December 21-22

Finishing up the school week right before such a major holiday is a bit of a task but amazingly enough all the kids woke up Friday morning as ready and willing as I was to get things done. Before noon we had ALL our paper work finished up, pictures sorted, words printed… Talk about a surprise – BOTH twins got 100% on their spelling tests!!!

100%!!

Emanuel and his number line

We didn’t make it to BAKING cookies… but we did make dough… from scratch, in Nana’s mixer (yup Ken is drooling over that one)… the kids loved watching that work.

Working together

Reading the recipe

BUT amazingly enough I FINALLY figured out how to use the timer on the camera (one year later) and so the kids and I played around a bit with that after we did up their carols! It was a little crazy, somewhat silly and totally THEM!

Post concert picture (Gavin in red)

And then with Daddy when he got home from errands

Ken and the kids also finally found the time and supplies to make a pin hole camera… well two actually. Here are the instructions we used off of Activity Village.

the image inside one of our cameras. We made one with the lid in the middle and one without. Both work!

Our cameras

We got a package from Canada as well…  from the Bleau family – with COFFEE CRISP chocolate bars! Oh and Puss in Boots the movie among other things. BUT Sharon and Ken have conspired to ration my chocolate bars for me… hopefully Ken will be kind! Of course we had to watch Puss in Boots before bed! 

Guilty Pleasure

There was tons to get done on Saturday, well for the adults at least. Ken and his parents worked on a family tradition – home made cabbage rolls. Ken is writing out the recipe for future holidays!

Working with his parents

Putting them in the portable oven

The kids and Nana put up the window clings together. Even Echo got in on the decorating. 

Window Clings

The rest

Of course we had to kick the kids out into the sunshine to play in the snow for a while.

SNOW

I put the boys in charge of making most of the cookies from our nicely chilled cookie dough. I love watching them work together. 

Bakers

We are really getting to the end of the Christmas preparation. There are TWO trees full of presents, refrigerators filled right up and the kids are beyond excited! And tomorrow we get to DECORATE the cookies! Butter icing for the win! OH and a success on the reading – we were watching Gnomeo and Juliet with Nana and Baba before bed. There was a spot where a character talks “like a samurai” and a short line was printed on the bottom of the screen… THE TWINS READ IT!!! Without struggles or problems!!!! WOOOOOO!!!!

Dressed for singing

Insomnia is never a good thing and on a Sunday night it certainly leads to a messed up Monday! Thankfully Ken was able to compensate and I got some sleep around 7am while the kids did their spelling, drawing and outside play. What we did accomplish was TWO crafts! I had been waiting to do these for over a week and am so glad we were finally able to assemble everything and get them done. 

Letters first

First was the Fairy Loom or Autumn Loom if you like. We used branches from back when Ken and his dad took down the trees in the backyard. They were easily cut down to make nice Y shapes. The boys did the stick hunting… And then we used some of the yarn that was laying around… this is a very thin yellow I have not found a use for… perfect for creating our woven framework.  Add in some pretty leaves and bright coloured feathers I got at Michaels with a coupon and there you are! 

Cutting down the branches

Weaving the thread

Adding feathers and leaves

Looms!

We had a lovely conversation about how many fairies are going to come and enjoy our looms, whether or not they will dance in the night time and what they would look like. I love imagination and belief in the magical world around us! Trinity especially was sure they would love to sit and play on the feathers!

Apparently Fairies love bright coloured leaves!

Our second craft was a family one for our school corner in the basement. We made a wreath of all our hands. The boys helped each other and Emanuel to trace their hands and they cut out their own. We all wrote our name on our own hands and then Ken glued them onto a circular piece of paper. I think they turned out really nice!

Tracing hands

The final product

Of course we did our usual book work and spelling etc. but really the lack of sleep didn’t work in our favour. We tried a recoup on Tuesday, BUT due to an accident on the weekend, we couldn’t pick up our school supplies until that morning. I am so appreciative! A mother who is still on an egroup I joined here in Minnesota is done schooling – her kids are in college (I like that – homeschooling kids IN COLLEGE!) so she was looking to get rid of the last of her supplies. Well, this family is in need of expanding, so we drove out to Minneapolis and collected what she no longer needed. For our 40 min drive we got to see some pretty residential areas AND get a lovely pile of new supplies, some for later years but a whole box of stuff that will work for us immediately, games… some math manipulatives… books… again I am so grateful! We really cannot afford to go out and buy buy buy so these little bits and pieces are going to supplement what we do have and help us lead on in new directions! 

Supplies!! Thank you so much!

When we got back it was time for spelling and general busy work. Trinity tried her new binder on for size and really enjoyed tracing her finger on the numbers and colouring her A page. I really like this notebooking set. Some of the pages are in sleeves for the dry erase marker and some she is colouring herself permanently. I am going to assemble the elementary version as well once I have some spare time… and another binder! She was so proud to have her own book though! We did not do all the activities but did as many as we had attention for. You can find that downloadable HERE. 

Dry erase markers with the numbers

Trinity has this little princess book she brought down when we moved that has a few crafts and such in it. There was instructions as to how to make a crown… well this is HER interpretation of what she saw. I don’t think that it is wearable as a crown but to hang up… quite possible!!! 

A crown

It just happened that Trinity and Echo were wearing coordinating dresses, so of course we took some pictures!

Girls together

Now we sent the boys outside to collect the sticks that were left under the deck… our hope is that we can get all of the branches and leaves cleaned up and either stacked for wood or in the proper receptacle before Ken’s parents return. They got pretty well all of it to the front and Ken spent some time getting pieces chopped down to manageable sizes.  All in time for our evening plans – cupcakes and supper (spaghetti) with Quinn, Bree and Scott.

Supper with the kids

With her US god daddy Scott

We had a mini celebration of belated birthday for Echo. I baked a dozen cupcakes and a little cake with a cherry chip mix and then with a coupon got a container of icing for around 50 cents!! So we could let the kids help with the icing and sprinkles when it was time to eat. Bree made us cheese bread (yum!) and brought some more adult cupcakes (decadent). So we had dinner, desert and visiting. It was so much fun!

Decorating cupcakes

And then… we got to keep Quinn! Sleepover!!!

Ready for bed

So a great day!!! I am not sure how much schooling we will get done tomorrow but time with a friend and playing and sharing is legitimate learning too – sharing, caring, cooperation… all GREAT skills!!!   I will leave you with my two completed projects to date! TWO scarves… I am pleased with these!!!

Completed

September 6-7

Is definitely something we are striving for… and a work in progress. Thursday did not really go as planned. I was last one up since Ken was able to watch the kids in the morning and I have not been getting lots of sleep… but they did NOT do their school work in the meantime. The code Ken needs to complete his job application and move onto the next stage is a HUGE priority of course… and the week has been a heavy on the study so far anyway. 

Once I was up and going it was crack down time on the schooling and we got results. Another completion on the review books – this time Gavin finished HIS math book! That moves us back to our Grade 2 level comprehensive. With it being a CANADIAN version I do have to get my hands on some good American money and measurement (oh, and temperature ugh  come on Metric I love you so!) worksheets. After all, we have to learn BOTH systems now. 

So proud!

With our first week of school for the year in our new state and home we had to make our own school house! I love the Activity Village site! I am sure most people have noticed a lot of my print outs are from their site… you can find the instructions for our school house HERE. We altered it slightly by having each of the windows, door and bell have one of the 4 schooling age kids’ personal pictures. Then all 4 of them decorated the background around the school. It was great fun! Ken and I just cut out the shapes in advance to make it a simple project. 

Working together

All done!

And the check marks keep coming! The twins are trying their best to read that book solo and Emanuel and Trinity jump to do their tasks each morning. I am hoping the momentum continues.

The kids and I all headed outside in the afternoon once Ken had left to look at computers at his brother’s work (seriously time worked against us… and then add in the weather…) to enjoy what sunlight there was… and to get sprinkled on! Echo was adorable going OW and then rubbing the spots that she got rained on and smiling.

Rain

It wasn’t too bad for us to be in the front yard but I chose not to trust a walk. Which was a good call as once Ken got home it rained outright!  But Gavin revamped his wooden structure into what he and Emanuel called a squirrel tee pee, but only until winter when it would leave and only while said squirrel was NOT out hunting for nuts.

Squirrel tee pee

  Friday was a baking day for the kids. Everyone was a little burned out from the week at home and Ken had his tour of the company he has had his interview and test code with in the afternoon. Add to that windy weather and Echo NOT sleeping the night before and nothing lined up for us doing any sort of walk. So, why not make cookies and corn muffins?  Ken’s mom had bought package mixes of a couple types of cookies so we chose the molasses package to make our cookies.

Molasses Cookies

The boys and Emanuel helped read the packaging (words for the boys and the pictures for Emanuel)… they helped me figure out the temperature for the oven and then counted with me as we set it. Each of the kids did some stirring and then left me to put the cookies on the tray and into the oven. 

Mixing

So of course we had to put it into our observational journal… each of the steps and then worked on words to explain them. I was so proud of how WILLING they were to do it! 

Watching the baking

All done

The corn muffins worked out well as well with the kids’ help. Though next time we get it I want to get some cupcake papers as well. This box came with our handmade bags from the Abundant Harvest event. I have actually started saving all the little boxes and plastic containers food come in, sealing them up and starting a collection for Trinity to start a new kitchen set. We will have to purchase the actual stove, fridge, etc combo later but I can start building up her food collection and the muffin box was PERFECT!! On top of that I also saved a Rice-a-Roni and a Jell-o box. Great start!!

Muffins

Our weekend is looking like we will keep busy, we have not yet chosen a church but with Ken’s intense focus on job hunting and getting us settled here it looks like it could be the rest of the month before that decision is made. That is ok, we are working step by step to figure out our life here in Minnesota and it is a little difficult when we KNOW we will not be staying here long term. 

With our coloured rules

The crocheting is going on… and on and on. I am seeing the end of my scarf and debating a fringe… and planning on trying combining different rows of stitches and hoping for the best! I am enjoying it!

My first “real” project, though without a pattern

So our first week back and our first real week in Minnesota was a success in my mind! We will get the forms sent out next week and be officially in the system and go from there… in the meantime, I am just going to keep on going and trying and doing! 

NOMS