3 days … well ALMOST 3 full days at Grandma’s house after THREE MONTHS of not travelling = sad kids and Mommy when it was time to go home! BUT the time there was a blessing. Do you know, I think we are the only family with a TOILET at the top of a Christmas tree at Grandma and Grandpa’s?? Seriously! It won second place at the college. 

Isn't it awesome?

Close up

With Ken having work to finish and laundry running we made it to Grandma’s around supper time on Thursday. Oh and  you would not believe how long it takes to get to Grandma’s… ever so long… and it is SOOO boring… (got too dark to play UNO too quickly I guess). We made sure to leave room in the van for the return trip. One of the few times I miss the old van. I am proud to report that our newest repair by Canadian Tire held and was terrific, though we still smell some burning coolant (and will due to puddles that froze). So another trip to the Grandparents’ is in the works already! 

Grandma's house is the best I am told!

We were all up late and Trinity was, as usual, in our bed splayed all over. Mom and Mike have a boarder over the holidays when he cannot be on dorms. He is VERY nice and great with the kids and apparently eats anything. We ousted him from his bed for his last night there but he was a great sport… and planning on being out and about that night anyway. 

Friday was our first WHOLE day at the house in ages… tv’s were rediscovered, a toy room trashed and eventually cleaned up, backyard explored… no one was bored! AND Ken got a TON of work done in the basement in his corner. Zander, mom and I went out and got his glasses straightened, stopped in at the baby store (no size mediums to be had boo) AND stopped in where Gavin’s godmother Christine works (pharmacy) to see when she was in (4-12). Later Ken and Gavin took his present and saw her at work where she was invited to stop by before she headed off to her parents’ on Christmas Eve. 

Mom did a lot of the cooking for Christmas Eve dinner on Friday so that Saturday we had spare time. Mom did some crafts with the kids as well… She and Trinity finished an angel ornament together! 

Crafting with Grandma

Oh and we cannot forget the traditional decorating of the Christmas tree (the one WITHOUT a toilet at the top). We had minimal breakage and TONS of fun. With Echo in the thick of it UN-decorating the tree to boot! We put on maybe half the ornaments mom has collected over the decades on the tree… the new black tree is smaller than the old green one (it is the one that found new life as a maintenance themed tree). 

I had to take various pictures with various camera settings of course!

With Grandpa Mike AND a stool to help

Echo helping Grandma

So pretty!

Don't forget about the Christmas train set - with added stops for fun of course

Saturday was Christmas Eve of course which meant even MORE excitement… by 10:30 or so we had Christine AND her two puppies Bella and Jasper over for a visit AND mom’s dip. It was a visit long overdue and we chatted well past noon and her projected leaving time. While she was here Uncle Wayne got in for the day as well. 

Bella

Jasper

It really is true, in Mom's house the KITCHEN is where it is at!! Having dip and hanging out!

Before she left for her family gathering we HAD TO open the presents! Lots of crafty things for the kids (which we did by Christmas Day of course!). And the maintenance designed tree had to be shown off of course!

PRESENTS!

Just a happy boy with his God Mommy

It was an important first for Trinity too – Grandma gave her her first trim!!! Just a tiny bit off the bottom to get rid of the dry bits. Very exciting!

Just a TRIM now

We decided to open the rest of the presents before dinner as Mike got called into work due to a boiler issue that took some time to correct. Paper flew, toys went wild and the kids were over the moon!! 

Uncle Wayne and the fancy tree

Girly presents

Chaos!

We had supper around 3… well most of us did, mom and Mike ran out to a coffee that ended up being 2 hours long. But it was delicious. 

Turkey dinner

After mom and Mike got back we had Mike open his presents, played some and then it was time for a rather tearful goodbye. AND packing the van to the gills. Of course Mike got called back into work AGAIN and managed to make it back just in time to see us off. 

Watching Grandpa Mike open... the wrong present !!

Mom's gift from Mike - those are black and white diamonds!

We decimated this dip! While they played Clue Jr. Mom, Uncle Wayne and I finished this puppy off

Our drive was uneventful though there were tears still shed and some boredom. We got home, piled out and then the great emptying of the vehicle began… SO MUCH STUFF! AND a phone call to boot – Esther! Well worth the interruption. She has given us some lovely tax advice and calmed some fears in the same regards. Esther you are our hero and certainly do NOT visit your little Reinsch-Johnson Canadian family enough (you do know it is too late – you ARE one of us). 

Once we got in, put on new pj’s, put the baby to bed and tidied it was time for our Santa picture! Santa got chocolate milk in a WINE glass AND a plate FULL of oreos. Of course the kids had to sample first! 

Cookies and CHOCOLATE milk for Santa... with our key ready to go into the mailbox

Then bed for the kids and finishing touches for the adults. Christmas Eve was a lovely day and ended with everyone tired and ready for the big day!

It honestly feels like we have been go go go pretty much non-stop since Friday! But in a GOOD way. So, back to Friday… Our morning was a bit hectic as we had to get everyone settled earlier than usual. My Uncle Wayne needed a ride to his eye doctor (who happened to not be overly far from the office where we ordered Zander’s glasses). Since he needed his eyes dilated he was not supposed to drive anywhere immediately after his appointment. So Ken and Zander left with Uncle Wayne to pick up Zander’s glasses while Uncle Wayne did his appointment. Unless there is a cancellation sooner, he will be back in the city in August for cataract surgery. If there is a cancellation before we move out of town we will get to have Uncle Wayne for 3 days! The kids would be over the moon.

Glasses and all

While those 3 were out doing the glasses thing a friend of mine from college – Kathy got in for a visit. She lives a little over 3 hours away in the same city as my brother. Her schedule wouldn’t allow her to come for the birthday party so instead she came by for a half day visit on Friday. It was nice to get a chance to catch up, and once the men returned she and I went to The Mall for New York Fries Poutine. Kid free we had a lovely hour or two of time to catch up and just generally hang out. She hung around until almost 5pm before having to head back home. OH and added treat – part of the Christmas present she gave me was back ordered and had finally come in. Another volume of Teresa Wentzler‘s cross stitch patterns! I have to admit a fondness to her designs (from what I understand she has retired) though they are VERY time consuming and often the entire piece is stitched with now empty spaces. I have a couple in this new book I am dying to do… once I have the time to properly kit them up.

All full of nice patterns

Since Uncle Wayne was on his way home Friday night and not planning on coming back into the city for the boys’ birthday he gave the kids their gifts on Friday. Trinity got a new kitty – one of those Fureal Friends I think they are called. This one is a tiny kitty that you can get track for that moves around when you push its back or just makes silly noses if  you push its nose. She was over the moon! Echo got a sweet stuffed panda that she played with a little. Emanuel got a remote control car – the same colour and I think number (though not the brand) as his favourite car – Lightning McQueen. He spent the rest of the day driving us all crazy driving it around. The twins each got a little set that you could use to build a vehicle (one bike the other dump truck) and then take back apart and make other things or combine to do the same. They were impressed by the little tools and the nuts and bolts and had Uncle Wayne down on the floor playing with them for hours.

Uncle Wayne with Gavin and Emanuel

From Uncle Wayne’s 3 weeks in China and Thailand he brought us back a few goodies! Key chains from Thailand, a little change purse for me and the big excitement – CARTOONS for the kids! Pleasant Goat and the Big Big Wolf. Apparently VERY popular in China. Ken managed to convince his computer to play them for us so we all got to enjoy them. (no translation on the disks sadly)

Our new videos

Karyn got in later that night after both my uncle and Kathy had left for home. So she and I went out for Harvey’s burgers and a visit (talk about spoiled, I got to go out TWICE Friday for some girl time!). Ken picked up Ted and Sean (whose car is currently not running) and we spent a fun evening putting up streamers, visiting and doing the last of the cleaning.

Saturday morning Karyn and I did the last run for things we needed for the party… with a stop over at Winners so Karyn could pick Echo up a new outfit. (I have to go back there, there were some sweet outfits that would look amazing on Trinity) We came home to Mom, Mike and Phoebe already being here and the kids all over the place with the gifts she has brought them (they weren’t wrapped so it was easier to just hand them over and let the kids go).

Playing games with Grandma (Gavin left)

With a loaf of banana bread baking and all our treats out for the party we added the cake mom and Mike had put together and our punch and we were ready to party! The cake was VERY impressive, they found an example online and ran with it. There was chocolate and carrot cake (the side cakes were the error ones, but worked perfectly). I think the kids were just excited about all the toys we had to take OFF of the cake so we could cut into it to eat!

The cake!

After cake which we had early so mom and Mike could head home in time for a meeting we had presents which of course meant CHAOS. Alan and Xinny and their 2 kids and Nathan and Ada with Anna were a little late so we were able to hold off cake until they got here. Chris and Chris got held up and managed to make it before presents… Esther… well she came LATE and spent time with us after the fact. Add to that my “baby” cousin David and we had a full and happy house.

My god-daughter Anna

The kids got some amazing presents – everything from a Thomas the train set (Emanuel) to a piano and 2 guitars (shared gifts)! We were able to get the twins their bikes at a super clearance price but are not going to have them in hand until next week. So they have to be patient on that one. Emanuel’s present from us was a great find – something called Hex Bugs.

Gavin and Isabella playing

After the bulk of the party went home we spent the rest of the evening relaxing and playing with the new toys (Cousin David was nice enough to tune our new guitars as best he could). Karyn, Esther and I made a slurpee run where we had to take a crate to transport them in. We got a couple of silly comments coming in with our large refill containers but we managed. Although Ken sent us with 8 containers and there was only 7 people and we of course filled them ALL. Oh well.

This is our last Sunday for Sunday School for the month so Ken and the boys left the rest of us here to hang out. Ok, Sean, Trinity and I hung out while Echo napped and Karyn slept in the basement. We had Esther on the couch and Ted on the floor. Amazingly enough they slept through the whirlwind that is Trinity on a Sunday morning! She spent the majority of her time bugging, I mean SITTING with Sean… with him on his laptop.

Whirlwind Trinity in her headband from Aunty Holly

The twins had an actual little Valentine’s party where they learned how to make flowers out of coffee filters so they are going to teach ME how to make them and for Valentines Day we will make a bunch up. Emanuel made a card and apparently had a lot of fun too… Ken had a nap (not a huge surprise).

Echo and Emanuel checking out the Hex Bugs

Today Echo is officially 6 months old! I am determined this week to get her photos done with her little “I was born at” t-shirt. In fact I have to do those and then the twins’ yearly photos and of course my own with Ken. You have one last chance to weigh in on Emanuel’s pictures – which one of THESE should we put up on the wall? Tomorrow I am going to announce the “winning” picture. Then it is time to post the twins’ pictures for opinion!

6 months today!

In a crafty side note – mom took off the tutu to the lady who requested it. I am VERY proud of it. I did a more patchwork patternless colour set up with a lovely bright pink ribbon and heart shaped gem embellishments. I am hoping the little girl it is for likes it as much as I do! It makes me wish I could get a steady supply of the variety of colours I like to make them for more people. Thankfully Michaels has expanded its selection of tulle colours! And Ken is able to get the coloured ribbon I need for the waist and the elastic for a great price at Walmart.

Finished tutu

For the gifts for the kids at the party Ken and I made up crayons out of our old broken crayons. We used our IKEA ice cube trays and used this recipe. Our kids love them! The books I got at Dollarama for 1.00 a piece – we lucked out there was Dora, Diego, and Kai Lan. A very affordable gift for all of the kids and a wonderful way to ensure we don’t waste all those broken crayons.

Zander and the crayons and colouring book

Karyn brought her Cricut for the weekend and I got my first opportunity to make some Hello Kitty die cut shapes. They are a bit labour intensive but the final result looks WONDERFUL. My plan is to borrow Karyn’s Cricut sometime after Family Day and spend a week or so just making kitties. I want to use them for scrapbooking and for decorations for Trinity’s 3rd birthday (she is a Hello Kitty fiend). I just need to pick up some more pastel paper and I am set.

Hello Kitty

This afternoon was filled with girl time – shopping at The Mall with Esther and Karyn. We wandered the clothing stores, stopped into Sephora and I treated myself with a strawberry bubble tea. (nummers) We got home in time for Karyn to head off home and the kids to get in some play time with Aunty Esther before she too had to head home. Ken took the guys home and now here we are, in a slightly chaotic house just the 7 of us. I have some definite cleaning to do, there is a couple of bags of garbage to go out, dishes to do and I have a strong urge to get a page or two done scrapbooking. Ken picked up my latest order of photos while out collecting the guys for the weekend. So hopefully tomorrow I will have at least one page to share.

Esther and Karyn

I have 4 very excited kids to deal with and a Valentine’s Day to consider. I am not sure how much we will do as this weekend was one big party for these guys. I do have some of those candies with the words on them to give them and some mini workbooks I picked up at Michaels with Esther and Karyn. I got Trinity the cutest little oven mitt and pot holder on the same shopping trip to go with the kitchen set. (Trinity got spoiled – Aunty Karyn got her Hello Kitty stickers AND two clearance shirts from Superstore!) I have to go back to Michaels this week, I found some sticker books at 1.50 a piece I KNOW the kids will LOVE.

I am sure there are things I missed in our busy busy weekend but I have to say THANK YOU to everyone who came by, celebrated and visited with us. It was a wonderful weekend and we really appreciate everyone who wanted to be a part of it!

Echo and God-daddy Nathan

We officially have twins you can tell apart EASILY… IF one of them is wearing his glasses of course! Feels so strange having our identical twins not be so… identical! Ken and Zander (and Uncle Wayne) returned victorious, glasses in hand this afternoon…

New glasses!