July 1st

Yup, nearly a month behind STILL but here we are at our personal celebration of Canada Day. Of course our day started in our red and white glory with any and all decorations I have saved or in the case of paper chains – the kids have made out for display. Thanks again to Karyn who got us some of these patriotic pieces on her trip down here last year.

This year we had a super special addition – a full on Canadian flag thanks to Facebook friend and twin mom Cyndi! The kids were so pleased to have what they consider THEIR flag out in the front yard for the day!

What with it NOT being a holiday here we had to make our own special adventure. And we certainly tried our best. We took all the kids out to the mall with the beloved Carousal. And the kids ALL went up to the upper level to enjoy the ride.

As a special treat Echo and Trinity got to ride on one of the coin cars… they seemed much more amazing when I was little.

We took some lovely pictures in front of the mall too.

Our next stop was a nature center where we had our lunch in the van.

Then into the center for a potty break only to go out to walk and Geocache EXACTLY when it started raining! Plan change – time for dancing in the rain instead!

We made a special maple leaf wreath…

Stopped at the library where I totally caved and got books in their on going book sale. I seriously cannot resist!

That was quite the special day for 6 and a half (the kids say Ken is HALF) Canadians out of their element in Minnesota!

And now for the adorable red and white overflow!! Sorry about the excessive images but we have some VERY proud little Canadians who wanted to share!!!!

June 27-30

We ended our week with a chapter book finish. This time Zander was our proud reader.

We returned to our original park from Mother’s Day and our first go at geocaching (HERE). Sadly the sun was hotter than expected so it was not super long of a trek but we had a blast going to a different section of the park.

Tiny frog!

All the sunshine and heavy humidity spurred us on to get that pool back up and filled for the kids to splash in. We did pick up a portable air compressor… just a tiny one that needs to stay plugged in. But you really cannot blow these pools up without something like that!

Saturday started off quiet…

Ken was out at a guys only beer and gaming overnighter so we had to make do without his imput. Luckily Renee and her 3 boys got bored and stopped by. Jeffrey photo op! It is great to have a friend who is close enough to just drop by. Makes me a little less homesick for our old place and all the local friends and family who just dropped by.

Sunday was another at home day of course so we started with playing with animals on towels to make oceans and land…

Back out to the pool where all sorts of floating was attempted…

Creativity with garage sale find blocks!

Once Ken DID get back he, the boys and I all played Munchkin. Their being able to read has opened up so many new avenues of ways to spend quality time with them!

I think it was a great way to end a weekend! We had only ONE day until the real fun begins. Not only do we end June which has been a very interesting and rather busy month but we get to lead into celebrating TWO countries’ special days. But first… SCHOOL.

Cooperative block building play time…

And a craft that was perfectly themed for the first of our celebratory days – Red and white placemats made by weaving. You can find the instructions on Activity Village (on right) under their Canada Day section.

And then back into the front yard.

Trinity and I snuck in some time to make felt maple leaf hair things (again thanks to Activity Village). We have done similar ones for Christmas. Perfect to spruce up our red and white outfits!

Echo wore one as a broach for a while!

And that was that… time to enjoy being both Canadian AND American!

May 18-23

We spent a large chunk of our Sunday out on the hunt for treasure… and for a good park! The girls decided to go matching on their excursion. We actually found a special geocaching coin that travels and is tracked. It has been all over the US an now it is our turn to pass it along!!

Chipmunk!

Pioneer Park

So swampy everywhere!

We have continued our watching of Veggie Tales when we can get our hands on them. So on a cloudy Monday it was a great filler between the rest of our ongoing learning of Texas, reading, writing and math. Sadly we are running out of shows that include a set of Sunday School worksheets to use. So instead we drew our own fun pictures.

That evening Ken worked on teaching the boys Agricola (HERE) another strategy game that I honestly am not a huge fan of. The additional reading, challenging game play all seems to be helping them stretch their skills more and more.

Tuesday was a nature walk in our very own neighbourhood. Keeping our eyes wide open for some more signs of spring… discussing road safety and the difference between planned plants and weeds. I think in June or July we will do a walk through the neighbourhood and see if we can get a bunch of different leaves and try and identify what trees are actually local to us. Which gives the little guys the chance to do a favourite activity – leaf rubbings!

Of course around lunch time we had to head back outside to enjoy the backyard. Really we were stuck indoors way too long this winter!

Art for Kids has put tons of wonderful how to’s out for us to enjoy. (link on right) Even Trinity is gaining confidence with the use of these.

Miss Echo was quite adamant that it was an ipad anime day for her. I really do love my Crunchyroll membership. Affordable and fun for me too. Granted she doesn’t understand anything being said and can’t read the translation but she bops to the music and enjoys the animation.

We tried something different for mid week. Of course we continued reading Treasure Island together.

But I had Ken make me up a nice set of charts for us to go onto the ipad and use my weather app to chart the week coming up weather local to us and for Austen Texas. Using this comparison we opened the table for a discussion about how activities and such would differ for the days there than here. Then for each day recorded the twins settled in with a sibling and wrote basically a daily diary for what they would do in Texas according to the weather. Zander was super creative and one day played out in the rain only to have to stay in the next sick with a cold!

We dug out our box of fraction magnets just to enjoy the manipulation of the pieces and to see how they look as actual objects. The boys were discussing and quizzing each other and explaining to the littles so I just sat back and let them go at it (as long as the information was CORRECT!).

We rounded off our outside experience on scooters, bikes and fancy skateboards. Sunshine sunshine SUNSHINE!

Trust me we really ARE doing sitting down book work interspersed with LOTS of outside running and burning of energy. Gavin has been taking charge of the camera occasionally and taking pictures too! Mommy in front of the camera instead of behind!!

Emanuel and I stole some afternoon creativity time on Wednesday and made a car ramp out of stuff in the livingroom while the other kids went on a walk with Nana and Baba. It is nice to have some quiet one on one time with the kids.

We ended our school week with ANOTHER Geocache adventure to a small park with a terrific tree shaded walking path. The boys are definitely the ones to jump up and go into the woods. We girls tend to wander the paths closer too and enjoy the more tick and branch free portion of the experience. That is not to say that Trinity does not jump on in from time to time though!

We are certainly seeing portions of Minnesota that Ken hasn’t even seen. There are some absolutely amazing out of the way tiny lakes and pretty shaded places. And we are seeing all of this together which is absolutely another plus. One thing we have learned from all the sessions Ken is now doing with his counselor is that going out as a family and enjoying an activity is absolutely crucial for all of us! That time together getting out, exercise coupled with the ability to spend POSITIVE time as a family. Amazing!

And a touch of Texas facts