September 20-25

I have been playing with favourite patterns and thinner yarn or different needles.. these two Cthulhu came out of that play. BABIES!!! Using light Caron Simply Soft. You can find the pattern HERE… or purchase a completed (and slightly larger) version on my Etsy site HERE. I plan on putting some wee ones up eventually… after the Christmas present rush.

Over the weekend we took a little time and finally got our act together to assemble our Shark unit book… the duotang was almost too small! You can check out our resources used, etc on our resource entry on the blog HERE. It was quite the unit.

On Sunday (AFTER Sunday School of course) we had a lovely visit with the Novaks. We were supposed to leave around dinner time for a coffee date but it fell through so it was a relaxing afternoon with good friends.

Snoopy was a willing subject for the camera as usual.

And we came home with some new reading material! Thank you so much Aidan for letting these gems go!

On Monday we had princesses at school… in MITTENS (super garage sale find for a quarter I think).

Gavin created an amazing FALL tree we later entered in the Art for Kids (link on right) fall art contest. I love it when they just go without instructions and really work with the Lego! We actually have the 3 boys enrolled in a once monthly class online with Currclick that is free for Legos. They are really enjoying it. They have multiple free and for pay classes through their site now!

Tuesday was so lovely we drug our new desks outside for craft time before they get placed in the school area inside.

Nature came out to share with our crafty time as well! Though after the scare elsewhere in the country with a fuzzy caterpillar that caused burn like rashes we kept our hands well away!

With a new school year we have also pulled down our previous year’s posters… so it was time to create a new fall scene for our walls. Can you believe it is fall already? Where did the time go???

We have had a jump with our learning as well. Emanuel suddenly WANTS to try and write out his own words in his journal and in letters. So be prepared… I correct the spelling above but you will get to see his creative management of letters in his words!!

We have taken to doing work in areas… videos on the DVD player for volcanoes.

One of 3 desks inside for an independent learner.

The table for the avid crafter. It seems to be working!

We are most certainly keeping busy!

September 8-12

Our Canadian guests have come and gone as has much of the summer. So our first company free Monday of September was officially our beginning to a whole new year of schooling. Quite the move up… this is actually the ONLY time we state our grade for the year. Otherwise it is a constant working towards progress. So here is how we start up: the twins are grade 4 and 10, Emanuel 2 and 8, Trinity 1 and 6 and Miss Echo… pre school rambunctious. All posters were decorated by those holding them.

This is the beginning of our trays and binders system. We shall see how it pans out. It is hard to keep tabs on all the papers each child uses.

We had our special lunches in our lunch boxes. The other 4 already had one from last year but Miss Echo got her very own brand new HELLO KITTY lunch box for herself. She was so proud!

We did a special craft for the day – using Sharpie markers to create stained glass style pictures using photo printer paper. Very simple an a lot of fun. We got a bunch of the photo paper a year ago when purchasing toner refills that were saved and never used.

We had a special visit on our week of the new year… Renee brought the boys over for an afternoon visit. Who doesn’t love a gaming and baby break?

Echo and I had fun doing sticker craft… a little early on the winter season stickers but they were what we had on hand. We are trying out different ways to keep her occupied. Daily to do boxes have not worked… she buzzes through them too quickly. But stickers, if only we could keep enough on hand, seem to work a treat. She did these without any assistance whatsoever.

One thing we did keep from the previous year was the clipboard with our daily tally on what we did and completed. I got the print out from the Back to School section on Activity Village (link on right).

We played magnets…

Dressed up for pretend fun…

Created art for our pen pals (of which we have a few new ones!!)… I think we are all looking forward to getting to know our new long distance friends.

We made a new wreath of our handprints to hang up. Those twins are getting quite the reach!

We got some amazing scarves from Gammie in the mail for the girls to model.

Made a few garage finds…

And finally picked up stuff for the new year of Scouts! Where has the time gone? And that is a quick overview of our first week of the new 2014-2015 year!

August 1-2

While Nana and Baba were seeing off the family we were out and about ourselves on errands and the like. I had a fun finish on the 1st – a pair of SHARK SLIPPERS I had commissioned by a twin mom for another twin mom. We are all in the same egroup and have been for ages! They are such a silly thing but turned out so lovely! I was glad to be able to get them in the mail before they needed to be taken across the border to Canada for a visit!

We did stop at a fun park while I sewed the eyes onto these. The kids have fully embraced the sunny days, though the heat can be rather stifling and make for shorter play times.

The twins assured me that after all that play some quiet tv time was in order.

The 2nd was the first Saturday of the month and so HOME DEPOT day…

Pencil boxes

But we made the day doubly exciting by being registered for a program at the Alexander Ramsey House (HERE). They do a once a month time capsule on the first Saturday and have a walk through of the house with a tour leader. It is so much fun! Limited photo taking opportunities but we did have a blast. And each of the kids ended up with a time capsule with little pictures of things they learned about in our tour. We plan on going again in October!!

Such a beautiful house!

And the kids got to get involved in the kitchen making hardtack (HERE)! Very cool!

Miss Trinity came home to a good bye present from Gabbi – a backpack and matching blanket that she is utterly in love with.

And I had an amazing gift – a drawing of the crochet items I gave her for her birthday. Thank you sweetie!

And a few more from the house…