April 22-25

Once we finished our day out with zoo fun and egg hunting it was right back into the school fray. England was our topic over multiple days thanks to a combination of Little Passports, Activity Village print outs (on right) and library books.

Of course we are hard at work reading Treasure Island. Though the twins have suggested at times that MAYBE with all the deaths and mean pirates that this classic is not really kid friendly. Oh the world they have yet to experience!

We are, of course, keeping up with our reading.

But on advice of the always amazing Brave Writer and other inspirational homeschooling blogs, we have started to take advantage of the sunny days. So in the afternoon we dropped everything to enjoy sunshine and fresh air.

To celebrate all that spring and sunshine the kids had their last Pizza Hut reading program pizza for the year! We are already registered for the following year and are eagerly awaiting the summer program (though that one is online only with website rewards instead of pizza). We accomplished a lot of reading and together time over some really good books this year!

Our next big countdown is a short one… Trinity turns SIX on the 26th with her birthday party on the 27th! So we kept ourselves busy for the rest of the week cleaning and thinking happy nice day thoughts. After all the 26th is a bridal shower and the bachelor party for Gavin’s godfather Cory and his fiance Karen. Of course all of the adults were invited to these events so there was some kid juggling as we tried to work out ways to have the girls at the morning event and the guys at the afternoon… but that is skipping over a whole bunch of school and family fun!! So back to our week…

Tuesday had us watching Wild Kratts…

Bison

Reading about pirates…

And the girls hard at work on Echo’s ladybug mask thanks to her Easter stash from Gammie.

Middle of the week has our soon to be 6 year old completing her adding and subtracting book! I decided that since I already had a copy of our beloved Canadian math series for grade one that it was time for her to hop right into it! She is so pleased that she is on the same book as Emanuel… Emanuel… not so much!

We did spend some lovely quiet time with our Dirty Jobs episodes…

More Treasure Island… really the portions that stand out to them in a chapter are varied and interesting! Actually, we continued the trend with ANOTHER chapter the next day… I think we are ready for individual book reports in the summer!! At least by the twins! Exciting!!

And the decent weather is holding!!! And with that, our week is over and one of our busier weekends begun! Wish us luck!

April 17-19

And… back to snow for one last hurrah… we hope! The bigger kids have really stepped up and now love having Echo out there with just them. They are growing up so quickly.

Spot the bunny

We squeezed in a Wild Kratts…

Black Footed Ferret

And Artistic Endeavors (that really do need capitalization! We are one with our creativity lately!!)

And then Easter Eggs! The girls did the traditional dye.

But the boys and Ken tried out this new way of doing it using shaving cream and dye… though if you plan on eating the eggs after it is highly suggested you switch the shaving cream with whipped cream. You can find instructions HERE.

Our Friday was a bit more quiet with a  half day to allow us to deal more with getting ready for the weekend and EASTER SUNDAY! We worked more on England through our Little Passports.

And got packages in the mail from Gammie.

On Saturday morning I dressed the girls up in LAST year’s Easter dresses. My cousin’s little girls said that they looked like the princesses off Frozen.

We paired those with the shirts Holly sent us from Canada and Voila perfect pic op!

We downsized Echo from super fluffy to a purple piece that was Trinity’s ages ago.

So we started our Easter with dress up and pictures. Easter 2014 is off to a great start! Enjoy the overflow!

If teacups could talk…

The death of a beloved aunt leads a stumped authoress to inspiration 3 weeks later with the delivery (by a dishy UPS delivery man) of a box from home full of tea cups and saucers. Each one bringing to mind a story shared by her aunt ready and willing to be recorded onto paper. It is here that our stories begin in the novella Tea With Emma (the Teacup Novellas book 1) by Diane Moody.

The first of these stories is centered on a young woman returning from a trip to England with the inspiration to create a Jane Austen tea room in Texas. Her flight home with friend in tow is interrupted by a cranky British man who chastises them for their boisterous speech on the flight home. Maddie and her friend Lanie return to Texas with somewhat disastrous results… including a runaway suitcase and a negligent roommate causing the death of a beloved kitten (Mr. Darcy… so many Jane Austen references).

Tea With Emma brings to light how one’s faith and belief in what’s right and what you are called  to do can change your life. Maddie feels she, like Austen’s Emma is a matchmaker (with the support of God). And like Emma, we see how even the best intentions can cause less than happy results. We see how forgiveness and letting go of a difficult past can alter a person from their very core.

I would suggest Tea with Emma by Diane Moody to anyone who is looking for a light read with a religious context. The characters are engaging and the addition of tea and Jane Austen give this story a lovely flavour. I will definitely be looking for more from this series.