Tag Archive | costumes

Fall in the Air

October 17-18

This longer fall is still an adjustment for us. Where is the snow??? So we started our newest group project… this one a fall tree. Each of the kids got their own 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of white paper and some leaves to rub. Ken myself are doing our part by creating the trunk to assemble our branches and leaves on! 

Of course Emanuel had his dinosaur and the kids their book work. We had a slightly less enthusiastic spelling test with Zander getting 2 wrong. He focused on two words and didn’t pay attention to the sound the y makes in boy and by. BUT we are still happy to see he is reading the words that he has tested on later successfully and is proud of the words he IS getting right!

We had a few errands to run, our tulle stash was short a black… and we needed  to scope out the costume options at Target for the twins… and buy our trick or treating pumpkins. A dollar a piece and LOTS of options! 

Pumpkins!

I also had the twins decorate the poem sheet for Monday’s recitation… Their very own Elf up in a tree. I think they did a great job with the picture. Zander and Gavin worked together on it!

Great art

We have returned to Minnesota with a wonderful library book. Minnesota by Amy Van Zee. We are taking a lot of our larger books and more information packed ones step by step lately. Today we talked about the shape of the state and focused on the fact that there are over 10’000 lakes. I am hoping if we keep trying to come at the information about our new home from different formats and angles we will eventually get it to stick.

Ken and the kids finished up the day with Lego time! His special Legos!

LEGOS

We finished our special family tree on Thursday complete with a cat (Trinity), bat (Emanuel), pumpkins (Zander) and a squirrel with his nut (Gavin). Echo contributed her own leaf picture (at least we ASSUME it is an abstract representation on how leaves make her FEEL). 

Leaf assembly

Complete!

We started our Halloween themed poem memorization as well. A little more complicated as there are words like goblin in it which they are not used to using. I am so proud of Emanuel for standing with with the big boys and learning along with them.

As it was a day that started with the letter T we had our Minecraft day for the boys as well. The agreement is that they get Minecraft time and then draw a picture of progress or a favourite thing done and write about it in their journals. I am hoping to get them thinking more about processes, progress and other problem solving type things. 

Spontaneous mask creation via Zander

We had another art completion as well – Art for Kids is awesome. This time a junior Frankenstein! 

So well done!

We have had a bit of progress with Gavin’s cross stitch. He is thinking of gifting it to Daddy for his birthday on the 23rd but the big question is whether or not it will get DONE in time. I am hoping we can get it done. A completion is always a boost to the confidence and he has already picked out his next project! So with spontaneous crafts, continuing with the “master plan” and finding learning in unexpected places I am starting to feel like our feet are getting under us once again! 

Yah baby!

Two Adventures in Two Days

Let’s make our way to the weekend! The weather has been pretty predictable in its sunny wonderful-ness this week. The kids have LOVED it, the dog has LOVED it… I have to admit I have loved it too! We worked it out in advance so that Ken got enough work done to take his morning slow and we (as a family no less!) scratched ANOTHER thing off our list. Visiting Grandma’s work while she is there! And with the lovely weather how better to enjoy the event than to go for a family walk there, once we covered our Trinity’s blisters with bandaids, packed up the baby’s necessities and convinced the boys that walking WAS much better than the van. 

Walking together

We made good time and brought Grandma a bottle of water, as we all know hydration is VERY important. We met some of her co-workers, played with some toys and made two important purchases. As this is the weekend of Jaywalkers everything was 50% off so I got Echo a booster chair for 1.50 to take to Kathy’s when we pet sit (oh and for her to play with as it is officially her new favourite seat).

A chair AND the Tupperware cupboard

Ken picked out a boardgame. The main reason? It is still in the shrink wrap with a copyright date of 1974! So here’s hoping it is an interesting game! At least it is a good conversation piece for a piddly 2.50!

New game

On the way back Trinity’s feet started hurting again so she got a ride from Daddy. She is so nervous about heights that it took a little time to calm down and get comfortable with it. 

Best view

That got us home in time for lunch and schooling. Of course we had to do our page for the books… they are getting quite full of all sorts of adventures!

Gavin working on his library book

The twins each took some time in the afternoon to help me out with my craft sale items. Each of the boys has made their own duct tape change purse to sell for 4.00 like mine. They picked their own colours and Gavin even took the time with a messed up piece to draw and cut out a duck to embellish his. 

Gavin with duck

The inside on Zander's is silver

There is a measly 1 week left until the craft sale! I am going to link the event HERE so please, if you are in the area on the 9th, come by, buy something however small and help out a great cause. 10% of ALL my sales for the day go to the charity and I am also donating a doorprize. My  table SHOULD have the sign It’s a Hoot and Friends on it (gotta get that done yet!). I am personally selling owls, bows, duct tape items and some headbands. I will post some teaser images later this week as well as this link again and again! So check back! 

So many owls

Anyway after Grandma got done work and we had supper there was some kid and Grandma quality time while Ken and I ran out to get groceries. Some alone time for us and some nail polish time with Grandma. Echo’s first time! She got sparkly stuff and Trinity some gold. Zander had his done as well though we removed that Saturday as we have a special Sunday planned. I am just so glad they are getting some fun time with family in. We hadn’t visited in quite some time and we need to take advantage of this and have new memories and adventures made. 

Echo and her fancy nails

With Grandpa gone to the city for a conference it was bed time and then JAYWALKERS… yup two items in two days! Jaywalkers is an event where the downtown is blocked off from vehicular traffic. Instead booths are put up, carnival games and rides… there was snacks, shopping and even a 4-H booth with some animals! 

Checking out the animals

Bunnies

Echo in her seat

We tried to win free passes for the mini golf/petting zoo/corn maze just outside of town. All 4 kids tried and failed to make the shot but she gave us a pass anyway… after all there is still the REST of the family to pay for! The kids had a blast trying though! Each with a different coloured set of balls. 

Mini golf

And then we paid 2.00 for 6 balls to try bowling for 1,000.00. Ken came rather close but we did not win. It was fun though!! Each of the boys took a turn. 

Bowling

Next came the two things Ken and I absolutely LOVE about Jaywalkers – mini donuts AND lemonade (we tried the cherry version, I still prefer the original). Yummy, though the prices had gone up! Of course it would not be an outing without an injury. On the way back to the van Gavin wasn’t listening and climbed on some cement parking blocks, slipped and biffed it big time! Both knees VERY scratched up. So we cleaned him up as best we could with what we had in the van and after a brief stop off to pick up a medium sized diaper cover (yup I love SPRINKLES). took him home to clean and bandage properly. He did a professional job of scuffing himself up royally! 

OUCH

With Ken’s help, I spent some time making Echo a miniature version of Trinity’s purse… 4 inches long and with a shorter strap. She is very pleased and I was able to just use bits from all of my remaining rolls!

Echo's purse

We had a surprise visit from Tammy and her girls while the kids watched a movie from the Library and I got in some visiting time. She brought some of her older pieces of dressier clothing that she no longer needed/could wear for me to try on later and some company on an afternoon that went from sunny to drizzly rather quickly. 

Supper was homemade hamburger courtesy of Ken and then the kids played  games with mom while I got in some chatty time with Ken. I think we are starting to really feel on the same page on more and more things. I am hoping he can get a few more minutes here and there to homeschool with us in the near future as well. Though I do think we are doing rather well. I would love to do more in-depth things and hope to find some ways to get back into the crafting, math and sciences in a way that actually brings in the boys’ interest willingly. As it is I hope to get started on the United States on Monday. I have a few books from the library to use, and a couple files printed out from my resources. Sunday night I hope to do some more searching. Any suggestions are welcome! We plan to spend the whole month on it! 

It was a great day for together time. And I snuck in another weather page as for the first time in forever the weather changed visibly through out the day. Tomorrow it is the dedication for the costumes mom made the church. I look forward to it, and the last day of Sunday School. I hope to see some local friends, pick up a few items at some stores not available here and maybe stop at a park or two. Gotta keep the adventures going and two more things on our list to cross off! That is without going over the information the Information Center gave me about some local things. There is a great aboriginal event towards the end of the month and I know the library has advertising about a Father’s Day event that includes pictures on a fire truck! 

So my attempt to stay positive and do the day as the day standing alone worked rather well… the evening not so much but you know what? That sometimes gives way to talks that do help… I still have plans to make paper… just need a blender no one cares about, a screen and some paper to shred. Everything is doable if you keep your heart and mind set upon the path. 

A big sister being a big help

Adventures of a Sunday Nature

Sunday, what sort of adventures did we have on Sunday… well quite a few actually! First off the whole family had to be up and out the door by 8am… this is actually a bit of a struggle when you add in IN THEIR CHURCH CLOTHES to the equation, but we managed. Thankfully I had everything we could need or think we needed in bags and ready to go. We left Sean sleeping downstairs, the dog outside to play with her across the alley friend and packed up and headed out. Straight on to the church and Sunday School in our Sunday best. 

We managed to dress Echo perfectly in red for the Pentecost Sunday and met up with the NEW minister… he is freshly ordained and VERY nice. We had a chance to speak to him, get some spiritual support and find out that he lit a candle for our family in prayer at the Synod convention this past week. I felt so blessed. AND he says that once we are back in town there is no issue with me lining up some time to come to the church and talk to him. I just want someone other than Ken to share my thoughts with who can be a support system. 

The right colour for the Sunday

Playing in the cry room

After chasing Echo in the cry room and saying hello to people, dropping off the costumes that mom made to finish off the series with the man in charge of them and helping practice next week’s costume dedication songs it was time for church. Now, with 5 kids and the service starting around Echo’s nap time (at 10:30) we usually do NOT stay…  but… this Sunday we were part of the service as it was finally the dedication and welcome of the new members. I am so glad we ran into the minister BEFORE service as that allowed us to sneak out after that point and head on our way to the next adventure on our adventurous Sunday. 

My family

So with church thoroughly enjoyed (the twins even got to draw chalk drawings outside)… and the family back in the van it was time to find an internet connection… thank you Starbucks parking lot… change everyone OUT of their Sunday finery and check the emails to make sure nothing new had come up that we could accomplish in the city… Well there was an errand to run but nothing else… 

With everyone in spring casual again it was time to head out of town, this time to Chris and Chris’ to pick up the all important Chinese New Year poster and some mail I had sent to their place. This was a solo endeavor by Ken. The kids were cranky and time ticking to make plans to meet up with friends. As well, She Chris has been under the weather since the day we left for mom’s so less was best. 

From there it was to the No-Frills which had an awesome 1.00 sale going on. We are very careful when it comes to eating out on day outings like this… with 7 people to feed cheaper is better and going to a grocery store for sandwich fixings, water (great sale I am telling you) than eating out. This No-Frills is actually attached to our clinic where our family doctor is! 

One more internet connection to be found to check email and then on to the MAG to see the new displays. We met up with THREE people this time – Karyn, Victoria and her friend Fatima. So we made a new friend while we learned about proper food preparation and Chinese immigrants who came during the gold rush etc etc. Ken had to dart out for the errand which left me in charge of all 5 with the ladies for help… so we multi tasked as well! I am so helping that those keeping an eye peeled for us can find us the coupons (when they come out) for the free family pass for a year again! We love the MAG. 

Running before we get educational

Then the fish in the entrance

Me and my baby

Zander in one of the Chinese outfits they had to play dress up in

How much cycling does it take to burn off a chip? (Gavin)

A bit of history

One more stop before we said good bye to the city and headed back to Grandma’s – this time a combo. Ken dropped me and the kids off at Dollarama and then went across the parking lot to empty out the old van (bye bye Quest). We shopped all over the place, everyone got a treat and I picked up some things for my craft table. I am almost ready I think, I have some bright containers, baggies for bows to ensure bought bows do not get dirty when taken home, and black Velcro. YAY! It was actually a rather fun walk through. 

A surprise find! RC Cola!

When all was said and done it was around 3:30 when we went through McDonald’s to get apple slices for the kids and head back to home (well where home is for now). We even stopped off at the pharmacy on the way back into town and Gavin got to see his god mommy Christine and give her a specially coloured picture! A fulfilling and FUN day. We ran, we played, we learned and we celebrated… all necessary Sunday activities don’t you think? And we came home to a rather rested puppy who had an afternoon playdate with her bestfriend (thanks again Ashley). 

Worn out kiddos

We also had a Sean to visit with before he had to head home to get ready for school in the morning. I am sure you can imagine how excited ECHO was! And that was how our weekend played out… 

Back in the backyard before bed