Tag Archive | Family Tree

Fall in the Air

October 17-18

This longer fall is still an adjustment for us. Where is the snow??? So we started our newest group project… this one a fall tree. Each of the kids got their own 8 1/2 by 11 inch piece of white paper and some leaves to rub. Ken myself are doing our part by creating the trunk to assemble our branches and leaves on! 

Of course Emanuel had his dinosaur and the kids their book work. We had a slightly less enthusiastic spelling test with Zander getting 2 wrong. He focused on two words and didn’t pay attention to the sound the y makes in boy and by. BUT we are still happy to see he is reading the words that he has tested on later successfully and is proud of the words he IS getting right!

We had a few errands to run, our tulle stash was short a black… and we needed  to scope out the costume options at Target for the twins… and buy our trick or treating pumpkins. A dollar a piece and LOTS of options! 

Pumpkins!

I also had the twins decorate the poem sheet for Monday’s recitation… Their very own Elf up in a tree. I think they did a great job with the picture. Zander and Gavin worked together on it!

Great art

We have returned to Minnesota with a wonderful library book. Minnesota by Amy Van Zee. We are taking a lot of our larger books and more information packed ones step by step lately. Today we talked about the shape of the state and focused on the fact that there are over 10’000 lakes. I am hoping if we keep trying to come at the information about our new home from different formats and angles we will eventually get it to stick.

Ken and the kids finished up the day with Lego time! His special Legos!

LEGOS

We finished our special family tree on Thursday complete with a cat (Trinity), bat (Emanuel), pumpkins (Zander) and a squirrel with his nut (Gavin). Echo contributed her own leaf picture (at least we ASSUME it is an abstract representation on how leaves make her FEEL). 

Leaf assembly

Complete!

We started our Halloween themed poem memorization as well. A little more complicated as there are words like goblin in it which they are not used to using. I am so proud of Emanuel for standing with with the big boys and learning along with them.

As it was a day that started with the letter T we had our Minecraft day for the boys as well. The agreement is that they get Minecraft time and then draw a picture of progress or a favourite thing done and write about it in their journals. I am hoping to get them thinking more about processes, progress and other problem solving type things. 

Spontaneous mask creation via Zander

We had another art completion as well – Art for Kids is awesome. This time a junior Frankenstein! 

So well done!

We have had a bit of progress with Gavin’s cross stitch. He is thinking of gifting it to Daddy for his birthday on the 23rd but the big question is whether or not it will get DONE in time. I am hoping we can get it done. A completion is always a boost to the confidence and he has already picked out his next project! So with spontaneous crafts, continuing with the “master plan” and finding learning in unexpected places I am starting to feel like our feet are getting under us once again! 

Yah baby!

So Slow at Blogging, I Apologize!

And so we have the weekend… and after a horribly stress inducing second half of the week, a welcome reprieve. We had a Saturday to remember with friends and leaves and games and… FAMILY PHOTOS! Yup, Fydo and Kristen came out with us to a local (and rather pretty) leaf filled park and took pictures for us. I most definitely have camera envy!! We played in the leaves, tried to sit Echo in them (no go apparently she absolutely DESPISES leaves… good to know!), played in the nearby park (no pictures sorry) and enjoyed the rather crisp fall air. We got some absolutely lovely photos out of the experience and the kids had a blast in the leaves. 

The whole family in fall

Emanuel and his leaves... I have more to share and some not yet received, so another day!

Miss Trinity has learned where the most fun is to be had and when Kristen and I were nominated to make a grocery run for dinner (to which they treated us – thank you so much you two!) she was quick to fuss about coming with. Well a booster in the back of the car later and we were off to Superstore where she ALSO went to the potty in the store! What a big girl! In fact, all weekend she had only one incident, we put a pull up on her for bedtime and she pooped… she was devastated! We are not holding it against her dress tally as she came as quick as she could to tell us but after a slurpee, pizza and other junk foods it is hard when you are a new trainer.

Such a big girl!

We ended Saturday with boardgames and Sean joining us. A new game first that was a 4 player so I sat out and sewed on beaks on my owls and then Settlers. Echo joined in on that one and attempted a coup by throwing her toy through the board! So much fun and a much needed dose of games, company and companionship I needed after my ick week ending.

Echo misses her Sean so much!

Settlers

Sean stayed the night and the girls and I saw our boys off for Sunday School Sunday morning. We tidied, played and then… then the popcorn baby was joined by popcorn blondie… apparently popcorn is a major bonding point in this family!

Popcorn Baby and Popcorn Blondie

After Sunday School there was time to tidy and eat and then FRIENDS FRIENDS FRIENDS… oh and FAMILY too! What a needed reprieve from being home as a family… First it was Karyn and Victoria who came in time to drive Zander and I out on a VERY special errand – we had to go get a Halloween costume while they were 40% off at Superstore! A 3 day sale that ended on Sunday… I won’t disclose the costume but I got it for less than the container of laundry soap I also had to pick up! When we got back the number of visitors had grown by 3 with the arrival of Esther (oh yes REALLY!!!), Grandma AND Grandpa Mike! Grandma and Grandpa Mike came bearing gifts, including some school storage (yay!).

Playing Emanuel's favourite Thomas themed boardgame

AND two workbooks – a Kindergarten one AND a Preschool one! The little ones were absolutely in raptures and drug Aunty Esther over to get started. Trinity mostly follows the instructions and is loving every minute of it! I am VERY blessed to have kids who complain when I say we CAN’T do schoolwork… it took some convincing to get them to understand that I needed to clean the table FIRST. They can certainly exhaust a person with their enthusiasm at the end of a long day. But it is a wonderful exhaustion.

Right to work and on a Sunday... with COMPANY!

We ordered pizza as a group after Grandma and Grandpa headed out for home (Mike wanted to go out and do a ride on the bike)… Echo did the potato wedges and the kids were over the moon. I managed to eat a couple pieces of pizza, go out for a wonderful walk with ALL the kids, Victoria, Karyn and Esther for slurpees (they suckered Aunty Esther BIG TIME) and feel much better by the end of the evening.

Walking to the store

That left my evening cleared up to work on wings and owls… one done by 10 and I was done in though… long week, not enough sleep and VERY happy kids to see all these Aunties, an Uncle AND one set of Grandparents! They have been rather grandparent spoiled what with all the Skyping with Grandpa Reinsch… I am hoping the trend continues! I am loving being in better contact with my dad.

Monday was a wee bit overwhelming with the sheer level of energy the younger two of our big 4 had for their new books. It is a bit of an uphill battle to explain how we have to TAKE TURNS having Mommy one on one learning time, but it is a great one to have. They WANT to learn, to try and to do… that makes it all the more exciting. Though I do admit to some losing of patience AND headaches on my end!

We read another chapter of Stuart Little today… we are up to chapter 10! I asked for suggestions with my local egroup and plan on doing some mouse related research and maybe finding some short stories about OTHER mice. We do have the Disney movie to watch at the end of our story courtesy of Cousin Veronika and her Adam… I want to do more with this book than I did with Trumpet of the Swan and this is no longer a summer read! In fact, Karyn found out that the downtown branch of our city library has a pj wearing storytime Tuesday nights so next week I think I will send Ken, Trinity and Emanuel which would leave the twins and me some game time!

Stuart Little

We did finish our Family Tree – you can make your own according to these instructions. We went Grandparents, parents and then kids… I love how it turned out and there is room to add some more extended family later! They were VERY proud of their work and we seem to have somewhat of an understanding as to which sets of grandparents directly belong to which parent.

Our Family Tree

Quiet time was badly timed with the waking up of Echo so she went and played animals with the twins… with strict instructions that she could PLAY but not EAT the toys… we used sheets and towels for terrain and until Echo went monster giant baby on the landscape it was rather organized and amazing to look upon! 

Animals in the bedroom

Ken gave me an evening break by sending me to the basement to lay on the couch and watch tv (Murder She Wrote on Netflix) while he and the kids had a daddy evening. I am told Legos were played!!! My evening is left up to do crafting, blogging and tidying… I am happy to report I am eating more again BUT Trinity had a potty accident at bedtime… we are soooo close… not a pee accident to be seen and I am VERY pleased. One more poop on the potty and I have to go buy her a Hello Kitty dress! I am really looking forward to that purchase! 

I have finished a couple H’owl’oween owls… even had an interested party on a 3rd! It feels good to make things people actually want! I am determined to make October GREAT. 

Pink Popcorn Bears MUST stay on the alert... popcorn is stolen MUCH more often than honey!

Are We Really Almost to October?

We have completed our short possum/opossum lapbook today… there was a little bit of writing, some gluing and word discussion to do and one or two more illustrations were added to the pile but we managed it. I think we will have to come back to the lapbook from time to time to work on our new words! And to admire the artwork and penmanship! You can find our links and videos HERE.

Front cover

I am out of staples so I had to creatively tape in our extra long pages

As far inside as you can get

Back cover, each of the twins wrote one of the words themselves

While possums took up our morning our afternoon was a crafty one with PAINT! Did you know that 4 kids with paintbrushes actually CAN keep the mess down to a minimum? The boys all used the palates they got last year from Nana and Baba, for some reason I can’t find Trinity’s… and Trinity used up the last of our ancient finger paints (from when the twins were tiny!! but with a brush of course as ALL our kids are finicky about their fingers) and some of our scarlet to make her masterpiece! 

Painting at the table

Now what brought on this sudden interest in all things messy and colourful? Well a craft I found on our favourite UK craft site – a Family Tree. They suggest this as a grandparent’s day craft, we are working on the boys really understanding WHO our long distance family are – there are 3 sets of Grandparents to remember and two sets are in the states. For our leaves I found a  template herethat Ken then shrunk down for me to a quarter page and printed out in green. The boys then cut them out and have begun the work of writing out names and drawing pictures of family members. 

Ready for leaves

We did another chapter of Stuart Little. Another edge of your seat adventure, this time on a garbage boat! Apparently Stuart can’t step outside the door without adventure catching him unaware.

4 more interpretations

I have begun my next round of owls for my “It’s a Hoot” page on Facebook. These ones are for H”owl”oween… groan I know BAD! I found some really neat socks and have been cutting them down to owl size. I have tried a couple different lengths with the camo – one a little taller and one the usual size. It is the re-purposing of the old shirts into owl stuffing that REALLY takes the most time right now… and cramps the hand something fierce! 

The kids ended their day with a walk down the block to the community garden with Daddy. They have a nice lot there next to the church that has enough room to run AND still a few plants to check out. Zander did run off home on Ken which was NOT good – we live only a building and the church away but he needs to realize he has to tell us…

Helping Trinity with her shoes as someone had to stay home with a sleeping Echo

A bit of a run

I managed to fill up another mocked up scrapbook page recently as well. A birthday piece!

For Emanuel's book

And now it is back to owl creating… cleaning… dishes… laundry… the list goes on and on. I am sure tomorrow’s entry will be much better organized! Well I hope!

Didn't Ken catch the perfect light on this one?