February 3-5

First off – HAPPY 8TH BIRTH DATE TO EMANUEL on the 3rd of February! It was doubly official with the yearly Grandma birthday call. Though it was brief since she called on break from work.

Of course we still had school. There was a party to reflect on in our journals…

Zander drew his special gift from Aunty Holly that came on time – a Unicorn

Chocolate bars to enjoy from their Aunt and Uncle and cousins. There was some lovely examples of sharing going on.

We had a very timely delivery of a Panda focused National Geographic Kids magazine. I love it when we get something in the mail that furthers our learning spontaneously.

And our drawing of some foods we saw on a Food Network special.

The girls were busy bees with their Nana braids, playing their games together.

I especially loved Trinity’s combination of many patterns and colours in her outfit.

She, Echo and myself joined Emanuel at the Novak’s for Scouts. It was my first time going. The girls hung out in the basement with the other 3 Novak boys while Emanuel and Aidan did their thing. They learned all about the new food pyramid. It is a rather good group of boys that all seem to get along relatively well. Ken and the twins were out at swimming lessons so we had to hang out afterwards until we could be picked up. It was nice to have some adult visiting  time and get to know the Scout troop leader Pam a little better.

Tuesday was our in between birth DATES day. And the three littles took advantage of some of our downtime with getting ready for Nana and Baba leaving and Daddy’s sudden tooth extraction (thank goodness we DID do it while they were still here… he reacted more strongly to the meds they used and could not have driven home) and had a COSTUME dance party! I especially love Baby Batman!

Miss Trinity followed Art for Kids’ instructions to make a lovely heart card HERE. It turned out TERRIFIC…

Then she noticed that one of the left over scraps of paper looked like a bird so we had to put it in her journal! Very creative eye there!

And then…. HAPPY 10TH BIRTH DATE TO ZANDER AND GAVIN on the 5th! Since when were you two allowed to become double digits??? And this from 10 week preemies who came into this world at 3 lbs. 1 3/4 oz. each!!!

This was also the last day with time with Nana and Baba so school was super light. The girls worked with some old catalogues and magazines to clip out pictures to glue together for fun.

Emanuel and Ken got to work on their very first pinewood derby car! This is exciting – the road to Emanuel’s very first badge!!!

The twins worked on pictures from the newest instructions from Art for Kids. I honestly will continue bragging on this site for as long as they put up things! I have never found better instructions for the kids. Trinity even gets results without frustration!!!

As we are now planning for Valentines Day I had the kids make a wreath to replace the one we had up for Christmas out of hands. This was a kit I bought on clearance last year from Walmart!

In between helping out Nana and Baba where they could the kids also watched the Wild Kratts episode on Groundhogs.

And then it was time for hugs, kisses and bye byes. Nana and Baba ALWAYS fly out in the middle of the night/super early in the morning. 9 weeks at Roatan! They are going to come back so tanned and relaxed!!!

And now we are on our way through January and 2012. I am determined to make this a positive year. There is a lot to accomplish. I have to admit I have not done much by way of making resolutions beyond resolving to continue to finish what I have started and  to make 2012’s Christmas a 100% handmade one… but I have begun to consciously work on my positive thinking. I used to (and really still am) be a HUGE optimist. I like that about myself and am renewing my faith in Ken, in hard work, in our family and the world around me. 

Poor Ken fasted for most of the day today only to have his appointments for himself (bloodwork) and Echo (x-ray and bloodwork) rescheduled for AFTER his doctor visit tomorrow. Apparently they only do x-rays until a certain time today and were running way behind. So they wanted to reschedule them. Not the best case scenario but we will survive. 

Our review of math continues and with it the realization that Zander does a TERRIFIC job if he SLOWS DOWN… the trick is, he hates doing it and wants to rush on through. Work in progress that boy… he certainly has more concentration issues than Gavin does but he has just as much of a wish to do well. 

Math review

First big completion of 2012! One of Emanuel's K books!

So other than some light work and a Bob book each the boys have really been focused on playing constructively together this week. Lots of Lego and crafting and a bit of the ps3 downstairs. Oh and a nice chunk of the afternoon outside! I just wish I could figure out some way to speed along this front tooth of Gavin’s moving out. It is now pointing out of his mouth and rather in the way. Frustrating as we don’t have our dental coverage in place yet (hopefully beginning of February) so just a stop off at the dentist is a big financial issue. And as Ken says, we would hate to go in only to be told it will fall out. 

Kristen and Fydo came HERE for a game or two tonight. The plan WAS to head to their place with Echo but a combination of work and late dinner had us change the location to here. It is never as quiet or relaxing but we had just as much fun I think. Pandemicwas the new game to try! Definitely quicker than some of our other games and a cooperative. But… we lost! 

Pandemic

So beyond the difficult tooth and the ever changing appointments our week is going well. I have library books to pick up, Echo is working on her walking… all 4 of our bigger kids are working on learning new things and Ken has started TWO big contracts in the new year. January is by no means completely SMOOTH but the bumps are a whole lot smaller and more manageable. 

So cute