A bit of a whirlwind weekend, but we managed to make it through. The next two weekends are going to be busy busy as well. And even with our weekend starting with some sad news we managed to make the best of it.

Friday was a pretty average day. The chalkboard is definitely a favourite activity right now, enough so that I am going to have to clean some chalk dust off of any of the low lying surfaces around the easel. After all it is MUCH easier to set chalk and brush down there than put it away when you KNOW you are coming right back… right?

Emanuel whizzed right through a bunch of his PreK pages. If I can get him drawing the letter on demand and colouring some of the bigger pictures in the book we may even finish it before the end of October and move onto a more challenging one (courtesy of Aunty Holly who sent their unused workbooks our way a while back). It is so cute watching him and Trinity work together on his pages… well he does the work and she supervises but they BOTH have fun.

Friday night was GAVIN’S night to spend some time with Mommy before bed. So we started a beaded keychain. Sadly we ran out of time last night so Emanuel’s night got postponed. I like having that one on one time when everyone else is tucked away in bed. Gavin is making an angel, this pattern is a first for me as well so we are both learning as we go… first we had counting to do to make sure we had ALL the beads (we were missing one white we had to pilfer from another kit) and in doing so sort them into colour piles. Then we had to make sure we had the thread set up and figure out how to read the pattern. We did not get too far this first evening but he is all ready to go as soon as his turn comes along again!

Ted came over (and stayed the night – the guys were tired and why risk another check stop repeat?) and watched Dr. Who with us and hung out. In the morning the kids were overjoyed to see he was STILL HERE! Karyn and I drove him home on our way out to do some shopping.

Talk about an unusual shopping outing… 3 stores and I got maybe ONE item that I needed!!! Yikes! At least at the Dollarama I managed to get the party supplies I need as well as a hair thing to go with my dress. Just a little splash of colour.

Echo did pretty well out and about in the carseat though we had to take her out when we went into Dollarama. I did put her in disposables as I was not sure where the washrooms were or how long we would be out. I am having a tiny bit of trouble finding a duplicate math workbook. It turns out that Chapters DOES have it… on their website. To get free shipping I have to spend 25.00 (which means first I have to HAVE 25.00)… the workbook is 8.00, and the BOB book set 2 is 16. So now I have to decide what I need to put me over and go from there. What a pain!

Karyn and I had another special treat – supper at a Japanese restaurant – Mikado. I had the tempura (not as good as the little restaurant downtown but yummy) and the Miso soup. Mmm… Karyn had the avocado tempura sushi I think it was called. It was nice to get out, eat something unusual AND be out without the baby.

This is the last Sunday of the month that has Sunday school during it so the boys and Ken did their usual trip to the church. We are already starting their practices for the Christmas pageant. Hard to believe time is passing so quickly. This left Karyn, Trinity, Echo and I to do some cleaning and relax. Ken phoned us after they left the church so we could pack up and head to The Mall. I saw a commercial for winter jackets at H&M that were under the usual 40.00 and thought we should check it out (grrr van). We lucked out and got two from a super sale (50% off) rack and now just have to find them snowpants.

I also got a green onesie (thank you Karyn for your eagle eyes) for Echo’s costume and splurged on the cutest Hello Kitty dress! It cost over 20.00 which is pricey for a dress at H&M but take a look at the picture and tell me it wasn’t worth it!!!

Hello Kitty

A trip to The Mall of course means snacking at the largest food court. I had forgotten I had Echo in cloth diapers and that I had fed her TWICE in 2 hours so I had to pull out the disposables and change her. But she had fun sitting and watching the people around her.

Karyn and I took the girls to the new Victoria Secret/Pink store and took a look around while Ken took the boys straight home. I think I will go back to get some new underwear but they don’t carry nursing bras in the store and the free shipping is only available in the US for now. But it was fun to go into a store I had preciously only been able to see on a trip to Minnesota or South Carolina.

This basically filled the afternoon with a brief stop over at Michaels to get an item I hadn’t bought on Saturday and after Karyn left sent the 3 youngest and Ken to nap. This freed me up to finish the last of my scrapbook pages.

The hairbands and clips are still a work in progress so I will share those later, but Gavin did make critters out of pipecleaners on Saturday that were really neat!!

Tomorrow marks the beginning of the week and the countdown to Echo’s baptism on Sunday. Tuesday morning the minister is over to discuss the ceremony and in the meantime I have a house to tidy, and meal to plan. Don’t forget the homeschooling… the van still not being in our hands and any other loose ends we have sitting there for October. Does it ever get caught up? I hope so!!!

Sweet Pea