November 7-9

UNO was the name of the game on Thursday with Aunty Karyn. Don’t get me wrong, we ARE doing our basic schoolwork – reading (to Karyn), spelling and of course any sort of daily worksheet, but a good teacher knows when to take advantage of the distractions, and special time with their beloved Aunty is worth the memories.

I had an extra special treat in the form of Darcy having time (after an appointment with all kids in school) and I having adults to keep the kids and I was able to reintroduce Karyn to Darcy. They met at first at our wedding and then again at the twins’ baptism (Darcy and Andy are Zander’s godparents, and we are in turn Anthony’s). We went out for a lovely LONG (keyword that, long) lunch at the Green Mill with lots of chatting and girly time and ZERO kid interruptions. BLISS!

Note the Remembrance Day Poppy that Karyn brought me from Canada on my lapel!

Karyn brought with her a variety of Canadian specific chocolates and bits and bobs. I took a picture of a few of them to share.

On Friday Ken and Emanuel got to work (finally) on the final portion of our Egypt lesson. The “crafty” thing that came with Little Passports. A bit of a mini dig with his very own pyramid. They made good inroads on their first time working on it.

We had a lovely minor snow fall which the boys  took advantage of with a snow bunny and mini snowmen.

Bunny

They used every tiny bit of snow.

It was a day off school for the cousins so they joined us for the weekend.

With Aunty Karyn added to the mix it was a wonderful day of fun and hanging out and getting back in touch with each other (with a bit of sneaking out to shop of course!).

Saturday was a somewhat planned out day with a trip to the Brickmania Toyworks. A special Lego exhibit done by local people with  tons of original pieces all made out of Lego. Gift shop included.

Hmm a bit of TARDIS

There was tons to see and we did our best to see it all. So much creativity! 2 cars, 5 adults and 7 kids later and we made it there and back.

Ok, so the bullets aren’t Lego… but the water is all those tiny clear ones!!!!

What a great sign! Look for the rest of these pictures (and there are a lot!) at the end of the blog.

After that Karyn, my mother in law and I went out to Kohl’s to take advantage of sales and an added 30% off discount. Because of them I am now the proud owner of an amazing (limited addition) Little Black Dress that was on for a steal!!! Thank you Nana! Pictures to follow… eventually.

The kids rounded off their day with a tea party.

A Saturday well spent! Now enjoy the Lego themed chaos.

The originator of this group was really into war themed projects as you can tell!

A pretty amazing tree!

There was actual water flowing out of the fountain.

Hagrid and Batman!

They can play this little soccer game on the display.

Godzilla

We spotted a fairy!

The kids

May 31- June 1

I am a wee bit biased… June is my favourite month. Let’s see… my birthday, our anniversary, Father’s Day isn’t half bad… the boys were baptized in June… and the first day of summer… It is my first in the states and has given me a bundle of confusing emotions… homesick a wee bit I might add as there is another special moment to remember starting this June – my dear cousin Veronika is getting married!!!! I am dreadfully sad to have to miss it, but darn it… immigration moves slowly for those who are not willing to pay money into a lawyer.

Anyway first we need to END the month… so… Friday… Day one of the intrepid paleontologist Emanuel’s first dig. He has a box set up that we can store in the garage and it is all his show. He found the tip of a bone on the very first day! Everyone is rather jealous, but in the end this is something Emanuel is truly in love with, like Gavin and his art.

The clay block he begins with

Perfect chance for art in the sun… nature art!!

Working on the front steps

We have changed it up a bit with the reading now that our school program is over with Pizza Hut for the year… now the kids are reading for their younger siblings! Adorable and great practice telling stories to other people.

Did you know Batman is good at helping with workbooks???

Oh and after a long month+…. A COMPLETION!!! PENGUINS! I am beyond proud on this one… we learned so much and we did it together! We all learned something new and COOPERATED! Bask in the penguin glory! Oh, and enjoy the resources we share in the next blog.

We even topped the day with some rather impressive (and according to Ken who had to run out and cover the straw bale gardens painful!) hail.

What is a week without a weekend?? Let’s welcome in June with a Saturday… Time to spiffy up the twins with new buzzed haircuts thanks to Nana, Baba and Daddy! Not bad!!

All done

But even before that… HOME DEPOT! They made adorable wagon pencil holders… note that Trinity now has her apron too!

And then some shopping with the whole family… flip flops for the twins and a new swimsuit for Trinity… With the rest of the day freed up for play and relaxation… June has begun, lets hope the weather gets a little more consistent with some sunshine.

Fun in the sun!

May 4-5

Another weekend another busy 2 days! And I am most certainly NOT complaining! So starting with Saturday… it was a rather special day. FREE COMIC DAY! Oh and the 4th of May (May the Forth Be With You… har har Star Wars… Har Har). We lucked out and earlier in the week got a postcard from the Source (the best comic/gaming store in the state) with all the information.

Our adult bag… sounds awful, but they had kids and adults divided…

Getting to the back of the store

Busy

So we planned in advance and met up with a childhood friend of Ken’s recently in the process of moving back to Minnesota from New Mexico, Matt. His twins who are almost 4 are also in state but they were napping so he came solo.

Ok you can JUST see the side of Matt’s face sorry

They had free comics (of course), pop and chips… oh and people all over in cosplay… everyone from Santa to Batman to WonderWoman… oh and SAILOR MOON! So of course  Trinity had to have her picture taken with her!

Sailor Moon!

Iron Patriot

We took random pictures, shopped around… and got a boardgame for Ken and the kids to play… this one is a cooperative.

The kids’ stash (repeats but lots to enjoy)

Castle Panic

Of course before we went there it was the first Saturday of the month AND Trinity’s first full month as a 5 year old we had Home Depot to enjoy first! No aprons to take home for Trinity but the guys will go earlier next month.

She DID get her first pin!

Plant Pot holders

Sunday was originally going to be Ken’s first soccer game of the beer league… BUT He ended up sick so I lucked out and got another Sunday out with Bree… Lily… AND Quinn!!! Perfect timing as Bree ended up with a car issue that meant she needed to go drop her car at the mechanics. So she was able to do that and have her inlaws drop her back at home while I hung out with the kids. As I am sure you can imagine I was NOT complaining.

My tiny charge

My able assistant

Of course this meant I was there with my CAMERA! Quinn is an avid photographer and photo subject when it comes to me and my camera. He helped me take a few… and also starred in a few himself.

Peach

Digger

Perry

And in balloon form

Add in tummy time images…

BABYYYYYYY

So many smiles today

Just general cuteness…

Babies love these bag sleepers but man do they ride up!

What a face

And a moment of milk drunk sleep…

Full tummy

It was a brilliant day… and with no car there was nothing to do but walk to the nearby DQ. Such a new thing for me… they only had hotdogs! Yummy though. So we packed the kids and the camera and headed out to enjoy the day.

In the carseat and ready to go into the stroller

Quite an interesting neighbourhood

The beauties themselves

Seriously a quirky neighbourhood… love this mailbox

We had a bath snuck in amongst the random fun… apparently sink washes are NOT fun, especially when mommy gets the idea of using the sprayer! Oops!

Seriously Aunty, put the camera down and SAVE ME

That left us the rest of the afternoon to hang out, visit, watch Perry the Platypus and take a boatload of pictures! There WILL be an overflow!!

Baby! Note the bracelet that was a gift from the nextdoor neighbours

Shhh you will just have to check back to see the rest