Sunday was another at home day… with  company once again. This time Joe, Gabriella and Zachary. They were so glad to see Nana and Baba again as well as their cousins. So it was run run run for the kids and a nice visit with his brother for Ken.

Outside

And inside fun

I managed to sneak off with Bree to do some shopping, have some Dairy Queen and generally do girly things. I found Hello Kitty stuff for a quarter marked down at Michaels (well on clearance that is, pencils and the like), stopped in at Bath and Body Works to get some hand sanitizers (5 for 5.00 and not sealed the same way they are in Canada). Sat and chatted for hours… it was TERRIFIC!

Monday was back to the grind stone. Back to schooling, and sorting out future classes. In the mail I received the coupons for Pizza Hut and the information for a reading program we are starting in October. I have printed out most of the printables we need to get going with and will be sorting out books to start. I may have to do some used bookstore and thrift store hunting for leveled readers… or raid the library! You can find out about the program HERE. 

Gotta find lots of different ways to motivate! (Zander teaching Echo colouring skills)

Trinity and Emanuel did their craft project for the book Hungry Caterpillar. You can find our caterpillar project HERE. I really enjoyed this one – it covered colouring, scissor skills, creativity, gluing and of course… binder clips! 

Colouring the print out

Cutting

Caterpillar AND food

Gavin is back to work on his cross stitching again and boy does that make me HAPPY. He is determined to finish his mouse joke card and then start another one. I am so glad that one of the kids is ready to stick it out with what is one of my absolute FAVOURITE crafting activities. (sorry crochet you are getting up to second and beating out duct tape but I must stay true to my first love!). 

My crochet IS coming along though!

So Tuesday went a bit off kilter with Ken pulling an all nighter coding and myself having a lovely mishap with my head connecting with the edge of our bedroom door while cleaning (thus loosing half the day to a nap and Tylenol). I am not sure the kids were too upset as they got to play more time outside. BUT we did have the time for our basics and the boys to work on their Minnesota folder, which is now decidedly ONGOING.

Tuesday NIGHT, however, was fun fun fun! After seeing Nana and Baba off to a movie we got supper ready (spaghetti and garlic toast) and awaited our guests – Shandai and her boyfriend Skot! They brought knitting supplies and board/cardgames. So after supper we stitched and  gamed it up! It was a total blast and I look forward to doing it again! Add another couple to couples to game with!

Gaming with friends always rocks!

So as days never seem to go the way we want we still had Emanuel learning on the computer…

Working on the PBSKids.org site

Trinity with the learning apps on the iPad… And Zander and Gavin spending learning time with Ken. Which was a total  treat! 

Thanks to Baba and Nana taking some time with Echo

The great adventure for tomorrow – hunting down a pie pumpkin for homemade pumpkin pie!! Wish us luck!! 

Can you believe this top was mine when I was tiny!

I am so far behind it isn’t funny! Well, actually… maybe it is a little! Anyway, mid week on my week long vacation from boys and spouse… we all woke up on the wrong side of the bed on Wednesday… but not completely. After all, there was so much still to NOT do, and two adorable (when they weren’t pouting, whining or pitching a fit) girls to enjoy it with. 

Sitting back

We started our morning with quiet time in the livingroom… thank goodness I got my iTouch back from its temporary home at Kathy’s cracked screen and all. I downloaded a couple new apps for Trinity (free versions of course) and let her go at it. A certain Dora and a friendly kitty topped the choices. 

Playing quietly

Breakfast is always entertaining when there is a deck being built! Gotta get in that sunshine. The activity going on right outside the window was an added bonus. 

Breaky

BANANA

They actually made some awesome progress over the early portion of the day. With country music to boot!

Men at work

Progress!

When watching the workers paled and Echo needed a nap TRINITY watered the flowers she and Kathy had planted before Kathy left for Ontario. She was adamant that it was HER job and I was only allowed to watch and take pictures. 

Water the flowers

After lunch it was time to relax and wait for Kathy to get in from her flight. I think her kitties were VERY happy to get their mommy back and Trinity was excited to have someone new to explain what all we had been up to lately! We had further plans for the evening though. A cross stitching friend from yahoogroups and Facebook came by to finally meet in person! With her came some treats for the kids and some things for myself! It was a great visit. I hope we can do so again. 

Neko

After we saw off our friend Terri it was time to prepare for our next visitor… and use one of the gifts – CHALK!!! Trinity was so excited to have a brand new box with a whole variety of colours. Echo had to get in some lines herself and the cats took the chance to explore the immediate front yard and check out the grass. 

CHALK

Supervising

After dinner for the girls and bedtime it was  GAMING time! With Bianca (a friend from my university years), nachos and a good boardgame. Seriously this has been one of the best weekends for visiting time!! So many friends and family! 

Bianca and the boardgame

So Wednesday was not all that busy BUT we had fun… and got lots of sleep so that we could face the next day which also was… wait… check back in the next entry for all the excitement!!!

Bye! Check back tomorrow!

Even with all the chaos and frustration we are keeping up with our studies. Yesterday the kids and I read Harold and the Purple Crayon. Then the twins drew a picture using one crayon colour like Harold does. (Trinity and Emanuel went off the garden path and simply were creative) There is a series based on the book on Netflix so during some of their not outside in the sunshine time they watched that as well. 

Very well done!

We have been at work with our math some more as well, though somewhat grudgingly. I am a little concerned about how they are going to react once we get settled and organized and REALLY have to push into our learning. We have accomplished an awful lot though, both boys are reading much more fluently… writing better… thinking on their own with much better results and the progress in math is very positive! 

Math time

We are continuing with Farmer Boy chapter by chapter. I have also printed out some lapbook mini books to do up when we have some time. The main focus is on reading the story and comprehending what happened in the chapters. This is our first long chapter story and the boys’ attention is a little variable but we are getting through it bit by bit.

I have found a couple of educational apps for the kids that are going over REALLY well! First off is a favourite of Trinity’s called Old McDonald’s Farm. She loves spinning the wheel. And then there is the one that Gavin loves Kiko. He has far surpassed my ability on there. Echo’s favourite has to be Meet Biscuit. A new favourite for the kids that I recently loaded up is Edge. 

I have been creating more and more sock owls lately… I have bodies ready for features and wings just waiting for me. I did, however, finish one today. Which I think turned out rather cute! 

Cute!

As of tonight the van saga has reached its peak with the purchase of… A VAN! We still need to do permanent registration and all that after Echo’s follow up appointment (and are leaving for the city super early in case of police pulling us over – you put the transport sticker in the window but that may not be noticeable enough in the morning after all! But it is a huge thing off our list! 

That means we now have transportation to the doctor tomorrow AND then onto friend’s for two nights… then Comic Con! My first  ever! Then… well Sunday night will take some figuring out and we still have to check in one last time with the owner of the new rental regarding the 1st BUT tonight it is YAY van time! Thanks to Karyn that is!

That leaves me with tonight to collect enough stuff for the next half week. Clothing and probably some school supplies for Thursday. Friday the boys are so excited – they get time with our nephew! It has been a while! I am going to spend the rest of the week focused on the moment… we get to go and show everyone how well our Echo has been doing and give the hospital our thank you card. The kids worked rather hard on it and are very proud to be able to give it to them. I added in a picture of Echo and wrote a little thank you. I hope they like it. 

Today was a bit of a special day – it was She Chris’ birthday! We had homemade hamburgers and CAKE! Harley Davidson cake. Total noms. I made her a change purse and hair thing out of the cupcake duct tape. 

CAKE

With Ken getting a HAIRCUT… a van… and then a birthday girl in the house… today can be categorized as a GOOD day! 

Echo and her burger