Yup slowly but surely we are working our way to current life… it has just seemed like the year has slipped away before we could truly grasp it! But on I go… May…

Well, what happens in May? Mother’s Day… that is the big one.

Mother’s Day dinner with Nana and Baba

But we had so much more going on… Spring means sunshine and park days! We do have a couple nearby.

It also means (in Texas), roses are big, gorgeous and mailable… Gammie has always sent us beautiful blooms from her garden that seem to make it in record time for the most part, smell and petals intact!

Garage sales have started back up as well. A goldmine for books, toys and the odd piece of clothing… especially when they are walking distance.

The hot find for this year – LITTLEST PET SHOP pieces! Trinity and Echo are now addicted to them. Odd little bobble head things.

Miss Trinity completed a couple workbooks, as did Emanuel.

We dressed up fancy for church, especially when there was singing to be done for the Cherub Choir!

Scouts figured highly in our activities around the month of May… anything to fulfill Emanuel’s arrow points. This is a game where you throw washers into a pie plate. All the kids enjoyed that one! Noisy though.

One of Trinity’s birthday presents was a knot it yourself fleece blanket with a Hello Kitty theme. Trinity was such a go getter with this one – her goal was to finish in time for the Family Night movie at the YMCA… she made it!

Miss Echo was gifted a lovely selection of shoes thanks to the Schwartz family’s neighbour! What a blessing!!

We took the whole family for a special outing to the carousal at one of the smaller malls.

The kids rescued some free chairs from the end of the neighbour’s drive as well. Decent condition and rather comfy!

May also marked the beginning of this year’s straw bale garden. Nana and Baba are gone so much now they figured they would set it up and let the boys go with it. The results were… varied… but they did enjoy the process of setting things up, planting and such.

It is surprising how quickly winter melts away around here. The kids are always quick to embrace that change, really they are quick to embrace each and every season with a great deal of enthusiasm.

Cousin Robbie even found the time for a visit! A college student now we see a lot less of him but the visits we do have are terrific!

We ended the month with a trip to the zoo (Como) with Aunty Shandai and Uncle Ravyn. Sometimes a place takes on a whole new experience just by adding some amazing company. So sit back and enjoy the inevitable photo overflow!!!! Happy May!!! (belatedly!)

We picked a busy day and had to park away and take the shuttle which the kids LOVED

Sea Lion

this little guy was all over the place within arm’s reach!

Bonsai!!!

You can find the rest of the month’s images (many from the zoo) HERE. Can’t resist sharing these!!!

And of course we spent a lot of time with the Schwartz family! Even met the neighbour’s baby.  Now that we have snow it is fun to look back at all this green warm sunshine!

Don’t forget Home Depot with Daddy and Baba!

And our time with Kites and the Wind (resources HERE).

And tons more but instead… a few more pics and then bop up to that link at the zoo section and see the overflow! Bask in the warm images with our cold winter just beginning!

Trinity’s birthday party (note Novak boys)

Two new blue bracelets!

Feeding the Starving Children with Scouts

Easter shoes thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Mike!

April 7-9

Sometimes it is fun to curl up under a blanket and watch shows together.

Especially when we have a Wild Kratts to enjoy. That third season is finally out. New animals!!!

Kangaroos!

We had a fun spring/Easter themed book to read and draw a picture from.

And Miss Echo took a dress up break. She is definitely our princess of the day.

The kids did a venn diagram comparing what we know about Jesus and the Easter Bunny to see what sort of celebrations and such corresponded… things like bright colours and family together time of course.

Emanuel and Daddy snuck out to get spiffy… brand new haircuts! Though the lady did go shorter than we usually like with our curly haired boy.

That left the twins to follow suit with showing off their buzz cuts thanks to Daddy!

That evening we sat down and built our next science kit… a solar car. Sadly the next day when we tried it out it was not very willing to drive. Ken figures some tweaking is required. So I brought out the tiny solar grasshopper we got last year on a steal.

On Tuesday we gave a new method of egg dying a spin… Volcano eggs. You mix the dye (liquid) with baking soda using a bit of water, spread it on the eggs like paint and then add vinegar and watch the fizz. We used our plastic eggs that we picked up at Walmart though the results were not brilliant. I need to check into different dyes and the like for next year. The fizzing did please all! Who doesn’t love a good volcano activity?? We found our original instructions on Toddler Approved HERE.

Emanuel has started earning arrow points for Scouts. One of the ones they are doing with the den is a puzzle. They each have a part of it to assemble on their own and bring in a couple weeks to the meeting! Exciting!

We had a lovely sunny day to enjoy and a trip to Sam’s to take so photos first in the sunshine and then off we went.

Of course after that we had to enjoy just a little more sunshine in the backyard… it is a bit of a mucky mess but we managed.

We have been talking about the religious roots of Easter lately. The kids are starting to grasp the full life of Jesus now and it is interesting to see and hear how that impacts what they figure THEY should do – be kind, share His story, share…

We had planned to do family photos but with the snow still apparent I settled for some cute ones with the girls.

Echo then played in the sun room while the kids took their recess and played out in the backyard. It truly is starting to look like spring… so far.

Emanuel had his big wheel out…

The grass in our dish is starting to grow…

And we even found time for another chapter of Treasure Island…

An Easter themed storytime…

And a Wild Kratts!

Hermit Crabs!

Spring is here at least for the moment and we are trying to face every moment with a smile and our best intentions. New life, new start, new us!

Even a touch of green outside!

Ok, Sometime this week I HAVE TO put up the old dinosaur blog posts that are languishing in drafts un-loved and alone. So be sure to check back for some BELATED dino fun! Anyway…

March 27-31

March 30th – Happy Birthday Little Brother!

The twins are really excited about coming up with new questions and then working together to answer them all. We use Ken’s netbook and hunker down and go one by one. It is hilarious as we find answers, sometimes follow links to further information. Some of the questions are an adventure for me too… things like Why are snails slow? Who created the first superhero? Are there more meat eaters or plant eaters on the planet?

We moved on from Google to working on our hunting skills with the I Spy game!

And best of all – a lengthy Skype call to Aunty Holly and Cousin Jimmie. Jimmie was on break from school so he had lots to show and the time to do it.

We ended the week with some creative endeavors. Gavin made some rather interesting cookies out of Play Doh. Trinity made up a cupcake.

The kids all did reflection journals. Working our way through Dirty Jobs episode by episode has been great fun!

We also started a new book for family reading time – Treasure Island. The kids are quite put out with me. I am reading it WITH them so they have TONS of questions I simply CANNOT answer. This is not a classic I have read! I think we will either read Little House in the Big Woods or Charlotte’s Web next (Gavin is quite worried about me reading the second one as he says… I do not like spiders so I shouldn’t have to read it.). For this story we are doing a pictorial summary of each chapter. Drawing out main points and the like. Something all ages can be involved in!

On the last weekend of March we had errands to run and quiet at home time to enjoy. I lucked out and in a walk through Walmart looking at Easter stuff we found FAKE eggs to dye. We plan on still making the real eggs with Nana but the fake ones could be saved and used year after year!

Trinity and I worked on ANOTHER special page in her scrapbook. After all Ken had ditched us for a guys’ only night over at Chris Schwartz after errands so it was time to be rather low key.

We tried something I saw on Facebook – making string eggs and found that we REALLY need to use the small water balloon balloons. (back onto the shopping list they went).

The kids just sat back and enjoyed the day with me.

On Sunday Ken got home in time to take them out to Sunday School.

Definitely a stay at home sort of day after that with a fort to build and music to make.

AND being the 30th a HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my younger brother James! So we had a looooong lovely call. I miss the heck out of him and his family!!!

We ended March with a relatively quiet day at school.

And Ken and Emanuel running off to Scouts. I am so glad we decided to put him in this. He and Ken are enjoying it a lot. It is time to work on the extra stuff at home as well to get him I think what is called Arrow Points. luckily a lot of it is stuff we do at home through school. I just have to have us sit down and do some of this stuff we have done over the years again!

There goes March… did you blink and miss it too????