November 1-3

Where in the world did October go? We are through with Halloween and onto the next big holiday – THANKSGIVING. Which is a much bigger deal than in Canada… and a different month all together. It is quite the trick to go from an event like Halloween and then back to school on a Friday no less.

We had a timely mail delivery of two of our magazine subscriptions to read during our reading time.

And of course we took a moment to enjoy the glory that is fall in our backyard. These trees were chosen (and planted when they first built the house) specifically for the fall season!

We had time for painting with watercolours (Thomas the Tank Engine)…

And a Halloween activity for Trinity.

We had a new countdown to the 5th and Aunty Karyn’s visit… that had us making Christmas cards on Saturday for all the people who live near her so that we could send off our early Christmas presents and save the shipping costs for mailing later!

We also had our Home Depot craft session – BOATS! 

We also finished our lovely ghostly footprints to go into our Halloween book. I love the individuality!

That evening it was finally time to eat our other mailed gift from Gammie – our cupcakes in a kit – a Hello Kitty Halloween themed. They went over VERY well.

We rounded off our weekend with first Sunday School (as usual) and THEN a beautiful afternoon out in the sunshine… a good stiff wind earlier in the day brought down a bounty of brightly coloured leaves.

So what better to do than rake them into a pile and jump and play in them… and THEN clean them up into the bags to be taken out with the trash this week?

Enjoy the pictures… I did take a few…

The inclusion of Echo

September 23-25

The last full week of a month is always a bit of a rush. I do like to keep our bigger projects confined to a one month span… though that rarely happens when we get so interested or side tracked in answering questions and enjoying the subject matter. But first we drew what we would be if we could be ANYTHING for Halloween… we did this last year and again this year it was a blast to see what they came up with.

And then we dove right back into Ancient Egypt… there is no end to the fascinating things to see and learn about!!!

We also made our Fall poster… Gotta find those signs and be ready for the season!

Egyptian knowledge runs rampant this week… Tuesday was more books and discussion…

Pen pal letters to decorate…

And on Wednesday story time with the long absent (ok sleeping in Echo’s bed flat as a board) Fat Sheep.

I love watching the kids all hard at work.

So to reward them we made some yummy chocolate rice krispie squares!

 And so we make it to midweek intact and tummy full of treats!

November 25-26

The 4th day of a 4 day weekend feels very surreal to me. I felt absolutely LAZY and it was ever so slightly driving me crazy. Ken and his dad spent a large chunk of the day rearranging the garage so that one of the cars could fit in it. Which also had us drag out and sort  through the Christmas items. I am only using our Advent items and Christmas stockings. It is simply not worth having out our decorations this year only to have to sort them back out when we put everything away. It is an odd feeling, this is the first time since I was 19 that I will NOT have my own tree…

BUT We DO have our Little People Nativity set to have out for entertainment and decoration. Of course Baby Jesus is waiting for Christmas Day hidden away.

Emanuel with part of the “Jesus town” as they call it

Miss Echo is in LOVE she does not remember this set AT ALL

The kids are STILL over the moon with the new snow. I am wondering how long it will last but definitely glad they are still jumping to play out there together.

Out in the sunshine!

In fact, this upcoming week is set aside to finish as much unfinished items going for the kids as possible and get our Christmas and Advent themed learning organized and ready. There are presents to make, Advent calendars to set up and of course songs to learn for our mini concert that we will post up on YouTube. 

Monday ended our 4 day weekend and started our Thanksgiving etc wrap up. We also had a START up… Gavin decided he wanted to make his godmommy back in Canada a book… so paper was cute and ideas discussed and he was off! I gave him the 5 days of the week to work on it so that after the weekend a cover could be made and then the entire thing shipped off. 

Hard at work

Miss Echo has become an iPad pro. Just don’t take it away from her! EVER!

She loves her electronics

We did our last fall themed drawings from Art for Kids. SCARECROWS! I am saving all of these instructions and making them into a binder, they are the best I have seen around! 

Scarecrows

Don’t forget our 5/5 with Gavin and his spelling! Zander didn’t disappoint with only 2 wrong when he did his test as well. 

Well done Gavin

We have given up dinosaurs for the week, just need to get as much done as quickly as possible with a BIG surprise for the kids on Wednesday. 

So sweet and without the war wound look :)