Archive | September 2010

A New Week Begins

Well the lovely weather is continuing. So out the twins went during naptime today. There were apples to collect, toys  to sort and sun to enjoy… and apparently a sandbox full of muddy water to take FULL advantage of! The joy of having boys.

Out in the backyard (Zander)

Ken and Zander worked on learning subtraction so he is now caught up with where Gavin is math wise. We ordered our rods today so we can work on counting past 20 with clear visual aids. Right now all we have are twenty little snap together blocks which work wonderfully, but not past ONE child counting and adding or subtracting two and from 20. It feels like a huge accomplishment though, getting them to understand adding and subtracting.

Subtracting like a Pro (Zander)

Gavin spent some time doing one of his favourite things – drawing whatever he wants with the markers and scribbler Nana and Baba bought him. This time he drew a cookie making machine and something to go up on the wall by Daddy’s desk.

Cookie machine on left... right umm....

I finished the Baptism invites we need to mail out to the people without internet. Now all that is left is Ken walking to the post box. Oh and planning out the party… I have to decide on a cake, decorations, etc etc. Nothing major but it has to be done!

Our facilitator is here Wednesday… I have to spend some time writing out our plan for the year… it is at least a starting point and of course cleaning as much as I can so we at least look somewhat tidy. My main focus with the boys is reading and numbers… I want to move from simple adding and subtracting and counting to scaled and eventually money… and of course ABC’s and reading. I have Canada and US as a focus and of course the dinosaurs. Lots and lots of art and crafts and running around outside and of course science… Science is something Ken tends to do with the boys, we want to do a lovely focus on snow, ice and water this winter. Maybe go back over the body and focus more on complex ideas. I am trying to balance them learning with not pushing too hard as with Zander especially, you push and he shuts down.

Right  now I am on the hunt for the missing dress. One of Trinity’s old ones – size 0-3 months, she wore it right before her baptism (the Sunday before) and I swear it hung in our closet FOREVER and now… no clue. Amazing how I can think I know where everything is and then one thing is just not there. BUT we are seeing the end of the clutter to sort through so that is something.

Since we got hugely busy Friday night until today our poor leaves went crisp so Ken and the kids went for a brief walk to collect a new set of leaves.

Trinity and Gavin

And then we did our leaf stamp craft. First you paint the leaf, then flip it over and press it on your note paper, cover it with a piece of scrap paper and rub… pull off leaf and there you go!

Completed leaf stamp

Of course this meant we moved on to just painting… using our fall colours of course.

Painting (Zander right)

Mom and Mike stopped by with Harley in tow tonight to drop off a few things she found for me. Diapers – though not the Sprinkles kind we have for Echo to start with, a cloth diaper with the liners sewn in… I am sure they will come in handy, as well as some large Sprinkles liners (in girly colours!), a pair of much needed pants for the twins AND a furry rug for Emanuel’s room. Talk about spoiled!

Diapers!

Still no word on the van repairs but we are keeping optimistic. Ken figures we should know what is wrong by tomorrow.

We removed the safety guard on Emanuel’s bed tonight. With the furry rug mom got for us to put in front of his bed (his old one is in Trinity’s room) and how well he sleeps I am not overly worried about him falling out. One more big boy big step!

Note the 100% big boy bed

We even apparently have two little baby fish! Not sure when that happened but they seem to be doing well… at least they haven’t been eaten today!

So for the rest of my evening I have to start working on making a Math Office (more about that tomorrow). Watch some of the new Sherlock Holmes series (British of course) and spend more time with our Baby Girl. Bliss.

Naptime

Whirlwind Weekend

What a weekend, a little down but a lot of up! So let’s start with the sucky… the van… oh dear I can hear everyone groan! But for once, it is NOT the BANK… no this is just a transmission issue (I say just because it could be a lot worse – that mess from earlier this year all over again!). Ken had noticed the van had been “acting weird” so he called our mechanic Saturday morning (the guy who fixed the van 2 yrs ago when Ken hit an icy patch and broke the front wheel axle coming home with Trinity from one of her infant appointments… 600.00 LESS than the dealership estimated!!). The mechanic had him check some codes on the computer on the van and figured it was a transmission issue and not  to be driven. Thank goodness for AAA (Ken’s folks give it to us each year for Christmas) who towed the van right over there… AFTER Ken pulled everything out of it, carseats, diaperbags and all. We should hear something back on Monday.

This completely blew our Saturday plans out of the water. Michaels is not nearby so Echo and I went back to sleep and the kids and Ken hung out and played.

Somehow Trinity spent half the day in Emanuel's pants??

After the younger two had their nap and we all had a nice afternoon snack we decided to take advantage of the amazingly lovely weather (after hitting the – Celsius we hit +25!) and went on a family walk to the gas station. The leaves are changing and starting to fall off the trees and combined with the warm weather it was a perfect walk. Gavin even pulled the wagon for a large portion of the way both ways while Zander burned off some energy running ahead.

Gavin pulling

Fall is here (Zander)

Best ride!

On the way home we collected leaves to do a painting craft. Gavin gathered a special handful for a craft he wanted to do on his own – making a leaf (and stick) lapbook all by himself. After over an hour of work gluing, taping, drawing more leaves and copying some words it was all done. (All this while the other 3 played downstairs)

Gavin at work

I did manage to get a scrapbooking page done – another one for Echo. Tonight I have to do up the baptism invites for the people we need to mail out. I managed to get stamps last night from 7-11 and Ken knows of a not too far away post box so at least I can get THAT accomplished (and maybe use it as an excuse for another family walk?).

1 week old

I did get in a little time with the camera and Echo Friday night. I tried out our fake leaves, but I think if I change them to black and white or sepia it would look better.

Attempting leaves

And another go at baby on Daddy’s hand.

Cradled on Daddy's hand

Saturday night Chris and Chris came over and He Chris made garlic meatballs… yummy… they planned on staying the night so that we could all go to the museum in the morning. They had 3 spots free for the girls and myself and Sean (who bought Alan and Xinny’s old car) had 4 spaces for the boys and Ken. Thank goodness!!

We stopped at McD’s for breakfast on the run (of course the van has to be towed when we have not done our grocery shop) and then off to John Walter. There was games right out front – croquet, beanbag toss…

Croquet with Uncle Sean (Zander

Beanbag toss (Gavin grey)

Even a sort of trike/wagon thing. The gentleman in charge of the area was very patient and kind.

Going for a ride with Uncle Chris

Next stop – the middle era house and the then dubbed “cookie lady” making sugar cookies on the wood stove. It was so lovely and warm in there and Chris, Chris and I hung out with Echo for a bit to watch . Then over to the craft table where they were making necklaces and bracelets out of wooden beads using the morse code to create each child’s name! Trinity had the most fun with the stringing of the beads, though she managed to get Sean and Ken to do most of the work towards the end!

Working out the morse code (Zander red)

Trinity and her helpers

In the 1901 house (the most recent there) they were making homemade ice cream. All 4 kids each had their own cone – Trinity’s first and made a HUGE mess but loved every minute of it!

Mmm ice cream

After all the fun at the museum area we headed over to the leisure centre across the parking lot. They had a giant bouncy SLIDE! Everyone but Trinity went and had a few rides!

Zander on the slide

Once we got home and the little ones were in bed for naps Ken and Chris (he) ran out for the necessary groceries (thanks guys!) and to pick up a desk for She Chris. When they got back Chris (she) and I ran out for errands… Fabricland to pick up some stretchy lace (I ended up getting bra strap material), Michaels for my adhesive (in stock!) and then to the new H&W to get bananas and such since we are not sure we will have the van for our usual Wednesday trip. By the time we got back Karyn and her parents were over for a baby cuddle! Her parents are up from Saskatchewan so we don’t get a chance to see them that often!

Karyn's Mom

So our revised schedule for the upcoming week is a whole lot of hurry up and wait! Ken is going to call in our homeschooling supply order tomorrow morning, though I am not sure how or when we will go pick it up. That is HUGELY exciting though not overly surprising how easy it is to spend the whole amount! Hopefully Ken will get me the rest of the pattern I a waiting on at least by tomorrow. I want to get my “to do” list more manageable!

Me!

All 5 in a row (Zander red)

Weekend Is Here FINALLY

The weekend is finally here and I for one, am glad. We have a Michaels craft tomorrow morning and the free attraction day on Sunday. We have Chris and Chris staying the night on Saturday and potentially Karyn and her parents joining us at the museum. Friends and educational fun is always a terrific combination.

This morning I got up bright and early to get us all ready to head out to weigh Echo only for us to decide to use our own scale and stay home – Ken was up late working and had had only an hour of sleep. 8lbs 11.2oz… don’t ask me where she is putting it?? She gained close to a whole pound in 2 weeks again! And yet so few of her clothes are fitting, everything else is too big!

Creeping up on 9 lbs!

So instead with everyone up and alert (except Ken who had to take a nap), we got right to work on the homeschooling. I am loving the individual folders with worksheets… each of the twins took out the sheet of their choice and worked on that while Trinity coloured some of the pages I left her in her own folder… and coloured her folder.

Zander in grey

Emanuel chose to do a puzzle on his own – our floor puzzle of Thomas. All by himself he actually finished it for once!

All done!

Trinity gave our Pocoyo puzzle a go but it was Gavin who sat down and basically finished it for her.

Puzzling Pocoyo

I actually managed to finish a scrapbook page for Echo last night – this one for when Esther came and spent the weekend with us. I have to cut out more shapes with the last of my metallic paper using Karyn’s Cricut as I have been using the ones I made for fun up on her pages at a faster rate than expected.

Scrapbooking Esther

With the weather turned nice and us home for another day we balanced out time between the kids playing outside and downstairs, early to bed and a quiet evening for Ken and myself. Maybe take some photos of Echo once she gets nice and asleep, play a game on the laptop, watch tv… I don’t have a pattern to work on so I am a little limited but I also am a little burned out so maybe it is time for a down evening.

Gavin's Thomas picture!!!!

Asleep