Hard to believe she is 8 already! August 13 th marked our Echo turning 8. We had to split up her birthday celebration to include Aunty Karyn who drove down from Canada for her visit the week before.

Saying goodbye on the 11th

So on the Friday (a day before Karyn had to drive back) we had an Echo day. We took her to the Como zoo (a zoo run on donations only) and she got a $30.00 limit in the main gift shop.

Butterfly!

She HUGELY lucked out. They were having a sale on a series of large stuffed animals that had her buying 2 for pretty much exactly $30.00. After much agonizing we purchased a red panda (my favourite animal) and an elephant. Talk about a happy little girl!

With her new Stitch teddy from Aunty Karyn

After the zoo we had to drive back home and clean up for Echo’s first dance recital at the YMCA! There was 2 recitals planned due to summer scheduling conflicts with parents. For this recital not only was  Aunty Karyn and Trinity there with Mom and Dad but she was the only one in her class that made it!

Dancing solo with Miss Grace

She did an amazing job dancing with her teacher Grace, and looked absolutely adorable in her little pink outfit. We were so proud.

After recital it was home for a cupcake cake! Since she is currently obsessed with Stitch I went on Amazon and found some little Lilo and Stitch statues to put on top of the cake. Success!

Monday marked her actual birth date so we had presents from us and Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie. I went all out with the Stitch stuff and Aunty Holly totally hit the mark with her Lego set.

Thank you Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie!

We also spent time at our favourite park.

A day or two later Echo got a parcel from Gammie. A brand new instant camera with film. Included was a lovely card from Aunty Heather and Hudson.

Add in birthday phone calls from Grandma and Nana and Baba and dinner out solo at McDonalds.

The topper on the day was swimming with Daddy while Mom worked out in her class upstairs.

Echo told me it was the best birthday ever. High praise indeed! Happy Birthday Echo!!!

Kitty school

February 5th marked the twins turning 14. What in the world happened?

Poor things, this year their birthday fell on the Monday. Which for our schoolroom means we still have a normal, though slightly lighter school day.

Lunch was present time. Once again Aunty Holly and family picked the best gifts. Trinity also coloured them a colouring page.

We had evening classes as normal at the YMCA… drawing class, leadership and then my R.I.P.P.E.D. class at 7pm. The leadership teacher and kids stuff made the boys and Emanuel their own cards! I love our YMCA so much.

We gave them a late supper choice and they chose Mexican. We went to the new place near the YMCA which says it is authentic. It was amazing. And the boys were so polite and respectful. It was such a good dinner.

We really went all out and stopped at Dairy Queen on the way home for an ice cream cake. Which Zander had to wait until the next day to eat.

They told me it was a great day, even with the schoolwork. We have a friend coming over for an overnighter on another weekend and of course there were the grandparent calls.

Happy Birthday to my first and oldest babies! Tiny miracles growing up so quickly.

January 24-25

Well we survived our post Aunty Karyn visit week. I don’t know that we accomplished too much that is interesting to others on Thursday but we had fun together and that counts for a lot.

Blocks!

Trinity and Echo worked on their educational games on the iPad… sharing is getting easier and easier for the girls and electronics.

Hard at work TOGETHER

I tried something slightly different with the kids and their birth year animals… we copied out each mini booklet from Activity Village and their Zodiac books… then, like the official year of the snake one HERE… I had each of the kids come up with one nice trait about each of their siblings. We wrote them down along with mine and Ken’s. We even did Echo’s (not pictured)… there was the perfect number of pages for each kid (except Echo who we had to put Daddy’s on my page too). It was a great way to consider positive elements about their siblings and still do something with a Chinese New Year theme… though I had to explain multiple times that “they play Lego with me” is NOT a trait!

What year are you?? Check the chart at Activity Village!!!

With a little regular daily learning and some cuddly time with Cabbage Patch dolly and a bean bag chair… well we did rather well!

So comfy

Friday was supposed to be a library book day but our branch apparently does not open until noon and we were out around 11. Oops! But we did make it to Target to get supplies for our visit to the Novak’s on Saturday. We are now ready to get our read on for Chinese New Year! 

But first – for our Friday dinosaur fun we drug out the Melissa & Doug stamp set… Trinity, Zander and Emanuel made the best pictures! 

Dino-riffic

It is an overnighter with the cousins here as well. I love when the kids get along and play… though 7 IS louder than 5 I can tell you!

Picture these 4 over a decade from now, replace sippies of juice with beer bottles.

Supper

Gotta end the evening with a movie right??

They did NOT watch Barbie… just the promo!

Of course we did MORE than that… Gavin got a 100% on his spelling test, Zander only one wrong… Lego time continued for Gavin and Zander made a birthday card for his god-mommy. All in all, the day was good!

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