world through the small screen on the back of the camera rather than actually looking around (and moving around) and so I told him we weren't going to be out for long and we should just enjoy the beautiful day. He sulked for the rest of the 10 minutes we lasted. Mr. 6 refused to listen to anything I said and when I finally had Mr. 2 engaged in a game of baseball, he kept trying to distract him. Fed up, I ordered my crew inside. The older boys grabbed their books (they're smart enough to realize that my patience was gone) and I took Mr. 2 downstairs to read. He could barely keep his eyes open for Owl Moon (one of my new favorites). Between his nap and Mr. 0's schedule, by the time we could try the great outdoors again it was after 4pm and already 20 degrees colder. We lasted 15 minutes and headed back in.

Today was so much better. We still had questionable concentration skills but the boys were engaged. We made it through the morning work and after lunch I got everyone down for quiet time. Even Mr. 0 fell asleep. I decided I needed 5 minutes of quiet before I got to work and the next thing I knew Mr. 9 was telling me Mr. 0 was crying. Everyone had been happily reading - the older boys for more than an hour and I had fallen asleep. Mr. 6 was reading The Last Battle and said he only had 3 pages left and had to finish it. He must have read half the book today. What an amazing contrast from the beginning of the year when getting him to read a chapter was a struggle.

After regrouping I decided to try reading Pagoo by Holling Clancy Holling to the boys. It is the story of a hermit crab with beautiful illustrations and everyone was really interested and instead of one chapter, I read three. Then we turned on Song School Latin and the boys happily played while singing "My pater is really my father". Highs and lows - those are our days.