Charlie's Assembly

Charlie had an assembly where his class performed the poem, "Builders" for the school to hear.  He did great!  He has the entire thing memorized.  We have been working on it at home and Henry and Lizzy have it practically memorized, too.

I saw them tearing a building down,

A gang of men in a busy town,

With a yo heave ho and a lusty yell.

They swung a beam and the sidewall fell. 

I asked the foreman if these men were as skilled

As those he would hire if he were to build.

He laughed and said, "Oh, no indeed,

Common labor is all I need, 

For they can wreck in a day or two

What builders have taken years to do."

So I asked myself, as I went my way

Which of these roles am I to play?

Am I the builder, who works with care

Measuring life by the rule and square;

Or am I the wrecker who walks the town

Content in the role of tearing down?

I have made my decision, I'll start today

I'll be a builder in every way!

Charlie has a phenomenal school!  It was just great to see all of the school's awesomeness in action.  They played a song for the kids to dance to and then they sat perfectly still.  They had them stand for the pledge perfectly (they had to stand twice since it wasn't perfect the first time) did the Pledge and then sang the first two verses of The Star Spangled Banner.

Charlie's Kindergarten class performed their poem.  Almost at the end the class started to not be in sync and so his teacher had them start all the way over.  The 2nd grade class recited the preamble to the Constitution.

(This is just a cool painting on one of the school walls)

It was great to see all of the kids in their uniforms; nice and neat.  The assembly was the first thing of the day and so all of their backpacks were next to them all on their left not being played with.  They made a great announcement near the beginning of the rules of the assembly so that the kids knew that the rules were to be followed.  The kids sat still and quiet very well throughout without correction from the teachers.

In perfect unison they would do a specific cheer right on cue.  They had about 10 different types of cheers memorized.  They also did a silent applause during all of the student of the month awards for each class.  The student of the month was chosen on the specific Builders theme for the month.  This month it was enthusiasm.  They then reviewed the month's other theme of honesty and what it meant to be perfectly honest.  At the end of the assembly they did a school cheer.  And then they played a song for the kids to dance to before going to class perfectly quietly.

Charles' Cake

I made Charles a birthday cake.  Yes, I know I am supposed to do this every year, but this year I really made a real cake.  This will probably be the first and last time that I make a really cool cake.  Here was the grueling process.

I tried making white cake.  The first one was flat and heavy.

The second was too light and sunk.

After calling Jan for help she suggested using a box cake.  It was BEAUTIFUL!

I made delicious frosting and frosted the four layer cake.

I made a beautiful mirror glaze using gelatin, white chocolate, and sweetened condensed milk.

I glazed the cake and froze it.  The glaze wasn't as thick as it should have been unfortunately.

Previously I had made tons of sugar crystals with the help of mom.  And made some piping gel.

I chopped out a section of the cake and used the piping gel to add the rock candy.  The piping gel cooled quickly against a frozen cake and I had to work quickly and keep reheating the gel.

I ended up putting too much decor on the cake; oh well.  It was fun though!