Thursdays always feel a little rushed to me – it is Ken’s gaming night with the guys (luckily over here) so his evening is booked solid and I am on my own for prep and finishing work. So I am thinking a late night for me  to get a move on the tidying of all the school supplies.

The boys started their morning nice and busy – more insect time on the computer with daddy – this time to watch a spider weave its web! Not my sort of thing (I am so NOT a fan of spiders of any size or variety) but the boys LOVED it! I think the time with Ken working on this has been so wonderful for them and has Ken already thinking about the next Daddy and kids only lapbook – this one I think penguins with the intent of budgeting in enough to go to the local zoo mid November.

This moved on to choosing pieces of paper for the finishing of their colours and shapes lapbook (sorry no completion yet as other things interfered and drew interest away). I want to have a large portion of the yellow/brown folders covered with colourful paper to brighten up the book a bit. I do have a lot of scraps and random pages from our crafts and my own projects. Ken figures he will sit down with each boy tomorrow and finish them on their own. This is a week past when I WANTED it to be done but I have a definite policy that we FINISH what we start!

After that the boys got to try out the game we picked up at the Reuse Centre – Connect 4! Definitely a success fun wise – not so much in the actual game rules and theory but we gave it a go. It was rather hard to play with Trinity arbitrarily dropping red and black pieces in as she pleased. Definitely great for working on taking turns, counting, patterns and good sportsmanship…

That was about it for our morning as the call of clean white snow in the back yard was just too much! So we bundled them up and sent them out until they were too cold and damp to play any longer. This has brought the mitten situation to a climax though! Emanuel has a nice pair of mittens we got him from Children’s Place last year on clearance at the end of the season, but the twins have only cloth ones my mom found us and yarn ones that are now too small… So if anyone knows of a knitter with extra mittens or where I can get them at a bargain price please let me know! It is enough to make me with I knit! (It is one of the crafts on my “to learn” list!)

Speaking of crafts and learning, tomorrow I meet up with a member from a local crafting ladies egroup to get okayed for my membership! I am a little nervous as well as excited. This group meets twice a month IN PERSON so it is definitely a great opportunity to meet more people involved and interested in some of the same stuff I am. They actually meet next on Sunday but with Ken’s birthday next week and our pumpkin carving party I just don’t have the time to spare. It is exciting to find something for myself outside the house again though.

This has been a busy week for us with the holiday Monday and to add to the library trip and the snow was a visit to the Art Gallery of Alberta. It was the pay what you may evening so we were able to get in for free. It was not exactly what we were expecting – all architectural models and pictures of the finished buildings. The boys did maintain some level of excitement as some of the models had trees, people and even cars but it was certainly not the ART we were expecting to see. Luckily it only cost us the 5.00 for an hour of parking (OUCH!).

Before we made it to the Art Gallery we stopped at my favourite local needle store. I did some reconnaissance for my advent exchange person and drooled over some patterns and checked out buttons. I am looking forward to when we can return next week with my survey money and do some shopping (Ken is going to advance me the money hehe). I am bursting with ideas I just need to spend a wee bit more time wandering to be sure I get the best options possible! They had a little corner in the store with a playhouse that all 4 kids made great use of! So it definitely is in the realm of possibility to drag everyone back in there with me and get Ken’s opinion!

Mail today came with a PLEASANT surprise for once! (not so the phone which had a bank who holds one of my student loans call barely 3 business days after a payment demanding the payment we made FRIDAY instead of waiting 3-5 days like they are supposed to – oh well) A lovely lady gifted us with a year’s subscription to the magazine Family Fun. I had only a few minutes to look through it today but already have found ideas! Recipes, craft activities… ideas galore! So I will be sure to share any and all that we use!

I do not have any beading to report that I, myself have done, BUT the boys each made up a pumpkin for their pumpkin lapbook we are starting on Monday. Emanuel decided HIS needed a face so Ken helped him make a jack-o-lantern style pumpkin. Very cute! And a great small motor control practice.

Ken sat down last night and finished off Zander’s sled for him last night! Very cute, though with the Ikea beads it definitely does not feel as sturdy as with the Perler. I am hoping he and Gavin can sit down tomorrow and finish the tree (it really is a much more difficult pattern and Gavin has a hard time looking at the pattern and reproducing, we really need to get some clear pegboards for him!).

There was one other package that came today – one I was waiting on! Trinity’s puppy is here from Etsy and I am overjoyed with it! So cute and so well made, I am definitely going to post it for one and all to see and before Christmas no less! I think she will adore it (though I am not sure it will take the place of her soft heart blanket that suddenly she won’t go anywhere in the house without! It was a gift from my dad, his wife and my sister). I am very happy with the entire purchase and would definitely recommend buying from wwoodbury.

With tonight being the boys only gaming night I have a lovely pile of laundry with my name on it as well as some shows on my dvr to watch and a brand new stitch to work on. Sadly I can’t talk about it since it is potentially a gift for two different people but I CAN say it is going well and will eventually be on the pattern page though as a free pattern since it refers to a specific part of a well known movie. Ken is really getting into pattern development and starting to talk about more difficult pieces. He is going to keep me busy and I am glad! Hopefully by tomorrow night our patterns will be back up with the new paypal pay scale. They should all be VERY reasonable around 2 or 3 dollars depending on whether or not it includes an alphabet or the pattern itself needs to be personalized for you!

But the laundry is calling me as is  the homeschool corner for me to clean. I am determined to make some sort of order out of that always moving clutter. That means banishing our dvds and some of my books to the basement. OUCH And sitting here writing in my blog is certainly NOT getting these things done!