No more school, no more books!

Teachers gifts done. Barely- but check!

Bagel bites and German Chocolate cake made for restaurant. Sort of- check!
We made two cakes- one I frosted with the German Chocolate icing and then checked the expiration date, Umm 30 March 2001- maybe it won't be too bad. So I tasted a small bit. Well, that one went into the trash. Glad we made two. So the German Chocolate cake was only German because we said so, otherwise it was just chocolate cake!

One Yearbook shared equally between two kids-
Check!
Here we go- No more school, no more books, thankfully there never were any teachers dirty looks! Thanks to all our wonderful teacher!!

Graduations

Aren't they all adorable? I took a picture of Joseph as he waited, but then he turned around and posed and said, take another one, Mom! Then he said, "now you can put that one on the internet!" His teacher gave him the award for best writer, because she said that he had stories to tell and his stories always sounded just like him talking with all the "oof's" and "oh my's" in them!
On the last day of school I had to take him into the clinic, though. He has a large lump in the back of his neck that won't go away. He was given some antibiotics and the doctor said he would need some blood to check the WBC's, etc. I turned to Joseph and told him, "baby (my last two are both still baby to me) they are going to have to take some blood." He started to cry and I told him that it wouldn't be that bad, that he would only feel it a little. But then he surprised me by saying, "am I going to die, now?'' I thought he must have figured out that I was worried about it being cancerous, but no, it was all about the blood, because "Sam said if you loose this much blood you die." (He held his hands out to show how much blood he ment.) I explained that it would take more than that to kill him and then that they were only going to take a very little. He was very brave from then on out. I turned his head and talked to him like my mommy did for me the first time I had my blood taken (well, OK, it was their second attempt, but that is a horror story for another day!) and he did great.
Joseph also just graduated to a big kid swimmer. He wanted so badly to go off the diving board with all the older children at a friend recent swimming party that he took a little rest from swimming and then found me to tell me he was ready to take the test. I really didn't think he could make it, but he did. He swam the whole (short) length of the pool for the lifeguard and then got to use the diving board and the water slide! I was so proud of him!!

New skills

Joseph acquired a new skill this weekend. We have been too busy to try it, but we finally had a minute to breath on Sunday. We went with some friends to a park. One of their friends had a little motorbike. Joseph wanted to ride it so bad, but since he couldn't ride a two-wheeler, we said "no." So he decided to just learn!

Surf's up, Dude!

Max says this all the time. I don't even know where he got it from. So for his birthday we had to have a surfing party! We were going to do it at a little beach area, but it was raining- again!! So we hurried and got approval to do it at our church. It was a swinging party! The cake was actually three cakes- 1 13x9 and 2 squares stuck together and cut into the shape of a surf board. I also made pineapple ice cream.
Joseph was quite the host and showed everyone around. He showed them the Tikki bar- where the food was- our drinks are on the floor in a tiny little pool that was filled with ice, the beach where you could pose on your surf board (ironing board!) and a surf shop where he told everyone that they could have anything they wanted all for free. You didn't have to pay anything, it was all free! This was were the prizes and leis were. We gave them a sand bucket with a shovel, glasses, a pinwheel, bubbles, and a little water ball. We also did pinjata's, as we do every year, but this year we had two- one for the older kids and one for the younger. And no surfer party would be complete without the traditional limbo and hoola hoop contests. I think the Soderquist won the limbo hands down. CC won the hoola hoop! The best thing of all was that at the end of the day when I was putting Max to bed, he told me thank you, that was the funniest party ever and then he said a prayer and told God all about his fun party! Wish Daddy could have made it out of Panama to be there, but at least he was home to kiss Max good-night at 11:30 pm!

Experimentation

The other day Joseph asked where he could get some DNA from and how he could change it. I told him that I didn't think He could change it, but that he could get some in hair. I was at the sink, washing dishes at the time. Next thing I knew he was saying "Hold still, Mom" and pushing a stool close to me and then Yank! And then again, Yank and then again and again and again. I guess it took him a while to get a hair he liked. Then he began his experiment. We can now definitively tell you that pouring blue Gatorade onto your DNA does not change it!
The second half of my experiment post is entitled "Experimentation in wax or Why you should never attempt your own bikini wax!" in stream of consciousness:
I may regret this
Ouch- oh nothing came off, probably too much wax. Guess I better put another paper on.
OOOOOOOOUUCHHHHHHH. Dang that got the root. But it only got half the hair. Oh now the wax- it's everywhere. Must have bumped it when I was pulling. oooh, stop it from going down the drain. That will be a mess. Is that blood? Darn thing caused me to bleed. Yuck, now it's all over my hands, got to get this off. Nope, water doesn't work and now it's all over the shower. That was bright, now I am stuck to the whole wad of papers. This is going to take a lot of work!
And that is where we will leave you. Bottles of alcohol and the stuff they put in those kits to sooth your skin after, the bathroom is mostly clean again- although my feet keep sticking to the floor and I still had to shave. Experimental distaster!