April 26

So I wished our biggest little girl a happy 5th on the day of her birthday with a quick single picture entry, now it is time to share in the day properly. Of course being as the 26th was a Friday we did have to do the usual spelling, printing practice, etc… But once that was done it was time to enjoy the day with Trinity for EVERYONE!

We started with pictures of the birthday girl who chose to have herself and her sister dress up in matching dresses that had been purchased last year. At first Echo was VERY against sharing the spotlight and actually shoved the birthday girl out of frame!!!

Happy Birthday Trinity

In their matching dresses

From the back

After enough pictures were taken to make Mommy happy and the girls adamant  that they were done we packed up the boys and girls and headed to Walmart for the next phase of Trinity’s birthday DAY. Ken had taken on an extra project the days before and worked long hours so that he could have the whole day off! We were unable to purchase Piggy Paint like I had hoped to as the Walmart near us was not one of the ones that carried it but instead each of the girls picked out a colour of their liking from a fast dry line. Trinity waffled between a fire engine red and the purple we purchased while Echo swooped in and grabbed her new word of the day off the shelf – BLUE!

After purchasing was lunch, and what better lunch for a 5 yr old and her siblings than ICE CREAM! We took everyone to Dairy Queen and everyone had their own treat… no one was hungry after that!!!!

Birthday’s girl’s choice

LUNCH

Then it was back to the house for the painting of the nails. Both Echo and Trinity did amazing. And yours truly alternated both colours to match BOTH kids.

Girly nail time

PRETTY

With my nails

Supper was Nana and Baba’s choice as Ken and I had a double date with Cory and his fiance (congrats you two!!) Karen. I am told they did desert before dinner with giant chocolate muffins and then hotdogs… popcorn to round it off and movies.

We also had a surprise mailing! Our ant farm ants arrived… tubed ants with food… it was unnerving opening up the package to find LIVE ants (no queen). So of course we HAD TO take time out of our day and assemble the farm. Leaving the ants in the tube for too long could have killed them after all!

Assembly

ANTS

So our birthday girl was well pleased and ready for the next phase of Trinity celebration – afternoon and evening at the Novak’s. But first… the double date! We decided to go to Mall of America (more food options) and start our fun at the mini golf. I came in an unsurprising LAST, and Ken, of course, came in first with Cory and Karen tied.

Ready to golf

Karen

Cory

Me!

Karen and I could not stop giggling that the guys would go THIS far to check out MINI golf holes.

So we really had a terrific 26th of April!!! Trinity is 5, we had our first double date in AGES… our ant farm project is started. Ken having the day off made all the difference in the world. I will include some of the spill over from today in another entry immediately after this one… birthdates make me photo happy!

Birthday girl and all of her siblings

November 1-2

The day AFTER Halloween is never an easy one… too much sugar, a late night and this time a bit of a cold going around and we have 5 kids on varying levels of miserable. Runny noses are back for some full force and I think we all just wore each other out. Thank goodness we DO homeschool as I had the option of pulling back and letting the kids relax a bit… oh and it was a day that started with “T” so – MINECRAFT! 

Teaching Echo about magnets!

Zander wrote his spelling test for the week… ANOTHER 100%! On a roll this boy is!

Well done Zander!

I really need to put together a crochet completion blog entry… I have finished a bunch and posted… none! So watch for that! I have more and more plans of things to make and do and these fingers are rarely still anymore. So completions are rather consistent!

A quiet place to read?

We made up Halloween mini books with the origami fold. These are all just pictures but it was a fun exercise in taking our time and colouring our very best work. I think Zander plans on sending his up to a friend in Canada next week! You can find them HERE.

Coloured books

I am on the hunt for multiple things to augment our schooling… Brazil for Emanuel’s monthly mailing… Thanksgiving and the Pilgrims for… well you know… and USA in general… gotta get the country down pat before those yearly tests… ugh ugh ugh. So… I AM looking for affordable suggestions! Suggest away world!

Friday morning Ken and the kids finally got the chance to do their Halloween craft. We waited too long to get our traditional foam sets so instead they all made their own spider webs out of special strings. I got to sleep in and they got time with their Dad crafting. I think we all won out on that one!

Crafting with Daddy

Trinity worked at her workbook that Gammie sent us. She somehow ended up on the perfect workpage to send in our next pen pal letters (which we also received this week) to Gammie. 

Trinity and her page

In our letters from Gammie was some money to get a Halloween treat! So when we went out to do all our errands (yarn, looking at what Ken would like to buy with his birthday money…) we stopped off at Dairy Queen for fried cheese curds and Dilly bars! We still have enough left over for a treat later that week at McDonald’s! They have their cones on for 49 cents each!! 

Thank you!

The poem which  you can watch on youTube… or below was found on this page HERE. I had the twins decorate our page as usual to go in our special art and such folder. I think they did a great job as usual! Note again that Emanuel is right there reciting along and this time… a special guest… Miss Echo! 

Decorated page

We still have a ton of candy to eat… and now the mind is turning to Thanksgiving… wish me luck!

One of our Education.com print outs

Sunday was another at home day… with  company once again. This time Joe, Gabriella and Zachary. They were so glad to see Nana and Baba again as well as their cousins. So it was run run run for the kids and a nice visit with his brother for Ken.

Outside

And inside fun

I managed to sneak off with Bree to do some shopping, have some Dairy Queen and generally do girly things. I found Hello Kitty stuff for a quarter marked down at Michaels (well on clearance that is, pencils and the like), stopped in at Bath and Body Works to get some hand sanitizers (5 for 5.00 and not sealed the same way they are in Canada). Sat and chatted for hours… it was TERRIFIC!

Monday was back to the grind stone. Back to schooling, and sorting out future classes. In the mail I received the coupons for Pizza Hut and the information for a reading program we are starting in October. I have printed out most of the printables we need to get going with and will be sorting out books to start. I may have to do some used bookstore and thrift store hunting for leveled readers… or raid the library! You can find out about the program HERE. 

Gotta find lots of different ways to motivate! (Zander teaching Echo colouring skills)

Trinity and Emanuel did their craft project for the book Hungry Caterpillar. You can find our caterpillar project HERE. I really enjoyed this one – it covered colouring, scissor skills, creativity, gluing and of course… binder clips! 

Colouring the print out

Cutting

Caterpillar AND food

Gavin is back to work on his cross stitching again and boy does that make me HAPPY. He is determined to finish his mouse joke card and then start another one. I am so glad that one of the kids is ready to stick it out with what is one of my absolute FAVOURITE crafting activities. (sorry crochet you are getting up to second and beating out duct tape but I must stay true to my first love!). 

My crochet IS coming along though!

So Tuesday went a bit off kilter with Ken pulling an all nighter coding and myself having a lovely mishap with my head connecting with the edge of our bedroom door while cleaning (thus loosing half the day to a nap and Tylenol). I am not sure the kids were too upset as they got to play more time outside. BUT we did have the time for our basics and the boys to work on their Minnesota folder, which is now decidedly ONGOING.

Tuesday NIGHT, however, was fun fun fun! After seeing Nana and Baba off to a movie we got supper ready (spaghetti and garlic toast) and awaited our guests – Shandai and her boyfriend Skot! They brought knitting supplies and board/cardgames. So after supper we stitched and  gamed it up! It was a total blast and I look forward to doing it again! Add another couple to couples to game with!

Gaming with friends always rocks!

So as days never seem to go the way we want we still had Emanuel learning on the computer…

Working on the PBSKids.org site

Trinity with the learning apps on the iPad… And Zander and Gavin spending learning time with Ken. Which was a total  treat! 

Thanks to Baba and Nana taking some time with Echo

The great adventure for tomorrow – hunting down a pie pumpkin for homemade pumpkin pie!! Wish us luck!! 

Can you believe this top was mine when I was tiny!