Chocolate Cake Day

Yesterday in the car on the way to school the guy on the radio told us that it was Chocolate Cake Day. The boys asked if we could have chocolate cake today and I said yes. They were so surprised.

They only have one after school club this week, which means we have lots of extra time in the evenings since we aren't rushing around. So after school we made a chocolate cake from scratch. Double-layer. We even made the frosting from scratch. It was fun and delicious and I was so proud and amazed. When we sat down for dinner the boys couldn't believe their good fortune. They were getting pizza and chocolate cake in the same night! It was a pretty awesome evening.

We had extra time this evening too. We had time to play two games of Yahtzee and one game of Sorry and there was hardly any fighting or cheating. Success! For dinner we had macaroni and cheese, vegetables, and mini hotdogs wrapped in pastry dough. (I know, but they were left overs and c'mon, it made the boys so happy.) Of course chocolate cake for dessert.

I think my favorite part of the night was when we shared "sports facts". I said Mia Hamm scored more soccer goals than any professional American male player (although I'm not entirely sure that is true). Jett rattled off about 5 Brett Favre stats, including number of attempted passes, number of completed passes, and number of touchdown passes. I looked them up online as he recited them to me. He was very close in every category.

We played the mirror game where we mimic each other's movements and Kai almost did the splits. He is really close.

Then I put them to bed and they told me they loved me. Jett wrapped my arm around him. Kai held my face in his hands.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Day 2015

Today we had a day off of school and work (more or less) in honor of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. We spent most of the day working around the house, playing board games, and negotiating screen time with the boys. They had soccer tonight, which finally got us all out of the house.

I always think, at random times throughout the year, that this year we'll do a service project with the boys on MLK day. You know, make it a day on not a day off. The trouble is that I never get around to actually planning a service project, and the day slips by and we've done nothing.

So to make up for it Charlie and I talk with the boys about Martin Luther King Jr. and they rattle of the facts they've learned about him at school, and that is that. This year wasn't that much different, except this time we acted like 21st century parents and used the internet and it was so much better.

First we watched The Story of Martin Luther King Jr. by Kid President. (Thanks for alerting me to that, Twitter!) At the end of the video Kid President mentions the book My Daddy, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, written by Martin Luther King III which the boys remembered reading in kindergarten. Kid President also encourages kids to "book it forward" by which I think he means to donate or share books. So the boys and I went through their books and picked out some they were ready to donate.

I had to talk them in to going through their books. They were afraid we were going to make a big mess by pulling all of the books off the shelves, and they didn't want to clean it up. But we kept running across books that we loved when they were little. Kai read and sang to himself the entire song in Down By the Bay. I found the counting book that Jett loved as a toddler. Memories! Cleaning up the books wasn't so bad, but giving some of them away is hard for me. I have to admit that I saved a couple. At any rate, we are going to donate their outgrown books to BooksFirst!. Each book they donate goes towards building a library in a Chicago Public School that does not have a library but does have a homeless population of more than 25%.

While cleaning out their bookshelves we ran across several books they haven't even read yet, including Mr. Lincoln's Way by Patricia Polacco. That book ties in to Martin Luther King Jr. day very well, so we read that too.

Charlie has started a tradition of reading from Wonderopolis at dinner some nights. So during our before soccer snack he read us Who Was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. which prompted a discussion about Rosa Parks who the boys knew about. Then we started talking about protests, so during bath time and dinner we read another Wonderopolis segment called What Was the Sit-In Movement.

In between all of this talking, watching, and reading we folded laundry, took a nap, fought, made up, played Clue and Twister, put kindles away, and negotiated the quantity of candy it would be ok to eat. Hopefully our conversations are sinking in amidst the noise of daily life. Still, if their teachers asked them what they did on MLK day, I know all they'll say is that they played wii. Kids!