Random things

 Last Sunday Hank had his second cross country meet in the mountains of Thurmont.  We did the course walk beforehand and I told Hank if he survived this run, he could call himself a real trail runner. The only thing they didn't have to do was cross a stream or river.  It was a pretty technical trail for 7-8 year olds, but it looked like a lot of fun too.

This isn't a very good picture of Hank but it shows one of the corners that gave a lot kids trouble. At the end of the fence they had to make a 90 degree right turn, and there's a steep slope down the hill at that point too so lots of kids were slipping and falling there.

Coming into the home stretch. He was 40 seconds slower than his last run but still came in 12th again.

Every other Friday we meet with our friends from our homeschool co-op to do crafts and activities. This is definitely the high light of the kids' week. We used to meet twice a week EVERY week so seeing them just twice a MONTH now has caused them to go through terrible withdrawal!  I am quite happy to have that time back, but I do miss seeing MY friends every week too. But such is the life of a homeschool mom in the boonies...and a big part of why I run!

This week Mrs B had them re-enact the Tower of Babel. The girls were a little less crazed about it than the boys, but they had a lot of fun

Then they got to flatten out wads of clay into tablets and use a wedge to write in Cuneiform. Ella's in on the left. The bigger one says "heart" and the smaller one says her name.  I have no idea what Hank's says. He and the boys at his table formed some sort of club with code names and secret passwords. He said something about having to kill me if he told so I didn't press him on it. 

If you live in the mid-Atlantic region then you know all about stinkbugs.  We are blessed to live in a rural area where there is plenty for stinkbugs to eat which means there are plenty of stinkbugs....like swarms of Biblical proportions. It's disgusting and maddening. When it's time to leave the house for anything, I line the kids up in the hallway, open the door slowly so as not to disturb the million bugs resting on the door and have the kids run out like maniacs (shrieking and arms flailing to keep bugs from landing on them). Fun times happening here.

Lately I've been finding interesting drawings lying around the house. Ella draws continually so I'm used to finding her creations stashed here and there. I thought the first of these drawings was Ella's ode to the stinkbugs. Then I looked closer and saw they weren't as "Ella-fied" as her usual drawings. 

Hank has been drawing his ode to his little sister.

This totally made me laugh out loud, discreetly, of course

This says, "Ella is stinkypants" Such sophistocated humor

And yes, we're working on both of them being kind and respectful towards each other

So what's happening in your world these day?