Archive | February 2014

Pinewood Derby Race!

February 8-12

Saturday marked our very first Pinewood Derby with the Scouts. And while we did not win, we did race a sweet car! In fact, Emanuel was more upset that he didn’t get the door prize he put tickets in for than loosing the car race! He really just wanted Blackout to race… and race it did! Aidan, on the other hand, won a bunch of awards! Big Andy even said that if we had sanded our wheels and greased our axles we may have won! But we really wanted to go by the book and sources were on both sides on any sort of wheel alteration.101_6120101_6123

The track

The track

The cars

The cars

We were at the races with most of the Novaks (Alex was at a friend’s place as his races are another weekend with a different troop). Food was a little pricey so Darcy and I took some of the kids and went to the dollar store across the highway for snacks.101_6124

I was so pleased to see not only Emanuel out there playing but the girls and the twins as well. So much socializing and fun to be had.101_6128

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1st badge!

1st badge!

After the races (which did seem to go on forever! We had cars only in the youngest race but had to wait for the awards which were not only at the end but after a lunch break??) we all headed over to the Novak’s for an afternoon/evening of visiting and fun. It is so nice to come over and visit there. The kids just wander off and play for hours!101_6139

101_6140Sunday was super special for us… not only did we START with Sunday School, but when the kids and Ken got back Echo and I joined them for a special field trip. But first we saw our WHITE SQUIRREL!101_6144

Then we headed over to the Chinese grocery in the city – United Noodles. That place is a wonderland for our kids. So much to see question. While it is not as large as T&T back home, it is a substantial store. They have a nice freezer section and dried foods. Not much on the fresh. We did good with some on sale items and quite a few new foods for Emanuel to try as Scouts suggested we do.

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I even grabbed myself some new tea to try. We had a hard  time finding anything post extraction Ken could handle immediately but he took great pleasure in reading labels and checking out some of the (to us) crazy combinations on the shelves.1606988_10152222398376151_658130963_n

1780885_10152222402606151_228398082_n101_6145101_6146We started the week with a fun field trip to a brand new gas station which has its grand opening. First we went through the flyer and talked about sales and how coupons work. Then we headed off with our flyer and went shopping. There was a terrific deal on donuts, free coffee, bananas that are always at 38 cents a pound! We had a blast wandering the aisles and talking about what is a good price on foods and what isn’t. Reading price tags and labels.

These were a dollar a half dozen!

These were a dollar a half dozen!

They had sandwiches and cheeseburgers at a total steal which made lunch a breeze! Of course that didn’t stop us from working on our school work. The twins have been taking turns each day reading one of our Valentines Day books to the rest. We are still having some mumbling problems but the smoothness of their reading is AMAZING compared to last year!101_6174

101_6176Emanuel of course had to record his pinewood derby experience in his journal.101_6175

The weather was rather pleasant so the boys spent some time in the snow.101_6177

The girls worked on a fun Valentines Day fingerpainting activity I found them on Facebook through Pinterest. HERE is the original idea thanks to Red Ted Art. I think they turned out sweet and both girls had a blast making them.101_6179

101_6195Miss Trinity and I had storytime together with a Valentines Day theme. Each book we are drawing a picture to go in our folder for Valentines Day. It is fun reading together.101_6180

Our sports of choice for the beginning of the week were snowboarding and the skeleton. I was totally unfamiliar with the Skeleton! But wow is it a scary sport! Hurtling head first down the hill on basically a few pieces of metal… crazy!!! So of course we had to get on the internet and learn all about them! And share the links of interest with all of you!101_6181

Skeleton:

  • The history of on Rusbob  HERE
  • 5 things to know about the sport thanks to yahoo news HERE
  • Equipment and history thanks to Olympic.org HERE
  • Our video and all that fun stuff is found on Activity Village HERE

Snowboarding:

  • History of thank to library.thinkquest HERE
  • Infoplease.com’s information HERE
  • Our video etc is of course on Activity Village HERE and later on Art for Kids put up an how to draw… you can find that on their site, link on right.

The twins had swimming lessons on Monday. It was their mid way review and it looks like things are going pretty well! They are still loving it!!101_6182

We had a visit with a fairy princess…101_6184

And another Valentine book.101_6185

We ended the evening on Tuesday with some game playing. I love it when the kids help Echo learn how to play too. They can be so patient.101_6187

Mid week was another Olympic themed day with a touch of Valentines. The kids wrote their own poem using the word OLYMPICS.101_6188

The boys headed back out into the deep deep snow! I cannot believe how much snow we have around.101_6191

Trinity did up a beautiful picture of traditional Russian children.101_6193

And we did a variety of toilet paper roll crafts (starting the day before). Each kid had the option to think on their own (Emanuel’s castle tower and Trinity’s telescope) or use the list I found on Facebook for 25 different options. You can find that list HERE thanks to Kids Activities Blogs.101_6194

And there goes the first half of our week! So much snow, fun and crafting. I am very proud of our progress!

Storytime with Daddy

Storytime with Daddy

Been rather chilly lately!

Been rather chilly lately!

Snoopy

Snoopy

Little gamers

Little gamers

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This entry was posted on 26/02/2014, in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

The Start of 9 Weeks…

February 6-7

It is always a bit of a mental adjust when the inlaws leave for one of their extended leaves. Nice and hard at the same time. Nice, because it puts us back to the 7 of us working as a family unit again but hard because man do we miss them! We have been promised that they will have internet and may Skype and I even had Ken slip in a gift for the birthday girl – it was Nana’s birthday on the 6th. Baba always gets her the best presents – a whole beach!!!

We had a bit of major birthday excitement. The day before the last of the gifts Aunty Holly and Uncle James had sent from Canada got here. So on the 6th we opened the gifts from them AND from Gammie! Talk about a list completer day! Emanuel got the Pokemon he had been dying to have, Gavin Pokemon cards. Zander even got a brand new Lego set. We snuck out earlier and Ken got each of the girls a little something so they would not feel totally left out. 5 pleased kids I am telling you!

Think he wanted it???

Think he wanted it???

Thanks Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie

Thanks Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie

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Echo and her pony

Echo and her pony

We really took a day off school for the most part BUT that did not stop progress on the car. Emanuel and Ken are a building force here. With lots of interested eyes keeping a careful watch on the progress. After all… the race is on the weekend!!!!!101_6110

The Olympics start on the 7th and while we are not doing a whole unit on it we are cherry picking things here and there. Of course covering Russia and some of the winter sports we could watch. Xfinity has a section of clips from the Olympics which the kids have taken to watching every morning and discussing for fun. It has actually been a little difficult finding information about Russia for the age range we are working with here. Once again Activity Village has been a great resource you can find their Sochi section HERE. Or go to Art for Kids and look through their drawings HERE. They have covered a few of the sports with some how to illustrations.

We totally started with a couple of sports we were able to follow drawings with. Ski Jumping and Bobsled. This is actually the first year of women being allowed to compete in ski jumping at the Olympics. Zander was quite upset about this… he said girls can do anything so they must have been missing out not letting them try sooner!!! Talk about proud momma!101_6114

Of course we looked up our two sports on the internet… and I will share our links!

Ski Jumping:

      • Activity Village HERE
      • Art for Kids HERE
      • Infoplease article HERE
      • We of course had to do the video thing… an Olympic trials

 

Bobsled

                • Activity Village HERE (video at the very bottom)
                • Art for Kids HERE
                • Library.thinkquest HERE
                • Infoplease HERE
                • Kids Britannica HERE
                • Our video from youTube with Chris Lori

          • Equally exciting is that my own cousin Brad Reinsch is listed as 4th ranked bobsledding pilot in Canada!! Very cool! 

Emanuel also drew up his paint job on his car. It is a Batman themed piece and looking AMAZING!101_6115

101_6118We are preparing for Valentines with tiny cards printed off the Activity Village site. I love printing off stuff on cardstock (best price ever at Sam’s for a ton of it!!) and letting the kids create their own little gifts. These are for them to make for their siblings. We have several purchased ones (or given to us from Gammie) to use to mail out. Another thing to get done and mailed!101_6119

The kids lucked out and Nana left her iPad behind. So we are having some kid together time of course!  With limited fighting thankfully!!!!101_6116

On our own once again… yup yup!101_6113

Birth DATES Make it Official

February 3-5

First off – HAPPY 8TH BIRTH DATE TO EMANUEL on the 3rd of February! It was doubly official with the yearly Grandma birthday call. Though it was brief since she called on break from work.1622209_10152209465476151_1348467168_n

Of course we still had school. There was a party to reflect on in our journals…

Zander drew his special gift from Aunty Holly that came on time - a Unicorn

Zander drew his special gift from Aunty Holly that came on time – a Unicorn

Chocolate bars to enjoy from their Aunt and Uncle and cousins. There was some lovely examples of sharing going on.101_6090

We had a very timely delivery of a Panda focused National Geographic Kids magazine. I love it when we get something in the mail that furthers our learning spontaneously.

And our drawing of some foods we saw on a Food Network special.

And our drawing of some foods we saw on a Food Network special.

The girls were busy bees with their Nana braids, playing their games together.101_6092

I especially loved Trinity’s combination of many patterns and colours in her outfit.101_6094

She, Echo and myself joined Emanuel at the Novak’s for Scouts. It was my first time going. The girls hung out in the basement with the other 3 Novak boys while Emanuel and Aidan did their thing. They learned all about the new food pyramid. It is a rather good group of boys that all seem to get along relatively well. Ken and the twins were out at swimming lessons so we had to hang out afterwards until we could be picked up. It was nice to have some adult visiting  time and get to know the Scout troop leader Pam a little better.1013308_10152210543416151_448147955_n

Tuesday was our in between birth DATES day. And the three littles took advantage of some of our downtime with getting ready for Nana and Baba leaving and Daddy’s sudden tooth extraction (thank goodness we DID do it while they were still here… he reacted more strongly to the meds they used and could not have driven home) and had a COSTUME dance party! I especially love Baby Batman!1901349_10152211747346151_921252709_n

Miss Trinity followed Art for Kids’ instructions to make a lovely heart card HERE. It turned out TERRIFIC…1506694_10152212102621151_1977556648_n

Then she noticed that one of the left over scraps of paper looked like a bird so we had to put it in her journal! Very creative eye there!101_6097

And then…. HAPPY 10TH BIRTH DATE TO ZANDER AND GAVIN on the 5th! Since when were you two allowed to become double digits??? And this from 10 week preemies who came into this world at 3 lbs. 1 3/4 oz. each!!!101_6063

This was also the last day with time with Nana and Baba so school was super light. The girls worked with some old catalogues and magazines to clip out pictures to glue together for fun.101_6098

101_6100Emanuel and Ken got to work on their very first pinewood derby car! This is exciting – the road to Emanuel’s very first badge!!!101_6099

The twins worked on pictures from the newest instructions from Art for Kids. I honestly will continue bragging on this site for as long as they put up things! I have never found better instructions for the kids. Trinity even gets results without frustration!!!101_6101

As we are now planning for Valentines Day I had the kids make a wreath to replace the one we had up for Christmas out of hands. This was a kit I bought on clearance last year from Walmart!101_6102

101_6104In between helping out Nana and Baba where they could the kids also watched the Wild Kratts episode on Groundhogs.101_6103

And then it was time for hugs, kisses and bye byes. Nana and Baba ALWAYS fly out in the middle of the night/super early in the morning. 9 weeks at Roatan! They are going to come back so tanned and relaxed!!!1743485_10152209910686151_25096662_n