Thursday has come and gone… always a busy day we managed to amp it up even more. First with a family trip to the local stitching store… the children had a blast in the playhouse and Ken and I have come to the realization that by Trinity’s 2nd birthday at least we MUST acquire one. My suggestion was that Ken speak to my step-father and see if he could help Ken make one (he recently finished a dog house for Harley). We had to drag her out of there kicking and screaming literally!

I  can’t disclose EVERYTHING I bought as the majority of it was for my advent exchange but we did get a great deal on 3 bags of tri cornered beads in Halloween colours – 99 cents a bag! So tomorrow guess what we will be doing? Yup, stringing beads. The boys LOVE making bracelets and necklaces!

99 Cents a Bag!

For school today Ken went over insects and I took pumpkins! We worked on the life cycle of a pumpkin from seed to pie and I figure since they had so much fun putting the images in the right order instead of stapling it into a book I will put them in a pocket. Tomorrow we will discuss pie. One of the final activities to do is make a wheel with each of the spices in the pie glued on.

Prayer

Halloween Card and Pumpkin Life Cycle

It took a bit of research but Ken found out the specific type of pumpkin you need to make pie from absolute scratch (apparently a lot of the mixes you buy in the can are actually SQUASH! Ken was aghast!) and then to make things even more complicated he up and FINDS ONE! So much for my simple pie recipe! So tonight I make up my grocery list and do as much prep work as possible. And of course look into the requested apple pie recipe.

Pie Pumpkin!

Our afternoon consisted mainly of the twins working on beading projects of their choice. Gavin decided on a spider for his insect lapbook and Zander did another side on his box. They both did an amazing job with Ken only needing to do minor alterations to Zanders to make it perfect and Gavin’s to make sure one of the legs ironed correctly.

Sorry Such a Fuzzy Picture!

The coup piece of beading actually is an original creation Ken made last night of Emanuel’s beloved Pocoyo!!! I am so impressed as was all 4 kids! Now I need to make a matching one up to send to the friend that sent Trinity her wee Pocoyo doll! Oh, and send an image to Perler.

Pocoyo Times 3!

I did up two pieces of furniture for a little girl who lives in California. I changed the colours a bit from the Perler pattern but am excited to package it up and send it off to her. That just leaves the lion and figuring out a few more for other kids. Tonight I plan on making some ornaments as well as a couple of tops the boys wish to give out as gifts.

A Couch and Table

So I posted my completed stitch on DeviantArt … since it has a swear in it you DO need to have an account to see the image, but I plan on posting it on here as soon as Ken gets my paypal sorted so that the pattern will be up for purchase! Apparently there was a little glitch last night so my free patterns won’t be up until tomorrow but I am cracking the whip to get everything going ASAP!!! My newest project is a personal one and a first time – a perforated paper ornament! I am loving it!

A Nice Start

Oh, let’s not forget about Ken – he over cooked his sugar this time but he is still working on making candy! Look how proud he is!

A Sheet of Candy!

So tonight, as I mentioned, is Ken’s gaming night, game of choice – Talisman borrowed from Chris and Chris. Added bonus – my Cousin David is now a part of those! So we have a bunch of friends over and they play games while I do other things. Tonight – baking, beading and sewing. Tomorrow baking, beading and babysitting the guys as they drink and play computer games!!! Birthday party!

Thank You For Letting Me Share With You!

This seems to be our weekend for changing plans basically last minute. Though today was not nearly as upsetting. We managed to have my mom and Mike head up to meet with us, Ken then went to get my Cousin David who also lives in the city as a University Student getting his Masters in Chemistry right now (he is the baby cousin on my dad’s side). We then met up with Nathan (who is repairing from the cold) and Ada (who seems to be a bit worse) and headed out to the farm that had advertised the 100,000 lbs of free potatoes.

We got there around 10:45/11 to find a massive line up of vehicles waiting… and people parking to make the km long walk to the farm. Definitely a deterrent when you have 4 small children and a double stroller with small wheels. This was definitely enough to turn us away – and away we went to H&W. This was a first visit for everyone but us and deals were to be had!

In fact, my mom and Mike surprised us and picked up the tab on our fruits and veggies – a great gift for our always hungry family! Included in the veg and fruit… 20 lbs of potatoes for around 6.00. Less than the cost of the gas we would have spent to idle waiting to get into the farm. Actually, after 4 hours or so they had to shut down anyway – all out! Thank you so much you two!

At  this point they and Nathan and Ada headed out to their respective errands and home and we brought Cousin David over for an extended visit. It has been AGES since I have spent time with my cousin and he is a blast to be around. Ken and him have a ton in common and he loves playing games with the kids and with our friends. Even Trinity who had not seen him in almost forever for her (like 5 months or more!) warmed right back up to him. Family right?

Miss Trinity and Cousin David

Supper was rather yummy tonight. We took the rest of a large chunk of beef we buy at the Real Canadian Wholesale place (really affordable you just have to cut it yourself – we slice steaks and save the ends for roast) and threw in seasoning, onions, carrots and potatoes into the slow cooker…. MMM no meat left but lots of veg and since we used beef stew seasoning I figure I will save all of that and throw in noodles tomorrow for THAT supper! YUM!

Trinity has been playing cute all day… with Cousin David, time with Mike (he and mom brought some surprises – more books for the kids, some clothes and dish towels.)… she has been in a rather great mood today!

Mike!!!! (Zander)

There was another surprise in the front yard – the bunnies are back! While that does not excite Ken or myself the kids were enthralled!

Can You See??? (Zander left)

The Reason Behind the Excitement!

With severe wind warnings and the cooler weather today was a bit of a struggle to keep the kids occupied… we are still not out of the summer outside freedom mode yet. So today we brought out the playdoh and let them at it! Emanuel is getting much better at keeping it ON the table though we did have some of each of the boys’ colours to sweep up.

Play Doh! (Gavin middle)

We had Sean, Ted and Alan over tonight as well for some games. The guys all played Settlers (a family favourite).

Gaming it Up!

Myself, I continued work on my Tux. It is coming on splendidly. I also received my very first donation on the site from a good friend off Facebook who we did a conversion from an image to a pattern for her to stitch! (I am going to post that pattern once she stitches it out) What an amazing confidence boost  that someone appreciates not only myself and my family that much but my stitching and design… wow! Totally revitalises me to get a move on revamping my pattern page to be JUST a pattern page. I plan on moving my personal stitching to another section and focus on that one just being the free, donation and the advertising of commissions… and once all of that is done I will have my little brother spread the word a little (he and his wife have their own web comic!).

TUX!!!!!

So though we did not go out and pick our own potatoes we had a good day… the boys were sad Grandma and Mike could not stick around but totally enjoyed their time with Cousin David. Tomorrow is the free city owned attractions day – the plan is the zoo if Nathan and Ada are able, if not, a pioneer museum. So we shall see!

Cuz Family ROCKS!