I have decided to start a new little mini Christmas/Advent tradition. We printed out this page from our day 3 on our Advent Calendar. This year I had them tell me things they like about Christmas and I wrote them down. It will be interesting to compare future year’s answers. 

Things I Like About Christmas

Polar Express is getting along nicely. Though there were grumblings about writing words (gasp) and doing a word search (which in hindsight I was told was VERY easy)… I am hoping we can continue the last few parts and have a lovely lapbook for them to remember part of our year 2 homeschooling. 

Today’s craft for Advent was to make an origami box. Ken and I made one up out of red and green cardstock last night and had the 3 boys work TOGETHER to decorate it! I am planning to make a few more tonight so they can decorate some more, maybe put some of their ornaments in them to gift out! 

Our pretty box

Our filler time craft before sledding came from Education.com… Santa and his elves (we made two). I printed them on regular printer paper and had the 3 boys colour and cut them out themselves. You can find Santa HERE and the elf HERE.

Santa and two of his elves

Sledding with Daddy was another success today. Due to work he took them around dusk where they tried a new hill and played with other kids. They were out nearly an hour and came back with rosy cheeks and empty tummies!

Sledding at dusk

We had a busy evening. Ken and Fydo wanted to talk shop and with He Chris around Echo and I were able to join them and Kristen. I also had a few items to wrap and she has the wrapping paper in abundance! Of course this occurred during the supper hour so we decided to go to the nearest restaurant to their home – the Indian place! Ken’s first time, note his carefully separated food! 

Ken's careful plate

We wrapped the odd shaped stuff, chatted and enjoyed some adult only time while the boys talked about gaming and programming some and Ken snuck in a 10 min nap (they DO have a comfy sitting room).

Me and my baby

Played out

Emanuel and Trinity got spoiled with some special Aunty Karyn time – not only did they do jammie library time but they ALSO went by her apartment and got to see her kitty… by see I am told that they refused to actually go in and engaged in a staring match with said kitty! But in the end he was deemed to be a nice kitty so it is all good! 

I got home too late to talk to any of the children about their evening but I hear it went well! Now I just have to get to work on Emanuel’s handcrafted gift for the year – a feltie Elephant ornament that I am then going to blow up to a bigger size to make something more squeezable… with that I am done his list! YAY! I have to share today’s Advent video… Trinity had to watch it over and over and over again! 

And each time she watched it she had to tell me HER interpretation on events!!

Now to enjoy crafting while watching anime… oh and take a peek at the start of what Fydo and Ken have declared my “underwear fund”… Night

Quite the "fund" hey?

It is hard to believe it is Sunday already… but here you have it! AND I got to go out for a while (without kids!) with Kristen and do some much needed Christmas outfit shopping. Karyn started me on the path of loving Winners and today’s trip cemented it! I did try to find a shirt for under 10.00 (would have been a real coup) but had to “settle” for a 19.99 sweater style dress. And then I splurged and got 9.99 tights, lovely thick ones in black. So red is the theme this year and I am thinking my Holly brooch made into hairclip will be my accessory. 

I am down to needing only 3 more pairs of pj’s for Christmas… I picked up Trinity’s set at Old Navy on sale for 12.00. The boys are always the hardest, they tend to go up in price so quickly, the larger sizes… and I am going slowly to ensure my budget stretches! BUT Kristen helped me come up with an idea for one of the kids I have left that I can do here at home AND she helped me make sure I picked up my gold pipecleaners for today’s craft! Again back to Activity Village’s Advent Calendar, Day 4! The little houses are starting to add up and our 4 separate collections are marvellous! 

We painted today… and decorated our toilet rolls… the rest of today’s craft will be done tomorrow, when we are SURE everything is dry!

Painting

It was craft day at Sunday School and all 4 kids came home with a beaded snowflake. Just like real snowflakes no two were alike… AT ALL! Very pretty and they were all very proud! Next Sunday is the pageant and we all should be going to practice, service, lunch and then concert! It will be a rather short concert but the boys are working hard on their verse! 

Snowflakes

I can share a craft I just finished personally! Trinity’s birthday buddy is a HUGE fan of Ponyo so between Ken and myself (and the helpful advice of some anime savvy friends) we created a feltie pattern. I am told she is wonderful! I have yet to watch the movie but Ken did watch some bits and we both searched through pictures. She is a very interesting character with a lot of changing features. 

Ponyo!

I had a minor laminating machine issue that had to be resolved by opening the darn thing and removing a rather tight and stiff roll of plastic (oops). Thankfully it seems to be ok as I need to use the thing daily for the month of December! The only casualty was Trinity’s day 4 house and she is always up for more colouring so we were not overly upset. 

My list is getting shorter but so are the days until Christmas! ACK But we are enjoying the creating and crafting together. I think tonight instead of a picture I want to leave you all with this video. Please listen to the children who seem like they need a shoulder… 

November is quickly slipping away from us it seems, and with it my time for Christmas gift crafting. As posted in yesterday’s entry – I HAVE got a new feltie in the making – Hello Kitty in all her feltie glory. Fat Sheep would NOT approve. Speaking of Fat Sheep – she recently updated her blog with her Halloween experiences with our family. She did make a marvelous prop for Echo’s Little Bo Peep costume! 

Yesterday was a better day than the day before… we have outlawed saying DON’T WANT TO… and have discussed behaviour that is something you can be proud of vs something that makes Mommy and Daddy sad. There have been more time outs than I would like but to nip it in the bud we have had to go to zero tolerance. I am just thankful that I have Ken home to step in when I feel overwhelmed. I wonder how many OTHER parents have these not so good days/weeks/months… 

There was a big surprise for Gavin in the mail yesterday though! A lovely lady in Nova Scotia sent him an envelope full of beginner patterns and kits to get him going with his cross stitching! He was so excited, he opened the envelope and went through it all right there and then. We just have to finish his newest self design before he moves onto one of these. I have to say there is a certain amount of pride in the fact that ONE of the children has already shown a passion for something so dear to me!

Gavin and his new patterns!

We have been battling teething and diaper rash with Echo all week. I think we are starting to see some progress on both. 4 molars now in place and zinc cream a regular part of our changing routine I think she will be much happier by the weekend. She is over 16 lbs finally! I don’t remember if I mentioned it but we briefly weighed her on the weekend and she was almost 16 1/2 lbs!!

Clapping with Daddy

We had friends work out a way to get a much needed snowsuit from my mom’s to here as well! Trinity is in love with her new pink princess coat! I am so grateful that people will help us out like this. The van should be fixed SOON but in the meantime it feels so lovely to have people who are willing to network with us! 

Modelling her new coat

We have been continuing our worksheet work and sight word learning. Zander is slowly starting to TRY to sound things out over guessing. He does seem to ignore the rules of language etc though. Which can make for frustration on both parts and some giggles on mine.

From reading to a math break

Yesterday was jammie library day for Trinity and Emanuel as usual. The theme of the stories was dinosaurs and as a wonderful coincident Emanuel was wearing Gavin’s dinosaur pj’s! The craft was making their own paper triceratops which was great fun. We did some looking for books and movies and while I was in the adult fiction section Trinity made a new friend and read a story.

Dinosaurs!

 Aunty Karyn picked us up for the library with a special gift for Trinity – a new Hello Kitty themed placemat! Which of course has been used for every meal since! 

Hello Kitty

He Chris stopped by today to drop off a bucket of things for the kids and myself and included in that was something for Trinity – an OLD SCHOOL My Little Pony! Happy girl! There was also a dictionary, thesaurus, gaming device that I have to work out how to use for the boys, some craft supplies and binders… always welcome!!! And I had the batteries I needed to get the device going on hand and everything! This also reminded me of the boys’ gift from LAST Christmas – the Math Shark. 

With pony and my beta kitty

Math Shark

I am working on my felties tonight and making my plans for the rest of the month. We are determined tomorrow morning to read about snowflakes! It seems like we start out with the best of intentions and get side tracked or confused or derailed lately. But at least the stuff we do INSTEAD is still interesting and fun! 

Now don’t forget to enter my 1000th post draw and win a feltie of your choice! You can do so by clicking HERE. 

Flashcard baby time