June 15-20

Sunday was Father’s Day and a down day for the family… the 16th/Monday our Anniversary. You can see the pictures from the dinner out HERE at the end of the rather extensive Wedding etc blog post!

We did put the kids to work on Monday the 16th cleaning their room and the bathroom.

Which was topped by mail from Gammie… more Legos from the Mixels series she is collecting for them! Thank you Gammie! I got them out of the package and I swear you blinked and they were built!

On Tuesday we were home all alone with Daddy gone to gaming and Nana and Baba in Mexico so we had a junk food dinner with movies and snuggle time.

Don’t forget mid afternoon end of movie dance time!!

On Wednesday we took advantage of the many updates of the Art for Kids site (link on right).

And Gavin finished the first of his 5 projected chapter books for the summer Pizza Hut reading program. Not bad!!! For this book he did a chapter by chapter summary. On the next book he is reading the whole thing and then telling the story to us all in brief

We managed a lovely park visit/Geocache. While our speed at hunting has lessened every time we DO go has been full of excitement and avid hunters.

We left the travel bug and took the handmade dolly

On Thursday Miss Echo revisited her mail with vigor. She is also well into making special pictures she then has me write down what is what and send off.

We printed off some maple leaves from Activity Village (link on right look up Canada) and cut them out. Then each of the kids recorded something they like or remembered about Canada to put on our paper for our Canada Day learning. It is fun to remind ourselves of some of our past enjoyments that are so thoroughly tied to location.

Miss Echo got her chance with the PS3… she is starting to line up the buttons with actions a little more now but there is always some sort of boogie across the floor that goes with her playing. Interpretive dance gaming I think!

She is such a little card.

Of course a local series of garage sales had us out hunting bargains. That is our usual summer plan… hunt for helpful bargains!

By Friday it was back to school.

We are doing a special science report on a Canadian animal. One of the twins did the Moose and the other the Canadian Goose. I am working on them using resources independently to answer their questions with me going over them after to check them for spelling and actually answering the question.

Since we ended up misplacing the plug for last year’s pool and we had yet to make it to Sam’s Club to replace it a sunny afternoon with a good solid morning of classes earned us time with the sprinkler. It took a bit of trial and error to figure out the correct setting on the one usually used for watering the garden but we managed and out came the swimsuits, smiles and giggles. Winter is certainly becoming a cold memory for everyone.

After fun in the sun the girls pulled out the newest garage sale find and played Strawberry Shortcake. Some pieces are missing but 3 of the 4 girls are complete and they made do anyway. For 50 cents it they are pleased as punch.

We had a butterfly to examine…

And visitors to play with – Renee, Chris, Nathan, Jeffrey and Evan all came by to say hello, have dinner put up a light. The one over the sink had been down to one bulb for ages and with it burning out so quickly with each replacement Nana and Baba had bought a new one that needed installing. Ken even had time to make fresh chocolate chip cookies.

Jeffrey

Checking out the onions that grew themselves from last year

Bubbles!

Men at work

Evan and Echo

The best way to end the week, company for dinner and playmates for the kids. So many happy memories.

May 30-June 2

And in a blurry blink May is coming to an end! What better way to learn about Texas and discuss weather than to draw up the 4 seasons. The kids were stunned by the lack of real lasting snow.

Trinity and Emanuel drew us up a stunning Texas poster full of things the remember reading and hearing about over the last month.

The big brothers are really pulling out all the stops and reading to the littles. I love it when they do. The storytelling is getting more and more fluid and fun. And the audience is definitely learning more patience as we go along.

We are seeing more and more gorgeous weather and with a willing Daddy to remove the cars from the drive… well every afternoon we can we are out in the sunshine in our toys with bubbles and books for Mommy.

And then back in to make box forts for the girls!

On Saturday I took the leap and headed over to Regency Hair School and got a brand new CONSISTENT colour! I have to say the price was AMAZING (set price not sliding according to hair length) and the work wonderful. I had an amazing student and walked out with a terrific colour!

We managed a few garage sales and came away with new shoes for Miss Echo, a skein of eyelash yarn and a summer dress for yours truly. We are on the hunt for good finds this year… books, a scooter for Emanuel… anything homeschool related. Garage sales can be where it’s at. Sadly so far this year all the homeschool ones posted on the egroup are not reasonable driving distance for us.

Sunday was new members service for us! Very exciting, not only did the kids sing at the front first with the Sunday School group but we also came up to declare ourselves new members of Saint Mark’s. With a brunch to follow we had a great time meeting some of the other members, having a lovely meal with our new church community and spending some time as a family all dressed up!

We brought home our carnations that were pinned to our shirts and put them in a pretty dish to make into a centerpiece on the table. So pretty!

We had some amazing Lego creators hard at work to make Pokemon.

On Monday we set to work making peanut butter and birdseed on toilet paper rolls for birdfeeders to hang in the front yard. Another Scouts achievement to add to Emanuel’s list for his year.

Miss Echo is utterly in love with “doing her mail”. She simply cannot be stopped when it comes to completing the pages Gammie sent her. I think she is going to LOVE the curriculum we picked up at Sam’s club for an absolute steal.

Our morning was completed with a blanket fort.

There was planting to be done in the straw bale garden out back…

Which of course led to playing outside.

Emanuel chose to use Art for Kids instructions (link on right) to make his very own Mario.

That evening it was time for one of the last Scout gatherings for the year. Darcy had to be at 6 places at once so we collected Aidan early, hung out for a while and then headed over to the dam. We ended up at the wrong parking lot but in the end the boys managed to meet up with their group for their hike.

Super high water levels!

We hung out at the Novak’s for a while while the boys played games until the rest of Aidan’s family got home.  A great ending to a terrific day and the start of a whole new month.

May 18-23

We spent a large chunk of our Sunday out on the hunt for treasure… and for a good park! The girls decided to go matching on their excursion. We actually found a special geocaching coin that travels and is tracked. It has been all over the US an now it is our turn to pass it along!!

Chipmunk!

Pioneer Park

So swampy everywhere!

We have continued our watching of Veggie Tales when we can get our hands on them. So on a cloudy Monday it was a great filler between the rest of our ongoing learning of Texas, reading, writing and math. Sadly we are running out of shows that include a set of Sunday School worksheets to use. So instead we drew our own fun pictures.

That evening Ken worked on teaching the boys Agricola (HERE) another strategy game that I honestly am not a huge fan of. The additional reading, challenging game play all seems to be helping them stretch their skills more and more.

Tuesday was a nature walk in our very own neighbourhood. Keeping our eyes wide open for some more signs of spring… discussing road safety and the difference between planned plants and weeds. I think in June or July we will do a walk through the neighbourhood and see if we can get a bunch of different leaves and try and identify what trees are actually local to us. Which gives the little guys the chance to do a favourite activity – leaf rubbings!

Of course around lunch time we had to head back outside to enjoy the backyard. Really we were stuck indoors way too long this winter!

Art for Kids has put tons of wonderful how to’s out for us to enjoy. (link on right) Even Trinity is gaining confidence with the use of these.

Miss Echo was quite adamant that it was an ipad anime day for her. I really do love my Crunchyroll membership. Affordable and fun for me too. Granted she doesn’t understand anything being said and can’t read the translation but she bops to the music and enjoys the animation.

We tried something different for mid week. Of course we continued reading Treasure Island together.

But I had Ken make me up a nice set of charts for us to go onto the ipad and use my weather app to chart the week coming up weather local to us and for Austen Texas. Using this comparison we opened the table for a discussion about how activities and such would differ for the days there than here. Then for each day recorded the twins settled in with a sibling and wrote basically a daily diary for what they would do in Texas according to the weather. Zander was super creative and one day played out in the rain only to have to stay in the next sick with a cold!

We dug out our box of fraction magnets just to enjoy the manipulation of the pieces and to see how they look as actual objects. The boys were discussing and quizzing each other and explaining to the littles so I just sat back and let them go at it (as long as the information was CORRECT!).

We rounded off our outside experience on scooters, bikes and fancy skateboards. Sunshine sunshine SUNSHINE!

Trust me we really ARE doing sitting down book work interspersed with LOTS of outside running and burning of energy. Gavin has been taking charge of the camera occasionally and taking pictures too! Mommy in front of the camera instead of behind!!

Emanuel and I stole some afternoon creativity time on Wednesday and made a car ramp out of stuff in the livingroom while the other kids went on a walk with Nana and Baba. It is nice to have some quiet one on one time with the kids.

We ended our school week with ANOTHER Geocache adventure to a small park with a terrific tree shaded walking path. The boys are definitely the ones to jump up and go into the woods. We girls tend to wander the paths closer too and enjoy the more tick and branch free portion of the experience. That is not to say that Trinity does not jump on in from time to time though!

We are certainly seeing portions of Minnesota that Ken hasn’t even seen. There are some absolutely amazing out of the way tiny lakes and pretty shaded places. And we are seeing all of this together which is absolutely another plus. One thing we have learned from all the sessions Ken is now doing with his counselor is that going out as a family and enjoying an activity is absolutely crucial for all of us! That time together getting out, exercise coupled with the ability to spend POSITIVE time as a family. Amazing!

And a touch of Texas facts