Sunday can mean many things, though rarely (for this family) a day of rest. Today was no exception. Echo and I bribed Ken with an extra hour of sleep so that we could remain home during Sunday School. Echo was in sore need of a nap by 9am and class starts at 9:30. Yours truly was feeling much the same way, so I dressed the other 4 and saw them off before crawling up under a blanket on the couch for my own snooze. A little beam of sunshine, a warm blanket and the silence that is a virtually empty house. In fact, it was so quiet I could hear music playing in the other side of the duplex!

Pretty in Pink

I was woken up 5 min before the family returned by people asking to shovel our walk (that’s ok Ken needs the exercise…). With Echo still firmly asleep and the kids changed out of their church clothes I returned to my snuggle on the couch while they played, coloured and generally kept busy. That is until lunch time… a light lunch, some sorting of winter gear and lining up the return of our borrowed van (thanks again Chris and Chris) and we were ready to head out to the pond and our next big excitement – a sledding and skating party! 

Our backyard right now

We have had a massive amount of snow come down the past two days… I think well over 20 cm and with no wind and the sun out it was pretty much a perfect day for the event. There is a little building there that had washroom and rentals and even a little snack shop so bathroom breaks were easy! We lucked out and were able to have a little bonfire right in front of the ice and off to the side from the sledding hill. 

The first go down the hill Zander and Gavin bonked heads but went on for more. Trinity and Emanuel did ONE run with Daddy down the big hill and Trinity was DONE… Emanuel went with a sled and made his OWN hill off to the side and had a blast! He can be so independent!

Heading up the hill

Spontaneous snow angel

Zander was the only one who tried skating, though Gavin showed interest and got distracted. We borrowed a pair of skates for a couple days so that he can go on a special outing on Tuesday with Ken to give it a go! He did rather good for a first try and had a blast doing it.

Skating

There was hot chocolate, hotdog and marshmallows as well as some bags of chips and things. Lots of people to help with the making of it and the kids ate their fill and then some! I got to sit and chat with one of Emanuel and Trinity’s teachers and Echo was passed around a little. She was less than fond of her snowsuit and wiggled one hand out to hold her binky so we had to wrap her in her blanket as well. She and Alaskan Sock Monkey just laid back and took it all in rather quietly.

Snacks

Echo and Alaskan Sock Monkey

We stayed much longer than we expected and enjoyed ourselves thoroughly, it was not until the drive home (poor van) that we realized how chilled everyone BUT Echo was! So it was home to get into pj’s or in Emanuel’s case a bath first THEN pj’s and then quiet playtime before a light supper and bed. Poor Ken ended the evening feeling WORSE than he started off so I had to make the trek to the convenience store for sauce for noodles (and no slurpee… me and exact change math were not happy and it was too cold to walk back with it tonight). 

Sitting by the fire

There is some prep work for different St. Patrick’s Day crafts still to be done. Tomorrow the plan is to make smelly Shamrocks, and have the little ones colour some rainbows. I have found instructions on how to make paper mache pots for gold (instructions to follow) and I am trying to figure out a way to incorporate Celtic knots. The boys each have a mini book to complete and some other worksheets and then there is the hunt for green clothing to be set aside for the celebration. Maybe I can find something special for Echo as well! And now it is time to get the blog post up and maybe see an earlier bedtime… maybe. 

BRIEFLY standing in the snow

I figure I will start this blog entry with attempting to boost the membership of a yahoo group I am in charge of… It is called Stitch ‘N Chat. It is a small group so far and not overly chatty but I am hoping to change that! Feel free to go, check out our main page and request membership OR simply message me here with your email and I can send you an invitation!

Now back to our regular Friday… Workbooks are a lifesaver. Progression is made with the possibility of completion which makes it much easier for the boys to swallow. I wish we could feel more agreeable to the task but at least I have decreased the whining (of course Zander STARTING his morning with a 20 min time out due to whining about STARTING schoolwork seemed to get the message through). 

We started reading about St. Patrick’s Day… I made sure to get some storybooks along with our factual ones. All from our local library! 

Books

Which gave us the opportunity to make our second themed craft – you cut 3 shapes out from a file I was gifted made by Teacher Created Resources. What you end up with is a shamrock (we printed half pages so they are smaller), then you glue on some shiny bits and there you are. 

lots of sparkle and glue

We have a few worksheets of a St. Patrick’s Day theme to share with you all. For Trinity we had a colouring page, Emanuel simple math using pictures, the twins subtraction and a nice more complicated maze. We are making St. Patrick’s Day folders for the twins (Emanuel is keeping his with his worksheets in his duo-tang). I have made mini books for each of the boys using gifted files. One is a School Express thematic unit the other from The Simple Homeschooling Classroom. I am not sure if these files are available but they are good resources all the same. I have downloaded a memory game from Currclick you can find HEREthat is a free download. I haven’t printed it out yet but plan to. 

Post worksheet Word World

Our church is holding an after church activity for families and friends this Sunday. If the weather behaves it will be out at the lake – skating and sledding… if not, at the church for games and activities. I have chatted with the woman in charge who has found us some skates to borrow! So we now have enough for everyone. I am not sure how much of the family will go, I think it starts at 2pm which means Echo may be sleeping and if it is rather cold she will be kept home. Otherwise we will all go… no matter what the CAMERA will be there! 

We finished our Inuit lapbook – it had a grand total of THREE folders involved. We have personal art, interesting tidbits of knowledge and of course lots of creativity. I am VERY proud of all my boys (even Emanuel had a hand in this one by offering up some personal art) for working so hard on their book! 

Cover

Some of the extensive interior

We broke out the gift that was dropped off here for the kids on Wednesday – the one thing they did NOT get for their birthdays but rather wanted – PLAY DOH! We had finally gone through last year’s supply and as much as I love making everything, Play Doh is not a part of my repertoire yet. Maybe later this year! 

With numbers!

And some St. Patrick's Day flair

We were hoping to have Grandma and her puppy over today for a visit but the weather worked against us. We got well over 15 cm of snow I am told today and the roads were less than perfect between her home and ours. So instead Mike went snowmobiling and later in the day we took our borrowed van (dropped off on a cake run) to (he) Chris’ birthday party! The kids watched tv in the basement and examined the pets in residence while we socialized… there was pulled pork for dinner and a very yummy cake! 

The cake

D&D the boardgame

Happy Birthday Chris!

I ended the evening with the creation of these felt bows in St. Patrick’s Day green… I put little star embellishments on Trinity and Echo’s and left my own pair plain. The one with the alligator clip is for Echo while Trinity and I have bobby pins for ours. 

GREEN

I was mean mommy tonight and had the twins clean their room… they were too wound up to sleep anyway so why not put that to good use? We found a few toys that had been misplaced… oh and the carpet… nice to see that too! 

Tomorrow is the sledding and skating event for the church (if the weather stays reasonable) and then there is the prep work for next week… after all we DID finish our Inuit lapbook!! I think we have some books on volcanoes, Gavin’s cross stitch to progress with, more information about Ireland and of course workbooks. With all this snow I am sure the boys will want to go out and enjoy the backyard. Not so sure on Trinity though…

Smiles for the camera

There are days where you keep on schedule and days when you don’t. Those days that you don’t can be due to a positive addition or a negative… today we DIDN’T keep to schedule and the reason was a VERY fun and welcome one. An afternoon visit from one of my mother’s brothers… Great Uncle Wayne. Not only did he visit but he brought a large box of Legos AND t-shirts… I have the 5 cutest McLean clan members EVER! 

In their matching shirts

So our afternoon of Inuit lapbook assembling was vetoed in favour of a visit with a favourite uncle. Not a loss in my mind! There was lots of Lego creating, adult company for Mommy and a chance for Echo to show off her new found ability to walk. It really doesn’t get old! And the kids were so busy they never even THOUGHT of going down to bother their Daddy (who was swamped with work!). 

We did get in some workbook time in the morning AND the boys started their St. Patrick’s Day decorations. A good standby for our family – paperchains! This time in green of course. The boys are VERY good with the staplers. 

Paperchains!

Oh and Gavin read this to me pretty much all by himself!

I have been prepping worksheets (I will share what links I have later) and finding green craft supplies. We will be making shamrocks tomorrow with green cardstock, glitter and all things green and crafty… Ken picked up some library books for me as well, I managed to find a few on why St. Patrick’s Day is celebrated (beyond the green and the beer). 

I realized that I had not shared the amazing 5.00 boots! So here is a picture! I am still getting used to them and have worn them only twice BUT it is so nice to have something a little more fashionable! 

The boots

And while visiting took the place of organized learning I DID manage to get my owls done tonight. 4 St. Patrick’s Day themed owls. I am going to put two up on my Facebook page right away and am toying with Kijiji as a medium to get some sales. I have a shelf of the little owls and would love to free up space for the Easter socks I have in mind to buy!! As always I am keeping them at 10.00 plus shipping. 

All 4 owls... you can find the two for sale on the Facebook site I have listed on the right.

There has been no word on the part for the van. Apparently it did not only come from out of province but also out of country! Just across the border into the US so they are thinking… customs (seriously… a 15.00 USED part…). We are hoping it will get here SOON as little Izaac’s birthday party is on the 3rd and we would rather go in our own vehicle (though I have a back up plan). 

So owls are completed, plans have been made for tomorrow AND the weekend looks like some stuff WILL be going on (we will see what we manage to make it to!)… keep checking back! 

The littlest MacLean baby (so far! cousin is due shortly)... I think my grandparents would have been proud