November 9-10

Zander: For being able to do crafts

Gavin: For the sun and moon and stars

Trinity: For songs

Emanuel: For my friends

We of course put another feather on our turkey. Today it was Trinity’s turn… she chose friends. We are having a lot of fun with this craft. Everyone wants to add a feather.

And the cape is back on

I love this Thanksgiving historical website. So we spent a THIRD day on the site. This time going over the timeline of events including the immigration of the Pilgrims and the eventual war the Pilgrim and Wapanoag ended up fighting against each other. We have learned more about how conflicts popped up over misunderstanding and actions that while natural to one of the group of peoples were foreign to the other. Each of the boys chose a time of interest and did up a picture and had me help them write out some information about what we learned.

All done

As it was Friday we did NOT have a new dinosaur… instead I dug out our old Dinosaur movie that we had purchased back in Canada and had Emanuel and the girls sit and watch it. Emanuel decided to draw what the movie called  the “largest” carnivore (which we all know has since been reputed…) Tyrannosaurus Rex. He really is working hard on his pictures and painstakingly copied the letters to write the dinosaur’s name onto his sheet.

Careful work

We had another beautiful fall day so the boys went out and ran their hearts out in the afternoon while  Trinity and Echo watched. The girls wore pj’s well into the day as Trinity declared that that afternoon/evening’s special trip out would require DRESSES for all the girls in the family. With my pretty toes I was right on board with the wish to wear sandals.

Here I am, toes and all

First though, we had to practice our poem. Echo is determined to learn the actions and be a part of this… too cute!

Helpful baby sister

Now for the big activity out for our WHOLE family: Heading to MOA, or in long form – MALL OF AMERICA!

MOA

We had a few stores to check out for various reasons… Victoria’s Secret to get underwear with coupons (bonus), stop in at the Body Shop to make sure they DO have my face soap (I have some left but there is only the store in the MOA and the airport!), a quick stop in at LUSH to check out seasonal products (got some Christmas ideas) and then to the BIG stop that the kids were looking forward to – LEGO LAND! It has gone through some definite changes since we came there years and years ago! But fun!

LEGOS!

After that it was a stop off at Rainforest Cafe to pick up some plates for a friend…

Rainforest Cafe

And then a wander around to see some of the very unexpected and interesting…

A whole store for PEEPS?

We had dinner at the MOA… there was a great deal on some yummy Japanese and a very rare treat for the kids (I mean SUPER rare)… Happy Meals!

Trinity and her dinner

After eating it was definitely time to head home. It amazed me that there were security guards at all the exits and VERY visible. A huge change from the Mall in Edmonton. We didn’t have any issues but at the same time it was different.

Checking out MOA’s fishies

Saturday is often just another day for us with Ken not working outside the home… yet… Of course we ARE still Thankful for so much!

Trinity: my Kai Lan teddy

Emanuel: Grandma

Gavin: having Mom and Dad make breakfast

Zander: time

With no plans outside the house we settled down to work on our sorting of the last box of Lego/Mega Blok mess. Sadly the two brands do NOT connect together well so we are on a mission – sort the two and then put the Mega Bloks in the van for trips. I think the kids are rather excited about that aspect!

Sorting the blocks

Ken had afternoon plans of boardgames with the guys so we took the time in the afternoon to relax. Sunday is Memorial Day here in the US or Remembrance Day as we know it, so I printed off some worksheets for us to work on off of my absolute favourite British site – Activity Village. I have missed the ever familiar poppy pins everyone wears in Canada! We did our sheets and talked about things and watched a video that had the moment of silence in it Saturday to ensure the kids DID experience it properly. You can find all of that HERE. With Echo’s rather out of sorts behaviour and mild cold it is WAY easier to do so when she was napping in the afternoon than trying Sunday morning.

Zander’s poem portion

Emanuel drew in the cross with the hearts for the dead soldiers because we love them

Trinity and her pro job colouring the very familiar Poppies

Gavin’s pages from the poem Flander’s Fields

We did ONE book review today on another advanced copy of a book. You can find the kids’ review HERE.

Basically we spent most of the day sorting Legos, and I think EVERYONE is determined NOT to mix the two again! Quite the production.

And then seriously, in November… POURING instant RAIN??

The Edmontosaurus was found… amazingly enough… near Edmonton! WOAH! Though it has also been found in the states. This duck billed dinosaur was also called Anatosaurus though the more common name is the Edmontosaurus. It is a rather interesting dinosaur as it walked on 4 legs AND 2 legs… it was a herbivore and had tons of teeth as it was constantly grinding them down. It was one of the last dinosaurs like the Triceratops and Tyrannosaurus Rex. So the Late Cretaceous period. We have an absolutely CANADIAN video to share with you about this dinosaur…eh.

We have a rather lengthy educational piece as our second video. This one runs about 12 minutes. 

And now for our links… There are actually quite a few. Emanuel specifically wanted to know how big or small the dinosaur was in comparison to us. The Animal Planet site had a great image for that HERE. They had a second more wordy article HERE. Science Kids had a rather neat visual rendition of the “beak” of our dinosaur HERE. The Alaska Museum of Natural History had a rather amazing painting HERE, did  you know that with this dinosaur we actually have impressions of its skin! So there is an idea as to what the actual skin patterns on this dinosaur looked like!!! EnchantedLearning has its fact sheet HERE. Kidsdinos.com has its usual map etc HERE. Under the name Anatosaurus we had the following links… About.com had there’s HERE. And then Prehistory.com had their article HERE. For our printable you can go to THIS link. And of course there is the Wiki article HERE. Enjoy the links! This is a rather interesting and information friendly dinosaur! 

Edmontosaurus

What a weekend. We started it of on a great note… first off Ken went and got his hair cut (yay!!). And then was our cousin (maternal) bbq. We had all 3 of my cousins combined with Veronika’s fiancée Adam over. That meant 4 new people to tell all their adventures to. They drug Elizabeth off to the bedrooms for stories and play time.

Chatting in the livingroom... Veronika is in the back, Elizabeth on the couch and you can just see Katie's hair on the rocking chair.

Elizabeth in Emanuel's room

Dinner was a great success. We had beans (the ones I usually make), a Caesar salad thanks to Veronika, stuffed potatoes brought by Elizabeth, banana bread (made that morning) and then cake we didn’t make it to (Katie). The kids ate a ton and we still have left overs. 

After dinner was make up time. Veronika is on another course and needs  to do a certain number of faces before her test. She had time to do Elizabeth and Katie’s here at our house. Fun! By this time Echo had come to the realization that the cousins really aren’t that bad and was ready to cuddle. 

Working on Elizabeth's make-up

Oldest and youngest cousins

We finished our gift for Uncle Wayne on Friday. Each of the kids made pictures to put together into a book. They wanted to give him something special for his birthday that was on Friday. They put effort into it each day this past week with the making of the cover on Friday.

A very simple cover

One of the inside drawings

I made Jimmie’s card this year. Just playing around with paper and stamps and embossing. I am actually starting to feel the crafting urge when it comes to paper craft.

Skinny elephant

Inside

I did have a minor hiccup with my birthday purchases – the sunglasses I picked up had BIFOCALS on them… so unfair. Winners has a 10 day return policy and I am very glad I kept my receipt and tags. Very frustrating. 

I have decided, we need to have MORE family visits… it is absolutely amazing to have the ability to build a relationship with my cousins as adults. The age gap ranges from 12 years to 7 years between them and me so this is a whole new thing and a definite blessing.

The landlord came by Friday to spray the yard for weeds, so for 48 hours the grass is a no play zone. Luckily BEFORE that the twins and I went out and attempted to emulate a weed wacker. Ours is still not working. So the end result – we found 2 VERY active ant hills (not red) and the lawn looked much nicer. I couldn’t resist but take some pictures of our own sheep – Petite Sheepette and Bitsy Sheep with their Nanny Sheep. The boys thought it was beyond cute. AND I managed NOT to put them on the ant hills first try!

Out in the green

I snuck out for a walk Friday afternoon with JUST Echo in the single stroller with NO carseat! She is still a bit small to have the straps keep her perfectly in place but she had fun and got compliments. The netting is a great thing I got way back when the twins were born. And the slurpee was lovely and HUGE.

In the stroller like a big girl

"the Tub"

Our Saturday was pretty much epic… first off was getting the whole family ready AND out the door BEFORE 11 am to head over an hour out to my nephew Jimmie’s 6th birthday party. We were supposed to swing by Superstore to get the “prinpress shoes” our Trinity has been patiently asking after, but without the time AND a temper tantrum over the potty it just wasn’t a go. Neither was stopping at Winners to return the blasted sunglasses BUT we did get out earlier than expected. Of course there was at least 2 trips to get everything into the van that we could possibly need – everything from a playpen (in case of nap) to swim suits (in case of rain) and the stroller (which we actually used).

We managed to find my brother’s place without too much trouble and beat mom and Uncle Wayne there by a bit of time. We actually beat the birthday boy there too! He had swimming lessons and then they had to pick up the cake on the way home. So we got some time with just Aunty Holly and her mom up from Texas. They had Trinity’s belated birthday presents. A Hello Kitty dressed in leopard print and a sweet little Hello Kitty coin bank. She was over the moon!

Belated Birthday

Echo and Aunty Holly's Mom

There was bubbles, balls, rackets and even some sort of animal shaped grabbers. At first it wasn’t too hot but the heat came rather quickly. Sadly the shade was ant infested but we lucked out with the lack of mosquitoes… a clear indication that we were NOT in Edmonton. After all right now Edmonton is the mosquito capital of Canada!!!

Playing in the sun

We were out there over 4 hours in the sun with pizza, cake, watermelon and other goodies. The kids ran and ran and ran until the baby was more than done.

Enjoying the sun (note the OTHER Alaska shirt and the OLD sunglasses... they are missing a screw but do in a pinch)

Look at his awesome haircut!

We spent some time in their apartment before heading out. We got to pet one of their cats… not sure where the other was hiding. Echo was enthralled of course. She is a huge animal fan at this point. This gave me enough time to call up Veronika and ensure they were home.

Echo and Eris

I had to lend my face to her course work again. And during that visit the kids watched tv, played the new Xbox Connect, terrorized… I mean played with the pets (Combyne, Holli and Dinah the cat). Dinner was amazing – steaks cooked to perfection, steamed veggies and Caesar salad. Adam is amazing with the BBQ.

Playing Guess Who with Cousin Veronika

Hanging with Combyne

We all walked to the nearby 7-11 with the puppies… the boys took turns walking them. It was nice to get out for a walk in the now cooler evening. Veronika wanted to treat the kids to little slurpees for desert. They are super close to their 7-11, so are James and Holly! Lucky duckies.

Walking the dogs to 7-11

Veronika did MY make-up on Saturday for her schooling. I was already turning red from my burn but she did an AMAZING job. I am so looking forward to her doing our make up in August for the wedding. And can’t wait to brag about her to anyone and everyone to get her more business! Seriously, I love having her do my make up. And I am not a big wearer.

Natural look

It was well past 9pm when we finally got out the door to go home. The drive home was REALLY quiet with the kids nodding off before very long. With the amount of energy they used over Saturday we were NOT surprised. Actually I was amazed at how much energy they had at Cousin Veronika’s.

While today was a super quiet day (I even got in a nap which helped with the sunburn a little) this evening I got out for some girls time with pizza at Lauralee’s (homemade) with Karyn and Echo as well. We had pizza, played with the kitties (Xena and Gabrielle) and just generally hung out. What a great end to a busy weekend.

Echo and I think Gabrielle

OK one hitch in the weekend – well two combined… Ken accidentally locked the keys in the van while it was running before he and Trinity were able to head out to look at the “prinpress shoes” and then once the AMA guy came… and VERY quickly unlocked it were unable to find a pair of shoes at the store that fit. Her feet were too wide. So I am hoping the ones I saw at H&M previously COULD fit her feet better. Ken says she handled the idea of going to another store rather well… after all we have to head to the south end of the city to get my photos AND return my sunglasses… although on Wednesday we have to head back to the city to get to Echo’s cardiologist appointment. I am not sure if we will visit any parks there, the mosquitoes are rather bad. It will be a long morning at the hospital for the appointments anyway.

We had a VERY busy weekend, got in some quality play with their cousin… spent tons of quality time with MY cousins and have seen a lot of sun. I am not sure how much going out we will get this week upcoming. I am a little nervous about the appointments… they WILL be weighing Echo… and still rather burnt to a crisp BUT we have a story to finish, a bunch of cleaning to do and hopefully a chance to put ECHO in the girl pool. Either way this weekend will be a pleasant memory to bring up when the kids get stressed or frustrated. OH and Fat Sheep has done some blogging! Be sure to read all about it HERE!

Mom with ALL her grandkids

Uncle Wayne and his "greats"

James, Holly, Jimmie and Holly's mom