Tag Archive | Fire Station

January 2014… Successfully Enjoyed, Experienced and Now Remembered

January 23-30

And now we get into the end of the month. The FIRST month of 2014… And the final countdown to finalizing our decision to stop with 5 kids. I can honestly say that I feel no regrets, sending Ken to the doctor on the 24th for the in office procedure (I will spare you the picture he took of it). If we do feel the need in the future for more children there are those already in existence that need us more. Having the procedure on the Friday did mean an at home weekend. Not that the kids complained as it culminated in the cousins coming to visit as well!

But first the Thursday (23rd)… I decided that since this year we weren’t going to make our own fortune cookies that we could still make our own fortunes! Jumbo fortunes. Even Echo made her own (translated loosely by myself).101_5965

I went out with Ken to an appointment and stopped at a more local small Asian market where I lucked out with super affordable red envelopes and lucky candy for our Chinese New Year celebration. The kids and I are rather excited about our celebration. We even sent off envelopes for the den Otter 3.101_5966

We had a half day on the Friday.101_5995

101_5996With some time squeezed in with Daddy learning more about magnets. These kits from Christmas are REALLY coming in handy! We used the last of the kids’ Christmas money to pick up some strong magnets at Lakeshore which has made them even more excited about it. (and had us sit them down and discuss where we do NOT put these magnets – laptops, electronics, Daddy’s computer!!!!)101_6000

Nana went and collected the cousins before she headed off with Daddy to the doctor. It has become a family tradition here… she also took Ken’s brother for his. It went smoothly and they were home before we knew it… though then Ken headed right to bed to sleep off the medicine, stress and hopefully through the first of the pain.101_6001

The weekend was quiet… with lots of potty attempts. We are still rather hit or miss and I sense a long road ahead with this one.101_6007

Saturday was a whole day of cousin time.101_6002

Sunday was the beginning of what we now see as Echo’s “Helping” phase, which often is not so helpful!101_6008

We skipped Sunday School so that the kids could spend the time with their cousins before they had to head home. Emanuel and Daddy took a few minutes to finish a Scout task. They had to figure out where to go when there is a fire.101_6011

And then on Monday it was back to school and Chinese New Year as usual. This time with some panda learning. You simply cannot learn all about China and such without touching on one of our favourite animals!101_6014

101_6015101_6033On Tuesday the kids finally sat down and worked on their rubberband loom. So many pretty (though still very basic) bracelets. Enough to add some to the package to the den Otters and give some to me! I need to take some time and try this thing out for myself! We do not have the rainbow brand version that is one you can change the set up on, but if it catches on with the kids it will go on the list for the next holiday!101_6017

We had a minor but consistent argument about electronics that night, so I called an hour of no batteries and pulled out games and toys… we started with dominoes, first the traditional line them up and knock them down with moderate success.101_6019

101_6021And then doing a matching version. I think I played MOST of the rules right with the kids, but we had fun regardless.101_6022

And then onto the I Spy game with a BELL! That was noisy and crazy and totally enthralling to all.  Operation back to the basic fun — SUCCESS!101_6025

Mid week and we are back to the books. Education.com and Activity Village have been amazing resources for us! Though remember, now with Education.com you only get TEN worksheets free a month.101_6028

101_6030101_6031The twins headed outside to add to Nana’s ice garden. Simple water, food colouring and cold weather… we freeze ours out in the sunroom.101_6029

Miss Trinity and Miss Echo have been learning together lately. Big sister must impart that wisdom on her little disciple. Everything from school stuff to online gaming!101_6032101_6035

And to top it off… Emanuel had his first extra field trip for Cub Scouts — to the police/fire station! Baba took him as Ken got stuck at a dental consult. But Darcy shared pictures with me and I was told by himself and Darcy that it was SOOO much fun!IMG_5966

IMG_5992IMG_6010IMG_6016edAnd with that we are left with ONE day of January to see through and the start of Chinese New Year – year of the horse!! What a whirlwind month!101_6026

And the Decision Is…

Hands down the 8X10 on the wall is going to be image 10. It seemed to be EVERYONE’S favourite! But a bit too close to be a little wallet.

Image 10

The wallet choice is a little harder, so I am debating doing a couple and sending them out random. Number 8 had the most votes with 2 next and then 6 and 3 tied.

Image 8

Image 2

Image 6

Image 3

Today was a big event for the twins – their trip to the Fire Station! They came back full of facts and information. Even Ken learned something new!

The whole group! (Zander red)

While the boys were off enjoying their fire station experience Emanuel and I were hard at work on HIS fire station lapbook. I am quite happy with the finished product. We worked on our counting and colouring and talked about what firemen do. It is too bad he was too young to go on the fieldtrip but we had fun just the 3 of us. Trinity had her colouring at the other end of the table and we all worked rather nicely together. After Trinity got over he crying fit when the boys and Ken left!

Front Cover

Inside

Inside page lifted

Back Cover

Our day has been full of firemen talk. I am so glad we had this opportunity for the boys!

Mail today treated me well as well… TWO packages! The first from a sweet friend up north… scrapbooking supplies!! Paper, some embellishments and corner stickers for photos. What a sweet gift!

Thank You!!!

The other came in one of those horrid plastic “we’re so sorry we bashed around your package” bags. Thankfully the damage to the envelope was not too extensive and all of the contents were still there. This package had some stories from a pair of authors who were giving away some complimentary copies. One about the States (a paper copy) and then on a cd – China and Canada. What a great gift.

Learning Material!

Trinity had one more birthday present come today: from Chris and Chris – a shopping cart! She was thoroughly impressed.

Yay a shopping cart!

Now if we could just get sorted in time for this weekend’s wedding and visit to my mom’s… with a dr’s appointment tomorrow for me and endless IN city chores to be accomplished it feels like a race against time! BUT the pears are up for purchase on my pattern site so check them out… tonight (late) there should be the pharmacy freebie link up and running!

Zander (left) and Gavin's Daddy time!

Today in Retrospect

Yesterday we finally saw a concrete and tangible benefit to Ken’s medical leave of absence, Leisure passes for the whole family! With our difficult circumstances we qualified for a year of this pass… so now we can go to the zoo, fort, conservatory, pools, etc. as often as we want! So the plan for tomorrow is to head off to the conservatory with Trinity dressed to impress and take her birthday photos in an atmosphere where she does NOT have to sit nicely! So out comes the last of her fancy dresses in this size range and hopefully she will be in the mood to explore and smile.

Tuesday was an at home day for the family. With wonderful weather once again the twins chose to spend their time not spent working on their fire station lapbooks outside in the sunshine. Lots of creative play and sharing for once.

Some number practice before heading outside (Zander)

We are already having to start bringing up our fans from the basement to cool the house down. So even though we are glad to have the sunshine and send the kids out I have a nasty suspicion that being pregnant in summer is going to a first time experience I am NOT going to want to repeat. After all in Alberta air conditioning is NOT the norm for all homes… we are much more concerned with our furnaces for the lengthy cold period.

Beyond the conservatory tomorrow’s plan is to head to the produce store and then have a fruit salad lunch before sending the little ones off for nap. Midweek means we HAVE TO get working on the brown sugar cake for Trinity as well as figuring out food. With the lovely weather and a free Sunday evening the next day we are going to take our left over meat and have friends over for a bbq in the backyard. I figure each person/family/couple could bring over some meat and a side dish or drink and we could put out our new umbrella and the pool Ken is to hunt down by tomorrow and enjoy!

We did rake the backyard and run the sprinkler for a while today… more tonight as this place is tinder dry. Tomorrow Ken will rake the front and again run the sprinkler a little in the evening. At least I am finally starting to see some tulips in the front yard that the owner had planted there years before she left.

Sprinkler! (Gavin red)

Tonight was Emanuel’s special daddy time… they played his Thomas the Tank Engine game, and he won! (Ken said he didn’t even have to cheat really Emanuel did that well!) Tomorrow it is Zander’s choice… IF they behave!

Game time with Daddy

I finished Trinity’s birthday tutu and am VERY happy with it… all sweet and soft colours and plenty of poof. I do believe I am in love with making them again!!

Blue and pink

And of course – today’s scrapbooking:

Mom's Wedding