Archive | September 2012

Return of the Grandparents!!

September 21-22

Nana and Baba are home safe and sound and only one day late! So we did the minimum of schoolwork and awaited their return. Farmer Boy is officially DONE! I think we all breathed a sigh of relief!

Not sure WHAT those faces are about

Each chapter illustrated and written

the lapbook portions I found online

Two extra illustrations to enjoy

We coloured, we tidied, we wandered around putting the house to rights and then – they got home!! Talk about some TANNED grandparents… and Nana’s hair – lovely!!! Echo especially just ate up the added attention. She REALLY missed her Nana and Baba and took turns sitting with them, playing and of course babbling away! Still no “Baba” yet…

Nana and Baba!

There was presents to see and then of course Baba’s birthday cake!!

Cake

Saturday was full of family time. Ken had to program another test code for another job application. This was a time consuming one so we were pretty well grounded. Which worked in our favour as Ken’s aunty Judy, Uncle Jim and two of their kids (Robbie and Jessica) came by to spend half the day with us. Judy is Ken’s dad’s youngest sibling and only sister. We caught up on everything and had an amazing visit topped off with pizza. We hope to go visit at their house really soon… maybe meet up at the zoo?

Drawing pictures for Aunty Judy

Baba and Uncle Jim

With Judy, Robbie and Jessica

However, he did have time to run with the kids… well run them with the remote control car. I am so glad that that little gem made it through our move. I am wondering, though, if we are the only people with kids who chase the car? Oh well, at least they had fun doing it!! 

Chasing the car

It was the first day of fall… and boy has fall come to us. The leaves are still mostly green but there is a definite chill in the air. We had to pull out the sweaters, long sleeves and even some pants. I am thinking my many scarves (and those Karyn made last year) are going to come in handy!!!

Miss Echo

And so the weekend progresses… amazing how busy we feel when we are standing still!

Trinity and her braids thanks to Nana

Ghost a la Mode

I have lucked out with a string of amazing stories lately and Sue Ann Jaffarian’s Ghost a la Mode was no exception. This first book in the Ghost of Granny Apples Mystery series and I honestly hope it is far from the last! You start the story with Emma Whitecastle, a woman in her early 40’s going through a lengthy divorce from her famous (but not so nice) talk show (cheating) husband. They have a daughter (Kelly) and lives with her parents. Cue in Tracy, the best friend whose friendship had been renewed with her leaving of her husband. 

Together the two of them head to a seance (on Tracy’s insistence), cue the clairvoyant Milo who has a message for Emma from a great great great grandmother… Granny Apples known as Ish. What does this spitfire ghost need from Emma, not much, just vindication that she did NOT murder her husband as she was hanged for! Add in that Emma’s mother has had contact with Ish before and the mystery is on! 

You join Emma on a sojourn to find out about her roots, to help Ish and to find out what this new talent of not only HEARING but SEEING ghosts means for her. Visit the real town Julian, California with Emma and meet the characters that live there (not so real), ghost and living. I don’t want to give away too much, but there is some romance, lots of action, history, and of course a spunky lady on a mission.

I am definitely going to read the next books in the series! There are few things that I truly love about this book – ONE she doesn’t hide things from the police… granted it is not easy and she does come off a bit crazy to them BUT she is true to herself and TWO yes there is murder but there is NOT huge amounts of gore. The ghosts are varied, the people hilarious and the story absolutely fabulous! Check it out!

Ghost a la Mode

Our Sweet Peas

September 19-20

Our first real friend sleep over was a success! It took the kids a while to fall asleep, of course, but in the end they all did. Trinity got to drag her princess couch into the boys’ room so that she was not left alone. I love how Quinn just fits in with all the kids…

Sleeping buddies

Steven came over late Tuesday night and slept over. It was fun sitting up and watching game shows with the guys… Family Feud and such. So when the kids woke up (and I was the first adult standing) and ate breakfast I let them know that Steven was here. The guys slept in, as did Zander of all people so it was just the 5 kids and myself up and playing. 

Breakfast with Quinn

So of course… trains! 

Trains!

And then there is time to play outside in the now cool morning air. I am amazed at how quickly it gets cool here, though by the afternoon it was gorgeous out!

Getting into trouble behind the cover of the tree?

And in the front in plain sight

After Steven and Quinn headed home (tired boy in tow) I checked the mail. There was a package in the post box for Echo from her Grandma. A special dolly handmade that is just like the one my mom had made for her by her mom. Something called a Golly-wog, but without the race connotation. It was a handmade dolly out of used items – a woman’s stocking and stuffed with socks. Also included was a letter explaining the dolly, a picture of my mom as a toddler with hers and a dress for her to grow into. Trinity is now talking about how grandma needs to make HER on. 

Hello dolly

A book I reviewed way back when called The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society mentions the doll on page 24 a comment on an urban dictionary noted. If you feel the urge look up the dolly but keep in mind the version my mom had and now Echo is not with the same connotation. In fact there is no bright red mouth on either… they are a simple handmade dolly. In fact, my mom still has hers and treasures it as a part of her mom and dad – Grandma used Grandpa and her socks to create it!! I think we need to come up with a new name. Something that is indicative of the love and self that is put into these two dolls… maybe a lovey doll or something? Ideas?

With dolly

Anyway we headed out to Jo-Ann’s again to look at yarn… I am determined to learn the Granny square and so we went to find something that I could start that with and then create a blanket or something out of later. Variegated of course so that I can get more skeins later to add to if I want it to be bigger than one ball can make. Oh and FINALLY the snaps to finish my original learning project – the headband. So here’s hoping once I get those snaps put in it will look as good as it does in my mind.

We have some great colouring pages to share… first off it is time to move into Fall… so of course back to Activity Village for their terrific fall themed images. The detail and the sweet scenes are a hit with our kids. You can find a choice of them HERE. Zander specifically asked me to print off something that would take him time to colour (now that is a totally NEW thing with him and a great show that his concentration and ability to sit still is growing!). I remembered the beautiful Mandala images I have seen and figured I would find an intermediate series he could pick from. You can find those HERE. We have started a folder of the coloured items… the day before it was dot to dots that you can find HERE. I want to keep things under control. If you let the kids colour and do these illustrations and not collect them in a single place you easily get overrun. And if I have learned anything from our lengthy adventure it is that it is not necessary to spread yourself thin. Instead, why not collect them all in a single book to page through whenever we want and if need be remove pieces to gift out. I really need to find a stack of binders somewhere!! They work much better for items you need to add and remove on a regular basis. 

His Mandala

Thursday was SUPPOSED to be the day that Nana and Baba returned from their 3 weeks in the Dominican. However, due to mechanical issues (a 2 hour wait on oil??) they ended up delayed to the point where they were not making to back to Minnesota until the next day. That gave us the whole day to clean up, finish projects and generally get ready… oh and ice the cake – for a belated birthday Baba cake. 

Farmer Boy

Emanuel and his penguin

We finally were able to coordinate getting Trinity’s hair washed and freshly brushed, some spare time and my wedding dress out in the front room to do up some photos. This was an idea I had seen on the internet… you dress your daughter up in your dress as a child and then save the picture for HER wedding. She was so excited to wear it and it was so fun to pull it back out and remember the day. I plan on doing a solo entry of the dress pictures later. But here is the teaser I posted on Facebook.

Our darling girl

It was so much fun, finishing reading the Farmer Boy book (FINALLY), continuing with Trinity’s letters… just generally getting things done. Though we realize that Zander really needs more time to learn his spelling words. I am  trying to get him unstuck from them having to be in a specific order.

Working hard on our learning