Mondays always seem to be a bit of a struggle. I think we need to walk away from having weekends so obviously different  from our weekdays. We have had to face printing practice for Zander today. It was one of the things the facilitator noted… a backslide in the legibility. He is resistant (of course) but we are making progress. I limited our workbook time to a page of math and a page of either printing practice or sight book work. Amazing how even that little bit was a bit of a struggle. HOWEVER we did make it a little more fun with CHRISTMAS stickers from the Dollarama to mark completed pages in the math books. 

Sight word book work

We finished our Day 4craft today – toilet roll Christmas candles! Super simple and lots of fun, though we did have some paint drips and some stickers that did NOT like the paint surface. Gavin put some of our glitter stuff in his paint to give it a shiny look and they all were happy with the end result. I am so glad I picked up some shiny Christmas pipecleaners with Kristen. They just look so nice! Up on the mantel they go! 

Our completed candles

Today’s theme was the Christmas robin… we did the colour by numbers, the connect the dashes… but we decided not to make ourselves some robins out of paperplates. Instead we read some fun stories about sleds and Christmas. Did you know that Fancy Nancy is full of interesting Christmas knowledge? 

Fancy Nancy

Sledding

Storytime for Petite Sheepette

I wanted to remind everyone that we have moved… and our mail is NOT being forwarded… I cannot remember who usually sends out cards but if you contact me I can get you our new address!! Please do NOT send mail to the old address! 

One of today’s videos is a step by step walk through on how to draw a Christmas robin. Gavin took inspiration from the process (pencil first, then pen over lines, erase and we added colour) to make his own picture. Christmas themed of course! 

Gavin's completed drawing

Zander is becoming quite the checkers player. We had a game this afternoon and ended on a draw (we each had one king left). I only had to remind him once or twice that it is a VERY boring game if you just keep moving back and forth to avoid doing anything. I need to find someone who is good at chess to teach him chess next I think… who knows, this could be his “thing”!!

Checkers

So the kids were supposed to go sledding with Ken today and work interfered. With good reason, he stuck close to home to answer the phone and work out the details of a possible contract… but that means tomorrow is THE day – sledding after lunch! I think I am almost looking forward to it more than they are! 

The laminator and my cluttered table had a run in, luckily no jam but a slightly bent puzzle piece and house… thankfully owner of said house was fine with it and I think the puzzle will still work… but I need to have words with that machine. It is NOT playing nice! 

We have a busy day tomorrow with the proposed sledding, Trinity and Emanuel’s library adventure solo with Karyn and Ken, Echo and myself meeting up with Kristen and Fydo. Thankfully He Chris will be here to help with the other two. Our villages are growing, as is the boys’ Polar Express lapbooks. I still have the rest of the week to complete my goals and I plan on taking advantage of ALL of my spare time! And some of my not so spare as well! 

Her top says Silent Night... I don't think so!

My kiddos

And the verdict is in… we are doing just wonderful with our homeschooling plan! YAY! Our facilitator came today (he was a little late due to road etc) and we went through what the boys had been doing, how they were progressing and discussed some of our personality struggles. I always feel WAY more confident after one of his visits. We are VERY blessed with our facilitator and do so love our board. 

Celebratory Slurpee and our Light up snowman (shared by all - both)

And now back to another two day blog! Today we declared a snow day after the facilitator left. That is another of the bonuses to homeschooling – we can create our OWN snow days… and yes… it IS snowing! In fact we woke up to snow coming down. The kids are so excited and I have put a bowl out for tomorrow to catch fresh snow to be brought in and played with in the morning. Tomorrow will be another brief day, as much as organized schooling as we are heading to the local library branch in the afternoon to see if any other homeschooling families can come and meet up. And if no one can make it… well we get to go to the library – win win right? 

SNOW

Anyway… after getting through the facilitator meeting pretty much unscathed (Zander only acted out a little) I decided to put Trinity and Emanuel down for VERY needed naps and let the twins go down and play a game on the PS3. Sadly the basement is a bit of a mess as we are moving stuff around in the main closet in there and had to get into the other closet for Christmas stuff… 6 or 7 buckets of stuff later and there IS some space in the closet… but it is still a mess! 

Gaming

Our pre-meeting morning was a Lego morning, easier than pulling out stuff we already had sorted and thankfully they kept it pretty much all in the same place. Gavin actually made a ZOO!!!

Fun with Legos

A zoo

Yesterday we worked hard to get some workbook work done…

Workbooks

We started our felt ornaments. Trinity and Emanuel didn’t stitch theirs but rather decorated… lots of glue and sparkly bits! 

Fun with sparkles

Gavin stitched and decorated his own. We used templates from Activity Village… the one I am most excited about getting to is making the Christmas Pudding Beanbags. I don’t know that the boys will do a blanket stitch but as long as I put the beans or rice in a ziploc bag first I think we should be ok.

I have the patch now to get going on that pink top and bottom set a friend sent Echo… VERY cute, I got it off of eBay (of course). I figure I will match little bows on the cuffs of the pants and maybe on the sleeves…

Bunny patch

Last night was ANOTHER planned visit – my cousin Elizabeth came over and cut the boys’ hair (thank you so much!). I didn’t get any pictures while she was cutting it – we were too busy visiting. BUT I do have a good picture of post cut hair and Emanuel! Doesn’t he look so grown up! I love having family over and the haircuts saved us a bundle. So many talented family members!

Looking sharp

I stayed up late last night working on Christmas projects and will most likely do the same for the rest of the week. Time is ticking! I cannot believe how fast November is moving along. We are still stuck in city but are working on busying up our weeks a little more.

The crafting day is still on on Saturday though we may be small in number in the end (the weather is VERY snowy). In the meantime I am working hard at getting rid of a particularly nasty bum rash on Echo. We almost had it beat and she had a nasty poo and burned right through the cream and the new skin. So baking soda baths and lots of changes tomorrow onward. At least with the cold weather it is not a huge issue to be home to do so.

Queen of the Christmas Barrel

Since I have found my lost photos that are now awaiting nails to go on the walls the hunt has turned to two pairs of missing skates… I am running out of places for those to be hidden so may have to cave and get two more used pairs. BUT we wrote our letters to Santa (in Trinity’s case I wrote something and then she drew a picture). Those are getting sent this weekend. The kids want me to write a letter for Echo so we will write that tomorrow. I took my paper from here, and if you are in Canada hereis the information for writing to Santa.  Now I am sure more has occurred in the past two days but my mind is totally full of Christmas prep and Christmas crafting! I will be so much happier once some of these projects are done!!! 

Ready for Bed!

1001 posts! There is a bit of a rush knowing I have made it THIS far with sharing our life and resources with everyone! Remember to go back to THIS post to enter for your chance to win a feltie. 

This has definitely been a guy weekend. We had a group of Ken’s friends come to celebrate his belated birthday weekend with a traditional LAN party. There was even a cake (ice cream) thanks to Kristen and Fydo! (Inside joke on the slogan written on it).

CAKE!

Kristen, Echo and I spent Saturday out and about town… we started at the library (the branch closer to us) and picking up two books I had on hold for this week’s schooling. It is a complex actually so we looked into skating and swimming information. Seriously, if anyone wants to go swimming with us in November!! We need more hands than we have to safely swim with all 5 kids. 

After the library it was down to the south end and Michaels. There were some Christmas (I know ALREADY!) sales and coupons to use. There is a free make-it-take-it activity there on the 20th of this month I wanted to confirm was going on. I did pick up some more adhesive so I could get back to crafting. Duct tape is next on the list (some specific colours for Christmas gifts) but I figured I needed to get some scrapbooking out of the way to clear my crafting areas! AND it is Emanuel’s turn tomorrow to get his scrapbook page done. 

Bathing Beauty

A Girl and Her Sheep

We had lunch at a mall foodcourt where at Edo Japan I actually got right through the line! Faster than Kristen at NYFries! Odd that! And then over to the kids’ educational store. I had a payment order number and a wish to shop for another couple gifts for Christmas. Echo made minor messes (easily tidied thankfully) and crawled around exploring while I bought more than I had planned but remained well under budget. I even got them a toy for right now – magnetic spacial game. Though it was TRINITY more than anyone who was interested in it. 

Fun with magnets

In the evening we actually pulled out the game I got Ken for his birthday – Settlers Trails to Rails! Kristen, Fydo, Ken and myself gave it a go… it went A LOT longer than our usual Settlers game and was a bit more complex AND Ken did win AS USUAL… but fun! I look forward to playing it again with a firmer grasp of the rules AND starting earlier in the evening. 

All new Settlers

Today was a rather big deal for our little family – the kids sang at church with the Sunday School. It was Trinity’s first time! She was a little nervous and Emanuel was trying to chatter at first but they gave it their best! I was VERY proud! 

The lesson during Sunday School was a group craft one about Saints for All Saints Sunday. Everyone made a Saint Nicholas. Rather cute I think! 

Two of our saints

We had to say good-bye to our company today. Jeff and Zachary were onto the next leg of their vacation with Sean as their ride (he has been steadily getting sicker over the weekend but toughed it out and had fun). We feel so spoiled that they came and visited all the way from California! Kristen picked up Fydo around lunchtime so that left Alan and Ted to spend the afternoon and into the evening with Ken gaming and just hanging out. As much as we LOVE our new place, I do miss this sort of company. Feels so weird to see them so rarely after it being a weekly or more visit at our old home. 

A basement full of men

Uncle Ted helping Trinity watch Charlie and Lola

Watching the gaming

I finished up a few crafts sitting around as I set about putting the house back to normal. Echo’s bow board is finally done. I love the colours. The material was what Echo’s Birthday present was wrapped in from Victoria. I put the bows on that she received from a lovely lady who runs Hairbows for Princesses. Be sure to check her out! Aren’t the colours great?

Echo's Bow Board

Oh and we figured out why poor Echo is not only cranky BUT has a bum rash – she cut another tooth – a molar!! (what is it with this kid and the painful back ones?)… her back left bottom is cut now as well as the two top ones… OUCH 

This was definitely a weekend to remember, and now it is time to get ready for the rest of the month. Our facilitator is here on the 17th so we need to be sure we have our science stuff ready to show… I have a crafting event to plan, a van we need to get a date on for fixing, library meet up to plan… oh the list goes on. BUT I am hoping to move my focus to creating Christmas presents now! And that is exciting for us all… CRAFTING! 

Post church pretty