August 11-15

We really are seeing some lovely sunshine and warmth this month.

With Nana and Baba back from Florida and prepping for Mexico (3 weeks) it was the perfect time to satisfy a Nana craving – CORN ON THE COB!

Time for Shark Week (which I am going to admit did not STAY a week… stretched the whole month really). As usual we started with what we knew before starting. I was quite proud of the length of this list. I have, of course, made a blog post with all our information… list of the Discovery shows we watched… I will post that by the end of this recap of August PROMISE.

We have really focused on yard work in our afternoons. Time to get the kids active and outside. And time to enjoy the sunshine before fall is good and upon us.

Of course I covered Echo’s 4th birthday on this blog entry HERE. I think we had a good day!

The next day it was back to sharks… sharks… Wild Kratts… oh and more sharks. I did have to be rather careful what shows we watched on Discovery this year. There was a mocumentary and some that were over dramatized. There were even a few that were seemingly people putting themselves into the danger unnecessarily… wedded most of those out. Even the kids were unimpressed by people getting into the water with sharks when they don’t have to.

We had to draw a thank you picture for Gammie for the Mixels. The boys are getting quite accomplished at recreating these with pencils and colour.

Our cursive practice has become a constant part of our day now as well… not the easiest thing to learn but I figure necessary.

We had a mini fashion show with some dresses Gabbi left Trinity when they cleaned out to move. Adorable! Trinity absolutely fell in love with the hat and wore it constantly even with how warm it has been!

Of course Echo needed in on the photo action.

Nana and Baba gave Echo her birthday present on Friday as well – an adjustable basketball hoop.

And then out to dinner at Culvers! After all… Nana and Baba are off to Mexico within days!!!

Seriously though, we are back outside as much as we can!!! SUNSHINE!

June 21-26

What to do on a sunny Saturday, the first one of SUMMER? Operation Geocache in a new location was less than successful, though we did find a bird’s nest…

A rather anxious turtle they corralled back to the safety of the marshy bits…

And a glider being flown from the parking lot.

You can just see it off in the distance. The guy had two and did some rather impressive maneuvers

After that nature filled adventure it was time to hop into our bathing suits and back into the pool in the front yard.

On Sunday we buzzed the twins’ hair nice and short.

Even with rain the kids got some time in the yard on the scooters.

Monday was a bit of a wash what with Nana and Baba getting home from Mexico and all. But Echo is one determined student and got in her workpage fun.

Additionally we have signed up 4 of the 5 kids (Echo is not fully potty trained so can’t) in the same VBS as Renee and Chris’ kids are in. They go to a daycare that is in a church and that church has a massive 4 day FREE daycare! Quite the amazing church – Living Faith Church HERE. They are there from 9 am to noon with us just dropping them off. It has made for quiet mornings and afternoons of light schooling.

Trinity is working on completing one of her review workbooks. We have given ourselves the summer to get these books done.

Back into the pool…

With a butterfly for company.

I swear the twins can play AND understand Agricola way better than I ever will! Somehow… not that upsetting! But it is neat to see them stretch their reasoning, problem solving and reading skills. In fact, one of the boys’ 10 top Summer To Do items is a boardgame day (probably on one of the extremely common rainy days!).

Miss Echo caught up on her well tanned Baba snuggles. Apparently Mexico was a very relaxing vacation for everyone!

Tuesday once again began just me and my baby… with ICE CREAM on the way home from VBS in celebration of Mommy’s 35th birthday.

And then a continuation of the pattern… into the pool. Splish Splash, this thing has paid for itself in entertainment value already!

Ken took me out for my birthday just us two to a wonderful Japanese place that cooks your food (private chef!) right in front of you! We tried chicken liver and green tea sherbet! the liver was… odd… the sherbet good! The chef was amazing as well, so personable. (Thanks to Shandai for the recommendation) 

Yup I took a pic in the car

Main course of dinner with other bits and bobs

The green tea with green tea sherbet

lovely ambiance

By Wednesday Echo was REALLY missing her siblings… lay around and watch tv sort of missing.

I am so proud of the kids for agreeing to continue with light schooling even after a busy VBS filled morning. Gammie’s mailed worksheets are a HUGE help.

This time I had two more garage sale finds! Gotta stop when you are driving home from wherever and see a sign… right?

Thursday was the final day of VBS and a busy morning. Not only did Ken have to drop the kids but then he had an appointment for Echo. So it was Baba that drove me to pick the kids up in the pandemonium that is a large VBS. We did enjoy watching the neighbourhood bunny in the front yard. Before they left for Echo’s hearing exam. Turns out she is just fine with wax buildup. So baby girl is a bit of a lazy talker with dirty ears that SHOULD have decreased her hearing abilities!

Packed with a snack on the way to her hearing test

It’s always an adventure with these two… there was some sort of a fire somewhere in the hospital so their entire wing got evacuated!! Everything was fine in the end though.

Gavin actually made his first Pokemon trade with a kid from there (name unknown).

And the final craft was rather cool! We gave our information to one of the boys the twins met. His mom had asked if we could do so on Wednesday. Sadly the rush to leave and Ken waiting when he dropped off as long as he could meant we had to give one of our little half business cards we gave as Christmas cards post move for address change had to be handed to the boy himself. So it is a bit of a crap shoot as to whether or not we will ever hear from them. We could not go to the evening program as we had other commitments.

4 days of 9 until noon and I can honestly say… our family is not hard wired for that sort of life. I think we really do enjoy and maybe now appreciate a little more, the flexibility that is homeschooling. BUT the experience of a large VBS has been great and really got us excited about our own church’s much smaller version. That one Echo is enrolled in too as I am helping her age group.

She really was a card this week 🙂

June 9-12

What to do on a Monday… a true summer holiday Monday? Well we went down to half days. At least we tried our best with a houseguest and the weather and the new knowledge for the boys that summer vacation really means VACATION grrrr. So to mix it up a bit I gave each of the kids a file folder to decorate. We will put their worksheets, colouring pages etc in there to get to when they want and when it is needed. Eventually I would love to have special boxes or drawers but until we have funds or space this is the go to measure for the year. If you notice Trinity wrote her name in the Chinese characters we have been practicing. I am still not set up to fully teach a second language but we are enjoying practicing our names and the numbers 1-5 (later to do 1-10). I got my numbers from the site Chinese-word.com HERE. The names are thanks to Aunty Xinny.

Echo and Trinity worked their pattern skills and helped me make our traditional thematic paper chains… this time in red and white for Canada Day. We definitely need a better stapler. The tiny one I have from MY school days is very hard for them to use and go through the papers safely but we managed.

I really quickly crocheted up a new object for our Geocaching trips. Thanks to CrochetSpot.com I got the instructions for making a water bottle holder. You can find these free instructions HERE. It is a quick stitch up and I used my favourite variegated Caron Simply Soft. I think I added a few rounds and of course reinforced my strap. I figure it frees up the boys’ hands when we need that bottle of water. Much safer for all the climbing about they do!

Seriously this year we have exchanged copious amounts of squirrels for bunnies this year! Everywhere hop hop hop. The kids are loving it, the greenery not so much. And every time there is one we HAVE TO take a picture !!!

Rabbits or not this did not stop the fun for the kids when Cousin Robbie showed up for a gaming evening. This brought our numbers up to 4. Ken and Sean were out when he got there which was perfect for the kids to get in their cousin play time (crucial if we want ANY alone game time!).

We played various games including my Christmas present – MUNCHKIN! Lots of fun!

And ended the evening in the basement with the PS3. It is great to have a family member who embraces gaming as much as we do! AND likes some of the games Ken likes and that I like as well!

On Tuesday Emanuel finished decorating his folder. We definitely had to bring out the sticker box. I am in need of adding to my stash finally!

We took some time to watch a Wild Kratts. The show is still being made which is AWESOME. I don’t think we will ever tire of making our mini posters. I have noticed the retention of information and the urgency to have me pause the show to write it down has increased.

Elf and Burrowing Owls

On Wednesday there was a garden to tend with Nana and Baba…

And Books to read through…

By Thursday things are getting busy busy. First Nana and Baba are working to get ready to fly out in the middle of the night with Joe and Faithe and the cousins for 10 days in Mexico. At the same time we have our half day of school and Sean’s last full day in Minnesota. Miss Echo is right in the thick of it with colouring sheets and her file folder. It is so wonderful to see her so interested in getting involved in our daily schooling though sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge to keep her going and deal with the other 4! We are definitely learning to take our turns.

With the Pizza Hut summer reading program there is a dragon theme and one of the worksheets had the twins finding the different sorts of dragons in a wordsearch. We have printed a few of those out after hunting them down online and the kids are working on colouring them when they are interested. I love the time they are taking with these.

Back came the bunny as well… and rather persistently NOT scared of noises or anything from the sunroom. Not until the kids ran out to see it did it actually (and rather leisurely) hop away.

Since it was the last day for Sean we managed to finagle Nana and Baba as sitters and headed to Mall of America for dinner and some shopping. We had some amazing Japanese food and a fun run through the mall including my favourite stationary store Typo and an amazing hat store where Sean got himself a new hat for all the walking and jogging he does.

It was definitely an adventure… we hunted down the bubble tea shop, found out that the Sanrio store was gone AND had a flat tire in the best possible access parking spot. So I got to watch the guys put on a spare. Quite the entertaining experience and a further proof of how healthy Ken has begun… he was so calm and even able to joke about it!

And that was that… oh we did stay up super late to watch Hot Fuzz and hang out but Ken had to get up and drive to the airport and all that… A week that counted I really think! With a wedding coming up next!