Well Echo is now a well travelled baby – she has made her way into Saskatchewan! Not as far as her Great Grandmother who is past Saskatoon but well into the province to Maidstone… and then on to Aunty Karyn’s family cabin. Only AFTER we did the rounds seeing all her childhood memory spots. But I am getting ahead of myself. We left here at 7:30 in the morning to swing by to pick up Victoria and then off to Saskatchewan… We stopped off at McDonald’s back where my mom lives. In fact, the one that I used to work at in high school (before the remodel made it all cool).
Sitting like a big girl at McD's
Then back in the car to drive on. We stopped in Innisfree to get gas. That left bathroom, snack pick up and baby to change. Then back we went…
Snack time
We had to drive through Lloydminster to get into Saskatchewan… and then into Maidstone to tour the town before heading out to the cabin. We saw friends’ homes, the schools she went to… her old family home… so much fun! The drive out to the cabin proved to those of us NOT from Saskatchewan that the old adage that Saskatchewan is FLAT is absolutely wrong! OH and did I mention some of the views were absolutely breath taking???
So pretty!
There was some sad news in regards to the cabin – there had been a recent break in… it looked as if they got in and rifled through the stuff in the main room…but took NOTHING! Very odd! So we had a bit of a job ahead of us to tidy is up and make some semblance of order in there. I think we did a good job, after we had lunch though.
After a full afternoon of going through things, checking out stuff in a broken silo and generally tidying we went out to the edge of the land the cabin was on to see the view. And to take pictures! Windy, sunny and gorgeous!!!
Panoramic Saskatchewan
Then it was time to head back home… quite the drive, with a stop off first at Lloydminster to go to the bathroom and get gas and then back to the same town we had breakfast in to get supper. Wendy’s! And then home home home.
Supper at Wendy's
I came home to a bit of a mess! Apparently while Ken was sleeping before church they decorated and then all day played played played.
Paperchains
He did get a group picture before church! AND Trinity joined the preschool class that was coupled with Emanuel’s Kindergarten class. We are not going to force the issue but from time to time give her the chance to join the class… all depends on her mood and how the potty training is going! I am told she had a GREAT time!
Ready to go church
OH I also came home from some gifts from a special homeschooling friend. I missed her email asking to text if I was going to be home as I had already left. Included were backpacks! Nice ones, that are much bigger than what the kids had and PERFECT overnight size for going to grandma’s. And some Halloween goodies and baby clothes. Her grand-daughter, while younger than our Echo is bigger (isn’t that the way it is with our pixie?). I feel so blessed to have such a wonderful friend and sad that I missed her! Maybe next time?
Some goodies
We brought back some treasures from the cabin too – two lovely little chairs I just need to clean up and maybe paint… and a doll house complete with the furniture, dollies and a little car! If you pull down the switch on the front door the doorbell even makes a sound! I remember playing with a house like this at the doctor’s when I was little. We are so lucky to have friends who are downsizing their possessions and old favourites. We certainly appreciate it and feel blessed!
Dollhouse
Today was not the most fluid of days… but we had some lovely moments! The kids started with Stuart Little… I figured it was best to get that second last chapter done. Definitely some resistance as everyone was still in last week’s cranky mode but better!
Stuart Little
We did some math workbook work… funny enough – both boys ended up starting with probability – Zander at the grade 1 level and Gavin the grade 2. Pretty much the same thing though for both.
Math time
And then we started on our NEW project, my stepsister’s husband (Adam) is gone overseas. He is a mechanic and fixes planes for the airforce. So when I recently got send his mailing address I decided we would write him some letters. After all we have never met and this is a great way to begin that. The boys were a little resistant with the writing portion but excited about drawing him some special pictures. The little two just drew pictures and used stickers but they did have a lot of fun doing it.
Not sure why Echo was so surprised!
We started on our Halloween print outs today as well… the UK site had some cute paper doll type stuffthat I printed out for each child. 3 decided to make their people all dressed up, 1 to go the usable paper doll route. Surprisingly that was ZANDER! Usually he chooses the least amount of work. Once I laminate them it will be another set of cutting out to get these ready for use.
Laminated but not cut apart
Then there is the Halloween Activity books… I picked and chose my way through it try not to go too beyond the kids’ abilities. There was quite a few options!
I finished replacing the Velcro on ONE of the sized small diapers… it took me two days but it is done. The only problem is that when I went to start a second all of the covers were in the wash! So hopefully tomorrow I can catch up on the laundry and go from there. I have 4 in total to replace, as her 5th is a relatively new cover.
Diaper Velcro replaced
The twins made new paperchains to go on the tree out front… we aren’t too huge on the decorating BUT this year we figured we would do up our tree just a little!
Ready for the tree
Karyn got off work early today and decided to come by and whisk the twins off to the library and then to the park! Lucky things. This time the other branch where they got some books and movies. Tomorrow it is back in the pj’s for the little ones for stories and crafts so we are getting well acquainted with our local library branches! Already well worth the 10.00 for the card. That left the 3 little ones to enjoy freezies and hang out together here.
Freezie time
Sunshine snack
OH found out today we have had the wrong postal code! For those who need it the end 3 digits/numbers and letter things are 2C7! Be sure to change it!!!!
So there is lots to be done upstairs after a full day away! Add to that costumes to be completed and more Halloween crafts and activities to print out and I don’t think I will be going to bed any time soon! BUT I managed to get a winter coat for Emanuel off of Kijiji for 10.00 and tomorrow will sell a costume to someone else for the same! I really feel like I am contributing! Hopefully more of my ads will sell this week and I can decrease the clutter in my closets! In the meantime, back to creating a penguin out of bits and pieces!
Sweet baby
We hung out in the hammock.
Played outside whenever we could.
Had movie nights.
Made sure to document all the pretty flowers.
Visited our godson Anthony after emergency appendix surgery.
Echo even went to Evan’s birthday party SOLO with dad!
Basically we made this month COUNT and then some!!!!!
