Tag Archive | Chinese

Happy Mother’s Day 2014

I know I know… BELATED but I AM catching up and it WAS a special Mother’s Day for me…

May 11

It seems we have set a precedent with our busy May weekends. BUT this was Mother’s Day so it was a special kind of busy… First off we had to head to Sunday School. There was a parent meeting about VBS and the following year’s Sunday School during class. Even Echo came along to enjoy the various people at church. In fact, next year she is going to be in Sunday School for the very first time! And it looks like she will be in VBS this summer (end of June) as well.101_7419

After Sunday School we headed home to take our yearly Mother’s Day photos. I think we all looked rather spiffy!101_7423

101_7428And then it was time to change out of the finery and leave Echo with Nana and Baba for the first part of the really MOMMY centered portion of the day. We got out to Lochness Park (seriously! But no unknown monster in the depths sorry!) to begin what we hope will become a lifestyle change for us all – GEOCACHING!101_7431

I have wanted to try out this GPS based treasure hunt for a year now… but until we had to upgrade our phone we really could not do it. Amazingly enough Minnesota has thousands of cache locations for us to find and explore. Some are micro where you just sign a log, some larger where trinkets can be left and taken.101_7430

I sat down and made sure to make up a few marshmallows (crochet) to leave at the nicer caches. The kids have also grabbed some of their small and not favourite toys to leave behind as well.101_7435

101_7442Amazingly enough I was the first one to find a cache!!! Talk about appropriate. And the excitement, the working on keeping our eyes open… the out and out exercise coupled with a treasure at the end has everyone in our family absolute hooked!101_7433

We ended our circuit around the lake with lunch in the vehicle out of last year’s picnic bag (awesome purchase from Target). And it was time to head home for an amazing nap and dinner from the family’s favourite Chinese restaurant.

And boardgames with Daddy

And boardgames with Daddy

Happy Mother’s Day to all you Mommies in our lives… a special call out to those titled ladies in our kids’ lives – Grandma Reinsch, Grandma, Nana, Great Grandma Rapp, the God Mommies: Darcy, Christine, Xinny Karyn, Esther, Ada and Bree… Thank you so much for taking on the responsibility of being a support to the kids. We love you all!!!101_7439

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This entry was posted on 08/06/2014, in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Happy Valentines Day!!

February 13-18

Slow but steady, our family motto when it comes to all things is – if you start it you FINISH it! So Thursday the 13th we got right to work on our RED poster for our Chinese New Year unit. I think we did a rather good job on our assembly and quickly realized that this is a poster AND a binder unit! Sometimes we are caught off guard as to how much we really do as 5 kids all working on portions of a unit.101_6202

For our Olympics unit we printed off snowboard templates and each of the kids designed their own. We talked about how some will have slogans, labels for selling things, images they like and enjoy seeing and then used their imagination and got to work. This was found on Activity Village under their snowboarding section HERE.101_6197

Further proof that Art for Kids drawings are amazing – Miss Trinity was well pleased with her results drawing her own snowboarder. She had to do a second for Echo. I just love how accessible he makes more complicated drawings for kids (link on right) and adults !!101_6198

101_6199Emanuel made us what he told me was a Chinese style building out of Echo’s wooden blocks… quite nice! She liked it.101_6200

We have been working on our Valentines Day themed worksheets. They are really helping the confidence with numbers and colour words!101_6203

We also set up a table so the kids could take a week or two and just bead up a storm! Perler beads are simply a family favourite!101_6204

Friday, of course, was Valentines Day! And so we had our cards and such to exchange. Ken and the kids had TWO cards for me and a bag of cookies and cream kisses! How spoiled am I?101_6207

I made Ken his very own crocheted Kiss… you can find the pattern itself HERE. This site does not allow for sale of completed projects but has a lovely list of free patterns to make of different kinds of food.101_6210

Of course we dressed up in red and pink and white to match the theme.101_6211

101_6214We spent our morning on puzzles and games. Lots of team spirit!101_6215

101_6216101_6217101_6218Lunch was full of pink and white and red… we had waffles with whipped cream and strawberries, red jello with whipped cream, pink juice and heart shaped cookies. Add in some suckers and hugs and the kids were over the moon with the variety of snacks.101_6219

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Our centerpiece!1796580_10152216652276151_526592568_n

In the afternoon the kids got white t shirts and fabric markers and made themselves up some fancy t shirts. No theme on those just what they wanted to make but they had a blast working on them.101_6223101_6224

Supper was the kids’ Pizza Hut reading coupons! I am so proud of the effort they all make to work on their reading! 101_6226

We had a VERY quiet Saturday… mainly due to my getting sick. Mommy is ALWAYS the last to get sick… and by then the germs have mutated.101_6228

That did not stop the kids from going to Sunday School on Sunday and then heading out into the backyard and all the snow we have out there to enjoy. Yours truly went to nap. I have not been so ill in a very long time. I think I lost days to sleep if you count up all the hours I napped and or slept in.

I went for a bath in the early afternoon to try and clear out my sinuses and came out to my whole family cleaning up the boot room! What sweeties! They all worked so well together!101_6232

The evening ended with a Skype visit with Nana and Baba all the way in Roatan!101_6233

On Monday it was back to beading – Gavin has an especially large pattern to work on thanks to some of our Christmas money (we purchased the largest peg board we could!)101_6234

And then back into the snow. You will see this as a February pattern – any day that is not too cold is spent outdoors. I figure we need to burn off that winter snoozy feel!101_6236

Tuesday we were back to family storytime. I cannot tell you how wonderful it feels to see the twins reading to their siblings. They are doing so well… so smoothly and so amazingly coherent. I am hoping they will love reading as much as I always have and Ken has grown to.101_6237

Trinity, Echo and I read a favourite book – Guess How Much I Love You.101_6242

The boys drafted Ken out to help them with a rather impressive structure in the backyard. They started off with a rather half hazard structure and went from there with Ken’s help. Out came the snow brick maker and a piece of wood for the roof. Imagination and manpower… priceless.101_6239

101_6241101_6243101_6244101_6246101_6249I think these moments with Ken out in the snow are going to be amazingly lasting memories for the boys!101_6250

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Happy Chinese New Year!!

January 31

Welcome to the year of the horse! Shin Nein Kwai Le!

This is our second Chinese New Year here in Minnesota  on our own. I always miss the den Otters and our other Chinese friends the most this time of year but we do our best to remember and celebrate.

We started with wearing red clothing for luck, Echo had a headband with red on it, but wore her Kai-Lan dress. After all that is where we learned a lot of our Chinese from! I am hoping that next year the girls can get some more traditional dresses in time for Chinese New Year! There are a little harder to find locally here but I am sure I can manage something.101_6048

We sat down with our horse themed sheets and wrote down all the things we remembered from our time spent learning all about China and the celebration. The kids all did well remembering some interesting facts.101_6051

Pictures of some favourite aspects

Pictures of some favourite aspects

I had red envelopes and lucky candy for the kids as well. Though they did not get them until the evening.101_6053

We also watched the Kai-Lan DVD I got from the library that included the Chinese New Year episode.101_6052

The kids learned all about the Shanghai tower with Ken. I actually knew nothing about this landmark as well, so we all learned something.

Complete with Chinese flag

Complete with Chinese flag

We had long noodles for luck and lengthy lives at lunch. Some of the kids even attempted chopsticks.1795720_10152203106306151_586961802_n

Echo did an adorable video on Facebook attempting to use hers

Echo did an adorable video on Facebook attempting to use hers

The girls and I had some after lunch game time with some of our favourites.101_6056

101_6060And for supper… the whole family had take out Chinese from our favourite place – Rose Garden. It was so delicious, and a perfect way to celebrate a special day with our family.1796489_10152203740496151_359733367_n

So happy Chinese New Year everyone. I hope the year of the horse is a prosperous and happy one for us all!!!! I will, of course, post our Chinese resources once we assemble everything later in February. (you can find the orange pattern – no selling, gift or personal use only – thanks to Nanaliciouz HERE)

Some lucky oranges

Some lucky oranges