Quite a bit considering I had Karyn and Victoria over and we went out for a large chunk of the day! That did not deter us and we started off the same as usual – calendars and colouring. Of course once Echo went for her nap I left with the ladies.

Colouring

We got even more snow over the night and the boys took full advantage… I think they are building some sort of fort!

So much snow!

I had the buffet out at our favourite Indian restaurant. Curry and butter chicken… and some of their pizza, don’t forget the naan bread! VERY yummy!

With pizza??

I did some crafty shopping and got the items we needed for today and yesterday’s Advent crafts as well as a couple Christmas present pieces. I even got one of my small stocking stuffers for Ken! It was windy and cold but we managed to enjoy ourselves and include a stop off at the scrapbook store. 

When we got back the kids were busy watching the CyberChase dvd’s Victoria got for them at her local library. Of course they were being SUPER quiet so as to keep daddy from realizing that the two that were SUPPOSED to be in nap were not! We paid for that later with some outbursts from Trinity!

With two extra adults in the house there was much crafting (with some bead kits we have here in the house thanks to Kathy and our pony bead collection). Thank goodness Victoria is patient!

Crafting with Victoria

Echo sucked up to her Aunty Karyn and got to play piano on the iPhone… I swear if I ever get one I will NEVER get to use it!!

Playing the music

Today we had a candy cane theme on Activity Village… there were two videos to watch. I have to share the one that shows how candy canes are made! The timing is so amazing…

Tomorrow we will cut down what we do to just the colouring project… oh and our numerous calendars. There was another verse to read today… Genesis 3, 21-24… the portion about Adam and Eve being kicked out of the  garden of Eden which was likened to having ALL your toys taken away at Christmas? Interesting… I am not sure how I am liking this Advent book but the searching pictures are entertaining the kids. One more Perler bead ornament is up on the chart and we have counted out the days left to go. 

Yesterday we had some mechanical excitement! The local Canadian Tire was FINALLY able to get our van in for the coolant system repair! And the cost… NOTHING! So worth the wait. Granted we stayed pretty well home the past 3 months but we kept busy, had company and really didn’t suffer too much for it. We did miss Grandma and Mike, but that can now be remedied! And apparently the smell of burnt coolant should disperse in the next few days! YAY!

We did our two days of Advent crafts as a family. You can find the instructions for both on Activity Village (seriously this is THE go to site for us!). My favourite was the Christmas stockings… I got ours at Dollarama for 1.00 a pair! 2.00 and things around the house (though I did buy some clear plastic snowflakes – 60 for 1.00 same store)… well worth it!

Working on the stockings

Completed Candy Cane hearts

So be sure to go back to Activity Village’s Advent Calendareach day! I can hardly believe we are into December but there it is, the date, screaming it loud and clear! So I am going to make each day count with celebration, activity and of course family time. 

4 little stockings waiting for the glue to dry!

There have been a few goings on that I have NOT posted about… let’s see… I had Ken pick up something off Freecycle – some sheets… flannel and not that while they won’t work for the original plan (pink for Trinity to make into curtains), the flannel ones will work for Emanuel’s mattress bed (at least until we buy him a single). So that is something! The others… well I am debating some ideas of making them into something!

I do have pictures of two of my leopard print duct tape creations! I am loving the look of it and plan on making a purse using these two colours and black… though I am debating the pattern and look I want.. Do I want to use MORE leopard and black accent… so maybe all the long strips be the cookie dough, the horizontals be the leopard and the accent black? PLEASE weigh in people!!

Spotty

I finished up the boys’ Trumpet of the Swans books they made. I used a cropodile and these neat plastic rings that I found at the local kids’ supply store! I think they worked out nice! This is the same thing we plan on doing with Stuart Little when we finish the book.

And then there is the laminating! Well I got done the Buggy Board Math Mats… all I need are some dry erase markers, the crayons are nice but I want markers as well. 

Laminated and ready to go

And then there is the days of the week and weather/season pieces I got from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I have subscribed to her newsletter and it is absolutely AWESOME for ideas. I seriously wish I could turn my blog into something like that, but I also enjoy it being a lot more than homeschooling… this is us in a nutshell to share with the friends and family who are NOT able to enjoy and experience first hand on a regular basis. 

We started our day early today… BLECK! We are so not a morning family. But we needed to go to the bank and thought we could go at opening. Turns out we had to wait until 11am for an appointment time but Ken had to run out to the post office to sign a form and send it right back for a contract anyway. So it was lucky he did that and stopped in at the bank to make the appointment without us. It really is a pain to get the kids into the vehicle and then it turn out to be for nothing! Since Trinity was up until midnight playing (so not happy about that) she actually slept in and had to be woken up. Echo woke up before 5 am and Ken was not cognizant enough to realize he should NOT take her out of the crib until it was too late. So they finished the morning on the couch snuggling. The boys found the one bit of Legos I had not put IN the bucket and stowed back away and used that as an argument starter while I was waking up and bathing… seriously Legos are a blessing and a curse in this house! 

Pre Bank Post Lego

I have to say I am in love with BMO, they were able to give us an appointment that we got into when we walked in the door… the lady was nice, speedy and able to deal with the kids easily! Joint account is now done… Just need to set up auto withdrawals and deposits and all that… though personally, I prefer cash! I actually have an aunt who works for BMO (different town) so bad on me to NOT be dealing with them already!

We decided to fill our morning up before the appointment by watching Electric Company. The kids (Echo included) really do enjoy the segments and the music and the storyline. I am not sure how much is sticking yet but today we were reviewing some of our favourite episodes… Netflix only has the first 12 of the new series… and pbskids.org does NOT allow Canadian viewing of full episodes (figures), the same issue as Cyberchase… Ken is still working on finding us episodes we CAN watch… I am almost down to having to purchase the dvds… not cheap!

We finally assembled our months of the year lapbooks. I used a couple resources for this… but the main one is a lapbook set up from homeschoolshare.com. As well as months of the year printables from Confessions of a Homeschooler. I also looked up months of the year on EnchantedLearning. We added in our pictures from yesterday based on the books we read and it turned out quite nice! Hopefully the boys can come back to these books and work on their months… we are getting there but it is not as easy to experience months as it is the days of the week! 

Finished!

All open

I heard back this morning that my dad’s second procedure was a success… both arteries are unclogged and he gets to go home tomorrow! Certainly a weight off my shoulders. I hope to get a chance to chat with him very soon! It is hard to be so far away but at the same time, thank goodness for technology to keep in touch! 

We ended our day early with a lovely early dinner for the kids and then Emanuel and I made up a crazy patterned flower! I was surprised at how the two patterns looked so… cute together. He was so proud! Zander and I have had a nice long talk and discussed his obsession with things we really can’t do right now the way he wants to (going to the beach, digging for treasure chests… playing hours of Minecraft). We are going to find things he DOES like to do and we CAN do together. The plan is to make a duct tape creation tomorrow just the two of us.

Emanuel and his flower

That is something we so quickly forget about – the one on one time… with all the kids and Echo’s needs the time gets lost in the muddle. It is something to work for. It looks like I may go on a trip to visit Karyn’s parents’ farm on Sunday… and Saturday is kick it to the curb – where you can put stuff out on the curb and people can come and take what they can use. Should be an interesting weekend!

Binky Baby

I think I finally feel enough like myself to get back to blogging… or at least a reasonable facsimile! It all started with Trinity and a runny nose and before we knew it the whole family was sick (thus just a video on Thursday, if you HAVEN’T checked it out please do – Echo and our bubble machine, CUTE). I personally spent a large portion of Thursday asleep. Thank goodness Ken works from home and was able to set up crafts or a show and let me rest as if I hadn’t slept I am pretty sure I would have felt worse by the weekend.

This coincided with a work related issue (someone touched something) so Ken’s trip back to the old house was pre-emptively postponed anyway. We do not have concrete plans as to when he will be going back, but he does have that one last trip to make. One thing we DID have was hail! Large and brief but the size of marbles. I guess Alberta had at least 3 touchdowns of tornadoes that night and golf ball sized hail in one area.

Hail

The twins got in some gaming time on Ken’s computer as well. It is a great currency to deal with when it comes to behaviour and earning rewards. It amazes me how quickly they catch onto something like this. We definitely have to keep a tight rein on how much time they get and when though or it becomes a huge issue.

Minecraft

Emanuel finished his Pre-K workbook as well! Quite the accomplishment, one which he is VERY proud of. He wants to start on a Kindergarten one as soon as I can get one for him. I want to find another all inclusive overview type one to sort if get a feel of what he needs to work the most on. And I think I will start copy book for him with letters and numbers and repetition. He is VERY keen to learn.

So proud

Yesterday was a quiet day, up until the late afternoon and amazingly enough a nearly photo free one! Oops!

I think this is pretty much the only decent photo from the day!

Kathy made it up for a visit. We were able to head out to the mall further from us and the H&M store. I got a few pieces for Echo there (one on lovely clearance) and then a couple (on sale) from Superstore.

H&M finds

Superstore pieces

We are trying a new bug repellent with the hopes that it will work better than the family spray we have been using. This is a lotion and deet free. I am hoping if I can be sure that I get Trinity covered by the lotion we will decrease the possibility of bites. It can only be used on 3 years and up so no good for Echo but I am very careful to keep Echo’s time outside to a minimum anyway.

Bug lotion

It was so much fun to get out with a friend and then easily make plans for ANOTHER visit two weeks from now! I could easily get used to this. She was able to head home late last night. We got lost looking for stores and did some touring around… went to 7-11 and then Mac’s to compare the two (she works for corporate at Mac’s)… and buy chicken at 7-11 of course.

We have made a cost cutting measure as of this weekend. We are getting rid of our cable tv and going strictly to Netflix. The rental on the pvr alone is 20.00 and we want to reconnect our cell phone before too long. So I am STILL on the hunt for Cyberchase… we need to figure out some way to either get some of the dvd’s or downloading it. Sadly all of the ways you can either for free (on their official site) or affordable (Amazon instant video) get your hands on the episodes are restricted to the US. VERY unfair!

The kids have spent most of their time on art endeavours. The weather has been overcast and nasty since yesterday late afternoon so we have just sort of let them go at it. Minecraft(their game with Ken) has been the main focus. I do believe the plan is to make a whole BOOK of illustrations. 

One of the drawings

I have a new project to consider right now. Trinity and I had another chat about Halloween and she is determined to be Hello Kitty. So that means either finding a white cat costume (and making the trademark red bow) OR making a costume from scratch. I am thinking of simply making white ears and a white tail and looking for some white mittens. A white sweater and pants for pictures but of course for the actual Trick or Treating we would have to do that whole coat and possibly snow pants thing. I am actually excited about it. The biggest issue is going to be finding the right materials to make the ears and tail.

We are already thinking ahead to NEXT weekend. It is my nephew Jimmie’s 6th birthday party and we are actually half as far away this year. That is really what is making it possible for us to go! I have to pick up a gift yet, figure out what we need to pack for a day trip and make sure that the boys are all more presentable than they are THIS weekend.

I am hoping that this upcoming week we will all be healthy enough to jump right back into our schooling, crafting and other activities. The last few days have been so idle after such a busy half week, I think all of us were frustrated. At least this time we all got sick in a relatively short period of time which means we all get better around the same time as well. 

Tonight I hope to get my crafting space finally cleared up AND watch more of Mushi-shi. Another anime of course! 

Diaper baby