Archive | June 2014

Ghost Ship… A Book Review

Now for a change of pace. Ghost Ship by P.J. Alderman is a fun murder mystery. In fact multiple mysteries are solved as the main character Jordan also delves into the mysterious death of a ghost from times long past. This is the second book in the Port Chatham Mystery series.

Jordan is newly moved to the seaside town of Port Chatham in Washington State. With this move has come a large house she is renovating and a bunch of resident ghosts only Jordan seems to be able to see. Added to this already interesting character list is the resident hotty and pub owner Jase, close friend and Sheriff Darcy and the newest corpse… womanizer Holt Stillwell.

What I love about this series is that it alternates between the contemporary and historical mysteries. You not only get to know Jordan and her friends and townsfolk but the ghosts and their community. There is a rather interesting look into the opium trade of the 1890’s that connects to the murder in the current day.

The setting is lovely, characters vibrant and the romance a definite slow burn. I really enjoyed the fact that the book is not centered on people disbelieving the ability to see ghosts… in fact no one rails against it as hard as the woman herself! The mysteries were interesting right up until the end. I would definitely suggest this book and potentially this series to anyone who loves ghosts with their mysteries. I look forward to reading the first in this series as well as continuing on with the rest.mG2iU7HFOrhjsmeSa22CtoA

Friends, Field Trips and Sunshine

May 24-29

I have to say we have learned from our winter… get those kids OUTSIDE!!!101_7608

And on Sunday we joined Matt, Fran and their twins at a local park to have a full on BBQ…101_7611

Park…101_7609

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101_7618101_7619S’mores…101_7622

101_7623(and dinner)…101_7613

We had it all!101_7612

And on the Monday we were back to Geocaching… we have had some amazing journal entries regarding our experience with some VERY creative hiding ideas.101_7624

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We had a lovely print out for a scavenger hunt (HERE) to have the kids looking everywhere for their nature objects.101_7626

101_7629And a break with snacks and park fun while the twins and Ken hunted that last cache.101_7634

101_7636101_7639Tuesday was much more our work work work on the schoolwork day! We had a rather interesting experience learning about Legends and Pecos Bill. We are working on understanding the difference between true factual stories and what a legend really is. The kids just keep quoting back at me – EVERYTHING IS BIGGER IN TEXAS and then giggling.101_7640

We got back into our classic Treasure Island. I am not sure which book we will read next. BUT we are working on a plan to get us storytime every day.101_7641

We are working through our dinosaurs that were in our Texas book… of course links to all of this will be in the Texas resource page (eventually).101_7643

And then right back out to burn off the energy… so much discussion of spring, teaching of siblings on the outside toys… so much fun!101_7645

101_7646On Wednesday I changed it up. Before the mosquitoes can take hold we drug the whole classroom outside to enjoy our grassy backyard. Once we found an ant free spot that is!101_7648

101_7649Great fun and we didn’t get too badly eaten up.101_7650

We fulfilled another additional Scout thing by driving down to a local small airport and checking out the planes. The kids all took turns spotting planes and talking about the different kinds. Family favourite is the seaplane. Though everyone was quite put out they land in LAKES not SEAS.101_7655

101_7657From there it was on to a park for a Geocache and play about in the sun.101_7661

Goofs!

Goofs!

101_7669Add in some Texas themed story writing and I think we succeeded with an interesting mid week.101_7670

Thursday was another special outside day. Echo had a preschool assessment to go to at our church so she and Ken dropped us off half way with some schoolwork.101_7671

A snack…101_7677

and a park! It was just really too bad that her session was delayed, we were there over 2 hours in the end and rather warm and cranky. BUT we met some wonderful little kids with their dads and enjoyed a perfect spring day.101_7673

101_7674101_7675Miss Echo did wonderfully with her assessment though they did reinforce that we should get her hearing tested to rule out anything extra in regards to her lisp (not total word forming… lazy girl!) which of course we already had scheduled for later in June.101_7678

101_7680101_7684Spring has sprung and so have we… out into the sunshine!

With super high water levels EVERYWHERE

With super high water levels EVERYWHERE

Can you spot the neighbourhood white squirrel?

Can you spot the neighbourhood white squirrel?

A Hunting We Will Go… LOTS

May 18-23

We spent a large chunk of our Sunday out on the hunt for treasure… and for a good park! The girls decided to go matching on their excursion. We actually found a special geocaching coin that travels and is tracked. It has been all over the US an now it is our turn to pass it along!!101_7506

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Chipmunk!

Chipmunk!

Pioneer Park

Pioneer Park

So swampy everywhere!

So swampy everywhere!

We have continued our watching of Veggie Tales when we can get our hands on them. So on a cloudy Monday it was a great filler between the rest of our ongoing learning of Texas, reading, writing and math. Sadly we are running out of shows that include a set of Sunday School worksheets to use. So instead we drew our own fun pictures.101_7522

That evening Ken worked on teaching the boys Agricola (HERE) another strategy game that I honestly am not a huge fan of. The additional reading, challenging game play all seems to be helping them stretch their skills more and more.101_7521

Tuesday was a nature walk in our very own neighbourhood. Keeping our eyes wide open for some more signs of spring… discussing road safety and the difference between planned plants and weeds. I think in June or July we will do a walk through the neighbourhood and see if we can get a bunch of different leaves and try and identify what trees are actually local to us. Which gives the little guys the chance to do a favourite activity – leaf rubbings!101_7542

101_7546Of course around lunch time we had to head back outside to enjoy the backyard. Really we were stuck indoors way too long this winter!101_7548

101_7549Art for Kids has put tons of wonderful how to’s out for us to enjoy. (link on right) Even Trinity is gaining confidence with the use of these.101_7552

101_7554101_7555Miss Echo was quite adamant that it was an ipad anime day for her. I really do love my Crunchyroll membership. Affordable and fun for me too. Granted she doesn’t understand anything being said and can’t read the translation but she bops to the music and enjoys the animation.101_7556

We tried something different for mid week. Of course we continued reading Treasure Island together.101_7557

But I had Ken make me up a nice set of charts for us to go onto the ipad and use my weather app to chart the week coming up weather local to us and for Austen Texas. Using this comparison we opened the table for a discussion about how activities and such would differ for the days there than here. Then for each day recorded the twins settled in with a sibling and wrote basically a daily diary for what they would do in Texas according to the weather. Zander was super creative and one day played out in the rain only to have to stay in the next sick with a cold!101_7558

We dug out our box of fraction magnets just to enjoy the manipulation of the pieces and to see how they look as actual objects. The boys were discussing and quizzing each other and explaining to the littles so I just sat back and let them go at it (as long as the information was CORRECT!).101_7560

We rounded off our outside experience on scooters, bikes and fancy skateboards. Sunshine sunshine SUNSHINE!101_7562

101_7563101_7564101_7565101_7568Trust me we really ARE doing sitting down book work interspersed with LOTS of outside running and burning of energy. Gavin has been taking charge of the camera occasionally and taking pictures too! Mommy in front of the camera instead of behind!!101_7577

101_7579Emanuel and I stole some afternoon creativity time on Wednesday and made a car ramp out of stuff in the livingroom while the other kids went on a walk with Nana and Baba. It is nice to have some quiet one on one time with the kids.101_7581

We ended our school week with ANOTHER Geocache adventure to a small park with a terrific tree shaded walking path. The boys are definitely the ones to jump up and go into the woods. We girls tend to wander the paths closer too and enjoy the more tick and branch free portion of the experience. That is not to say that Trinity does not jump on in from time to time though!

101_7584101_7585We are certainly seeing portions of Minnesota that Ken hasn’t even seen. There are some absolutely amazing out of the way tiny lakes and pretty shaded places. And we are seeing all of this together which is absolutely another plus. One thing we have learned from all the sessions Ken is now doing with his counselor is that going out as a family and enjoying an activity is absolutely crucial for all of us! That time together getting out, exercise coupled with the ability to spend POSITIVE time as a family. Amazing!101_7561

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And a touch of Texas facts

And a touch of Texas facts