Hard to believe she is 8 already… And definitely her own girl as well. When asked what she wanted to do for her birthday this year she had a rather conclusive list:

1. Go to the YMCA to swim with JUST mom and Echo… so Daddy drops us off and LEAVES.
2. Opening presents with her brothers.
3. Dinner at Culver’s with the whole family.
4. Cake or cupcakes with Aunty Darcy and her boys (that last one will have to wait until a weekend of course).

The pool was basically empty (on the non lane side) except for us and after a minor blip of having forgotten out goggles and toy bag and having to call Daddy to drop them off we had a blast. I had to get the iPad out and email Ken to wait an extra half hour and come get us later.

I even packed a snack bag for the girls and myself. Echo angled successfully for an additional treat at the vending machines… I swear they ALWAYS go for the most irresponsible choice, though at the YMCA really the worst snack you can get is the rice krispie square.

We had a lovely stack of presents for Trinity to open, including a few items for the others. We had lovely parcels sent all the way from Canada and Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie, the items I made for Calli from our family AND a selection from Gammie all the way from Texas! Add to that yesterday’s FaceTime call from Nana and Baba and a phone call from Grandma in Canada after dinner and I think we did a good job covering the gift wish list.

Our afternoon had some minor classroom work, after all Mommy is a teacher at heart now, but for the most part we played on the new DS2D and hung out together in the bedroom.

Supper was at Culver’s, though Ken was kicking himself… WEDNESDAYS right now (apparently) are 2.00 kids meals… oops. Well we still spent less than you would eating out as a couple at a sit down restaurant and EVERYONE was full!

Cake will have to wait as we ended the day full up. BUT here are some more pictures from when I was playing with the camera of the girls. Happy Birthday darling Trinity.

In her new purple dress with her koala bag.

I think that we have not had a relaxing and laid back February since 2004 and the birth of the twins… compound that with Emanuel being born in 2006 two days before their second birthday and we start our month off with activity already. Then it is Valentine’s Day and often Chinese New Year. 2015 was no different than years past. It helps that we absolutely LOVE Chinese New Year thanks to our adorable god daughters… Anna and Isabella and their families. There is so much culture and beauty we have yet to see and experience, sadly not in person… but through our learning. You can join us with our resource entry HERE for 2015’s year of the goat/sheep unit.

Dragon Puppet

It was a rather unique birthday for the boys as we didn’t have the big old family and friends party. February was also the beginning of Nana and Baba’s vacation in the Dominican Republic.

We had MULTIPLE parties, really more suppers with friends. One of those was a totally fun and bad for you movie and snack night with the Schwartz family. 

And the other dinner with the Novaks! 

Of course we had the usual, Home Depot.. swimming.. life in fast forward it seems…

We also hit our 100 days of class mark! This was a fun challenge, I had each of the kids come up with some piece of art or even just something fun made out of 100 pieces. We had Legos, popsicle sticks, stickers… it was great! Trinity glued on sparkly confetti and yours truly made a special poster of heart stickers.

We babysat our favourite baby – Jeffrey… the girls absolutely eat him up!

Emanuel basically made his scout car all by himself with minimal help from Daddy. While he did not win he came home proud.

We drew…

We learned…

The girls showed off their princesses to go with my crocheted versions. You can actually purchase her wonderful patterns (Kristen’s Kords) HERE.

We had readers and rather good listeners. It is always a bit of a a buzz to see them reading to each other willingly.

It is hard to believe that we now have two 11 year olds AND a 9 year old! Who gave them permission to grow up?

We even had a completion of workbook… I swear Trinity is just busting through hers! I am so proud of all these kids and their drive to learn. It wanes at times but we all end up inhaling books and searching down facts.

Of course we ended up at the YMCA swimming pool, that is pretty normal, BUT we also had the twins BOTH get their pink wristbands. This gets them free reign of the pool! And with them old enough to be dropped off…  this could be a GOOD summer for them. Pictured below in the lane pool (deepest area).Don’t forget about Valentine’s Day when we had our red, pink and white lunch and SPECIAL GUESTS for dinner – Aunty Shandai and Uncle Ravyn!

Dr. Seuss’ birthday was also in February so the girls went to Lakeshore to enjoy the festivities.

 So February was a colourful month full of celebration and love… you can check the overflow of images with some events I did NOT cover in this entry HERE. Look forward to reflecting BACK at March next! 

February 6-7

It is always a bit of a mental adjust when the inlaws leave for one of their extended leaves. Nice and hard at the same time. Nice, because it puts us back to the 7 of us working as a family unit again but hard because man do we miss them! We have been promised that they will have internet and may Skype and I even had Ken slip in a gift for the birthday girl – it was Nana’s birthday on the 6th. Baba always gets her the best presents – a whole beach!!!

We had a bit of major birthday excitement. The day before the last of the gifts Aunty Holly and Uncle James had sent from Canada got here. So on the 6th we opened the gifts from them AND from Gammie! Talk about a list completer day! Emanuel got the Pokemon he had been dying to have, Gavin Pokemon cards. Zander even got a brand new Lego set. We snuck out earlier and Ken got each of the girls a little something so they would not feel totally left out. 5 pleased kids I am telling you!

Think he wanted it???

Thanks Aunty Holly, Uncle James and Cousin Jimmie

Echo and her pony

We really took a day off school for the most part BUT that did not stop progress on the car. Emanuel and Ken are a building force here. With lots of interested eyes keeping a careful watch on the progress. After all… the race is on the weekend!!!!!

The Olympics start on the 7th and while we are not doing a whole unit on it we are cherry picking things here and there. Of course covering Russia and some of the winter sports we could watch. Xfinity has a section of clips from the Olympics which the kids have taken to watching every morning and discussing for fun. It has actually been a little difficult finding information about Russia for the age range we are working with here. Once again Activity Village has been a great resource you can find their Sochi section HERE. Or go to Art for Kids and look through their drawings HERE. They have covered a few of the sports with some how to illustrations.

We totally started with a couple of sports we were able to follow drawings with. Ski Jumping and Bobsled. This is actually the first year of women being allowed to compete in ski jumping at the Olympics. Zander was quite upset about this… he said girls can do anything so they must have been missing out not letting them try sooner!!! Talk about proud momma!

Of course we looked up our two sports on the internet… and I will share our links!

Ski Jumping:

• Activity Village HERE
• Art for Kids HERE
• Infoplease article HERE
• We of course had to do the video thing… an Olympic trials

Bobsled

• Activity Village HERE (video at the very bottom)
• Art for Kids HERE
• Library.thinkquest HERE
• Infoplease HERE
• Kids Britannica HERE
• Our video from youTube with Chris Lori

• Equally exciting is that my own cousin Brad Reinsch is listed as 4th ranked bobsledding pilot in Canada!! Very cool! 

Emanuel also drew up his paint job on his car. It is a Batman themed piece and looking AMAZING!

We are preparing for Valentines with tiny cards printed off the Activity Village site. I love printing off stuff on cardstock (best price ever at Sam’s for a ton of it!!) and letting the kids create their own little gifts. These are for them to make for their siblings. We have several purchased ones (or given to us from Gammie) to use to mail out. Another thing to get done and mailed!

The kids lucked out and Nana left her iPad behind. So we are having some kid together time of course!  With limited fighting thankfully!!!!

On our own once again… yup yup!