November 13-15

The day after company leaves is always a hard one. No one is motivated and most of us are far from happy. The kids lost an avid storyteller and willing listener. She even WROTE her own story to add to the stack the twins have been creating. (Mommy blew that one, I should have been writing the dates on the stories but instead have a stack of lovely and varied ones I will put in a book and keep regardless) Of course we had to journal all about our visit with Karyn and the fun we had.

Aunty Karyn with her iPad

Ken decided that now was as good a time as any to start teaching the twins Python programming. He has two VERY excited boys – they not only get to learn more computer stuff BUT they get Daddy’s undivided attention while they do!

I took advantage of this time to work on our Grocery unit with the two littles. We have been working on healthy and not so healthy foods, balanced meals, and of course read some terrific stories.

Miss Echo stole BACK the netbook eventually and gave it a go herself. Just a bitty future programmer maybe? Hacker? More likely knowing her mischievous streak.

Thursday morning we simply had to take advantage of another relatively sunny and not too cold day. There are going to be less and less after all!

After running and playing themselves out it was back to work. The littles are still loving their grocery unit! Gotta clip out the foods for a pretend grocery list!

More programming…

AND being THANKFUL. I do love how we all come together to add our daily item. This poster is then going to go up in the boys’ room.

We ended our week sunny so most of the day was outside. Leaves to deal with, warm time to enjoy… I figured it best to do our basic stuff and then turn around and run run run.

Echo got her sun in the sunroom with the train set

I am so grateful for Karyn’s visit. Before this one came about and was planned it was looking like it would be more than a year between visits. We lucked out with her mom giving her all the extra air miles and Karyn’s work being willing to do without her for that week.

Checking the mail with Nana

And check out our Hot Rods thanks to Art for Kids (link on right)…

November 10-12

With a special session at Sunday School about the use of money and savings that was not necessary for us to be at and Aunty Karyn still in residence we totally skipped our Sunday School on Sunday. We got a little bit of time in the backyard…

And then in the evening when it was time to return the cousins Nana and Baba also took Echo freeing us up to head to the city and check out a German St. Martin’s day celebration. We didn’t stick around too much for that – just too many people and not enough interesting the kids… BUT we did see that the building it was in was also one we saw the day before at the Lego exhibit.

Took pictures of some Charlie Brown themed statues.

This one was my favourite I think

And then stopped off at The Source for some dice shopping and time with the manga for Karyn and myself. We ended the evening with the first set of gifts being wrapped. Karyn saved herself a tidy sum of postage just as I did with her taking back items and bought her gifts here for the kids (and myself!! I got spoiled with some of my favourite Caron Simply Soft yarn).

It has begun!

Remembrance Day… okay Veterans Day here in the US of A… was a quiet one… no snow yet… and a light morning of school so that Karyn and I could go with my mother in law to Mall of America to window shop.

Storytime

Ok who am I kidding… we shopped, we bought and we perused. I had a coupon or two for freebies that I HAD TO take advantage of (which included a free Annie’s Pretzel noms), but my shopping buddies found deals and finds that were well worth the sore feet at the end of the day. I am VERY proud to say I spent a grand total of 6.00… purchasing a Dollar Tree pair of fuzzy socks that once I wear them out will make AMAZING sock owls and getting Typo brand pens. These are even finer point that my previous but the same amazing quality.

It was over so quickly, our visit with Karyn. The 12th marked the end and so was a rather light day for the kids. Karyn, Baba and I had to head to the airport by noon so we did a bit of schoolwork, a lot of cuddling and then had to pry Trinity off of Karyn. They really are the closest two in our family. It was a little heartbreaking to MAKE Trinity say good bye and watch her walk off with tears in her eyes saying everyone has to leave.

We continue being thankful

After dropping her off safely and on time (her flight here was delayed… of course) it was time to run to a couple stores to get some groceries and then return home to some rather droopy and sad kids… ok Mommy was right there with them!

We did have time to make ONE of our I Am Thankful Pumpkins (ok more squash since we were out of orange cardstock) thanks to The Moffatt Girls website HERE.

OH and a sighting of the neighbourhood WHITE squirrel… not the black one lately…

We miss you already Karyn! Thanks for visiting!!!

November 7-9

UNO was the name of the game on Thursday with Aunty Karyn. Don’t get me wrong, we ARE doing our basic schoolwork – reading (to Karyn), spelling and of course any sort of daily worksheet, but a good teacher knows when to take advantage of the distractions, and special time with their beloved Aunty is worth the memories.

I had an extra special treat in the form of Darcy having time (after an appointment with all kids in school) and I having adults to keep the kids and I was able to reintroduce Karyn to Darcy. They met at first at our wedding and then again at the twins’ baptism (Darcy and Andy are Zander’s godparents, and we are in turn Anthony’s). We went out for a lovely LONG (keyword that, long) lunch at the Green Mill with lots of chatting and girly time and ZERO kid interruptions. BLISS!

Note the Remembrance Day Poppy that Karyn brought me from Canada on my lapel!

Karyn brought with her a variety of Canadian specific chocolates and bits and bobs. I took a picture of a few of them to share.

On Friday Ken and Emanuel got to work (finally) on the final portion of our Egypt lesson. The “crafty” thing that came with Little Passports. A bit of a mini dig with his very own pyramid. They made good inroads on their first time working on it.

We had a lovely minor snow fall which the boys  took advantage of with a snow bunny and mini snowmen.

Bunny

They used every tiny bit of snow.

It was a day off school for the cousins so they joined us for the weekend.

With Aunty Karyn added to the mix it was a wonderful day of fun and hanging out and getting back in touch with each other (with a bit of sneaking out to shop of course!).

Saturday was a somewhat planned out day with a trip to the Brickmania Toyworks. A special Lego exhibit done by local people with  tons of original pieces all made out of Lego. Gift shop included.

Hmm a bit of TARDIS

There was tons to see and we did our best to see it all. So much creativity! 2 cars, 5 adults and 7 kids later and we made it there and back.

Ok, so the bullets aren’t Lego… but the water is all those tiny clear ones!!!!

What a great sign! Look for the rest of these pictures (and there are a lot!) at the end of the blog.

After that Karyn, my mother in law and I went out to Kohl’s to take advantage of sales and an added 30% off discount. Because of them I am now the proud owner of an amazing (limited addition) Little Black Dress that was on for a steal!!! Thank you Nana! Pictures to follow… eventually.

The kids rounded off their day with a tea party.

A Saturday well spent! Now enjoy the Lego themed chaos.

The originator of this group was really into war themed projects as you can tell!

A pretty amazing tree!

There was actual water flowing out of the fountain.

Hagrid and Batman!

They can play this little soccer game on the display.

Godzilla

We spotted a fairy!

The kids