A little slow on the post but with Renee’s support (and ride to drop the items off) Emanuel and I entered our very first County Fair (well American one, I remember entering a fair way back in 4H as a child…). The Anoka County Fair. Very exciting. I entered 7 pieces and Emanuel one. There was no fee for entry (just if you wanted to come and see your entries while the fair was going on… we didn’t) and small cash prizes for placing. 

We didn’t expect much and were over the moon when Renee reported back that it looked like we had received some ribbons! In fact, what we thought was a participation ribbon for Emanuel’s was in reality THIRD PLACE !!! He did a unique creation… a Lego version of the Minecraft zombie villager. So very proud!!!

Yours truly entered (as I mentioned) 7 items, out of the 7 SIX placed either first or second in their categories! The only piece that didn’t place was my baby hat with beard and I threw that one in more because it was in my store and on hand than anything else! 

Now for the pieces that DID place! I have to give design credit for TWO of my first place ribbons – Rapunzel and the zebra were both designed by Kristen’s Kords. I love her designs and have had the great privilege to test many of her pieces. You HAVE TO check out her Etsy store… she also sells the amigurumi she makes herself there HERE.

My other two first place items are both up for sale CURRENTLY in my Etsy store! I was rather surprised that my baby sweater DID get such a high ranking, it is a relatively simple pattern. Ken says it was the adorable buttons… and the comments on the back of the card DID state that they WERE adorable! (Of course HE chose the buttons) The other is my lamb bag that I made a few months back as part of my stash buster attempt (successful I might add). I have multiple bags up for sale with differing flower colours. It was fun to make and I actually really love the final look! You can find the items for sale HERE and HERE. 

And now for my two second place pieces! First off my Blue, White and Red Granny Square. This was a bit of a surprise to me, a very simple single granny with colour changes. Though there was a suggestion to switch to a smaller hook size midway to keep the square shape more square that I need to research further (I actually like the pulled look. It looks almost 3D when stretched out). The other was a surprise to me as well – my dragon scarf… I have one up for sale in my store as well HERE and have made multiple versions of this. This particular scarf was Ken’s Christmas present last year! With how many scarves entered coming in second was certainly a bit of a surprise! Anyway those are my placers… next year I plan to enter more things!! Just… gotta think of them first…

And so we end the week. WHAT A WEEK! Yesterday was a bit of a slow go, but we managed to work on our workbooks and enjoy each other’s company… oh and make DRAGONS! This is a fun craft made out of cut out hands. You can find the instructions HERE. They recently added some new dragon crafts so hopefully with a run to Dollarama this weekend we can make another one before the girls and I head out for our 4 day retreat at Cousin Veronika’s!

The boys' dragons... they cut EVERYTHING themselves!

Trinity's

We are working hard on our math and our reading. Today we tried something new. This time the boys came up with 3 sentences each and then had to write them down, without my copying them first. I sat down with each of the twins alone and we sounded out words together and talked about WHY certain words were written the way they are. There was some frustration but some successes too! Gavin had the topic of our family and Zander was to write 3 sentence describing himself. Then they picked their favourite sentence and drew a matching picture. I am so proud of them, writing is NOT their favourite activity but they persevered. We forgot all about taking a picture of them so will have to share that tomorrow!

We have two books on China and Chinese New Year out from the library right now. The kids love the bright colours on the covers and the dragons. We also read the story of the Zodiak from the Activity Village site. You can find it HERE. I always seem to end up at Activity Village for our special occasion activities and crafts!!

books!

The twins were in charge of sugar cookie creation today. I premade the dough, cleaned up the blue table, had them wash their hands and go at it. Only having to man the oven is so much easier than doing it all myself!

Cookie time, Emanuel joined after his quiet time and the 3 of them worked through the entire batch of dough.

Cookies

I have a link to share with you all. The site is called Babysitters and not only helps you find sitters in your area (if you are in the US) but also have some interesting blog entries on dealing with having sitters, parenting, etc. I have not taken too close of a look at the site yet but was able to find listings for my in-laws’ area AND read a couple interesting blog posts. THIS is the one they sent me to link. I would love to hear from anyone who has used this service OR hear your opinions post reading it after following my link. Yesterday night was a girls’ night out! Karyn, Kristen and I went to our favourite Indian restaurant and ate until we were completely full and then went back to Kristen’s for some visiting. She lives like a block or so from the restaurant! I even got to leave Echo at home as we decided that another trip in the carseat would be a bit much after Wednesday’s saga.

Appetizer

Mains

Ken has spent much of his phoning time working on getting the van fixed… AGAIN! Canadian Tire here in town has consented to fix the coolant system if that is what wrong and were a little embarrassed that less than a month later we are already calling back with a concern in the same area. Seriously FOUR TIMES! 

It seems like we cannot get away from the medical this month. Next week is Zander’s eye appointment, then the following week my bloodwork AND another appointment for Ken (he is changing a doctor that was back home to a local one) and then the next week is Echo and my check ups… Maybe February will have a move of focus AWAY from the medical for a while? Would be nice! But, so far everyone is coming back healthy!

Breakfast together (Echo needs a matching chair... and to learn to sit down!)

I have spent some time on Tinker Bell today but not much… I am almost done the first Tink, well the stitching portion and will share an image when that is done. It feels good to cross stitch again!

And tonight Ken and I finally get some alone time together… today was a rather good day – groceries were procured in the limping van, Canadian Tire contacted, appointments made, work completed, children educated, fed and loved… we even got to see Chris and Chris on their way to their new (closer) living situation. Tomorrow Ken will  be gone for a chunk of the day to help them out and I will be flying solo but we have another dragon to glitter up, a backyard to enjoy and of course our library books to read through. We have turned this week around, at least somewhat I think. And that is the trend that WILL continue! 

Some days I wonder if her names should not have included JOY as one of them...

Definitely did NOT start the day off in an auspicious manner. I was up late last night so Ken could get in a nap and work in the wee hours to meet some deadlines… so I woke up off and tired only to go upstairs and find that all the time I had spent cleaning was undone. The kids were VERY industrious. And then in passing I peeped in my purse to find that 20.00 had gone missing! Well by that point I was in tears… Thankfully Echo needed a nap so with the new Blue’s Clues thanks to Freecycle I hid in the bathtub for a nice long pity party with a (what turned out to be surprisingly) good book. So not the best morning full of schooling though they did enjoy solving the mysteries with Blue with their little siblings. 

Emanuel has started working with a different way of creating art… basically he has stumbled upon a very basic form of pointillism. He was so proud of his first picture and then today decided that was how he wanted to colour a dragon! He is very patient though was thoroughly unimpressed with my notion that he NOT use markers (with Echo playing at the table NOT a good idea) and was rather pouty about the crayons I gave him instead.

First piece

Dragon

The boys did math in their room over quiet time (aka when mommy got the livingroom cleaned and DIDN’T find her missing 20.00) as well as a word search (Chinese New Year themed). I have a collection though small of Chinese New Year worksheets I have found at Education.com. You can find my list HERE. As always check out EnchantedLearning and our favourite – Activity Village. Both links are on my side bar!

At work

Tomorrow is THE day… well not THE day but an important day… Ken, Echo and myself are heading to the city to do her 6 month cardiology appointment. I am not sure what all that will encompass (I think they play it a bit by ear due to what they find as you go along) but we are quite aware we most likely will be there for the whole afternoon. Tests and seeing the cardiologist is NEVER quick. It is a little nerve wracking for a few reasons – first off… testing… second… results… and then there is the travelling in winter… and leaving the other 4 at home (thankfully!!)… oh and the whole I am not happy she has to go through ANY of this! I mean I KNOW it is for the best but my baby is my baby. So please keep our wee Echo in  your thoughts and prayers… we need safe travel and a productive day at the children’s hospital.

I am still hard at work on the afghan. I plan on taking a couple novels and said afghan and that is it to entertain myself while we are at the hospital. I figure that way I have no excuse. I don’t know how successful I will be with Echo’s rather attention grabbing technique – she has taken to grabbing the afghan and trying to throw it on the floor to make room on my lap! She is a very insistent young lady! 

I have to admit getting through tomorrow will be a weight off my mind. AND a day away from the bulk of the kids, even with the circumstances will be nice. We hope to meet up with Sean and Ted before heading back. Cousin Veronika and Victoria have been sweet enough to agree to babysit so there is no worries about what will be going on at home. I have my cell phone and my iTouch charging and a couch full of items to go with us (lots of just in case things). I am not sure when we will get home but I hope to get a post up tomorrow night with whatever results we get or early Friday sometime. We shall see how it all plays out!

Our little darling