I have to admit I felt my foreign-ness Monday, up in Alberta it was a long weekend (as was greatly reflected on my Facebook feed) – Heritage Day actually. But here in sunny Minnesota it was business as usual. This did work in our favour, as while we could not do our calling up north we COULD do our errands locally… that means that as of the end of Monday we had gotten Ken a haircut (he had also shaved! So if pigs fly do NOT be surprised!), ordered our library cards (with no bills in our names of course, we were able to fill it all out and then to prove that you live locally they mail them out. If you are telling the truth you get it then…), mailed the first of the penpal letters (9 in all!) and opened an independent chequing account at a local credit union (did you know that having a bulletin from the local church you visit is enough for residency? At least for that place… we haven’t picked a church yet). I cannot get my name on it until I get a Social Security Number but it is a start! 

So many envelopes

So not only is Ken searching for that lovely 9-5 job but he is also clean cut and shaved, which means he is ready to interview when need be! So please, positive thoughts and prayers that the process is not a lengthy one and the job all we had hoped! I really do feel that we are finally where we need to be for the time being! 

The smiles on these creative faces (they are making their own boxes out of paper) is proof that we are doing the right thing (Gavin)

There is a major sale going on on Currclick right now! So I bopped over there and with some of my remaining paypal cash from previous surveys I ordered a grand total of FOUR downloadables for 1.80 Canadian! With the Mars rover recently landed and a meteor shower supposed to be in the making asap I figured why not do a quick hunt for lapbooks and notebooks regarding Mars… I chose a quick one day one for the twins… you can find it HERE. And then there was the dinosaur one I came across by accident HERE and finally TWO on Minnesota… a State study and general lapbook. I may just have to go back and think future topics and snap up a few more to save on my desktop. One of the ones I bought was only 30 cents! 

Today we faced a quieter day, or tentative plans to see Quinn and Bree fell through but the excitement of the removal of some trees in the backyard by Baba and Daddy made up for it. The removal of those trees left branches for play. 

Tree removal

Watching Daddy

So of course they did… they made their very own little “tree house”. I love the creativity and teamwork that went on. It was still a rather warm day so the shade was lovely under the other trees and for the kids, the sun deck. 

Tree house

School wise we continued with our workbooks, and added in some time for Gavin with a small cross stitch project that managed to sneak its way into our luggage on the way down here. He actually was quite the go getter on it today. He has pretty much mastered the half stitch, as long as I can keep his attention on the pattern. 

My little stitcher

Emanuel got to try out one of my newest Target purchases… a little set of dry erase ABC cards. 

Who can resist dry erase?

We also added in our Mars items. I have found some wonderful print outs from Education.com. I will share links to those later. We also found a great show on the On Demand on tv here from National Geographic kids called Is There Life on Mars? They were not totally enthused but after watching it we had an interesting talk about what they thought. So I quickly recorded the information so that tomorrow they can draw their own ideas out in some sort of picture form. 

Now to continue on with the themes… keep the kids active in their learning and of course HAVE FUN! After all what sticks better but the things we enjoy, love and accomplish with a smile on our faces???

Dancing babies