With our move to Minnesota we put a huge amount of distance from our playdates, friends and family… one of the trade offs to saying good bye to all those amazing people has been the opportunity to be a part of the regular life of Andy, Darcy and their 4 boys. After years with our god daughters Isabella and Anna I feel so blessed to have the chance to be close to our god son as well. 

Echo and her Anthony

One of Anthony’s passions has to be soccer and so we have tried to make as many of his games as we could this summer/early fall. He is almost done his season and won’t be back playing until the spring. Ken played soccer in his youth until an injury at the end of high school had him kicking for football to get scholarships so he is really enjoying the chance to be a part of Anthony’s soccer experience. Saturday morning there was a home game and we had a free day so we joined them to watch him play. Of course this time I forgot my camera! Which leaves me feeling absolutely naked, thank goodness Darcy had hers for us to use. 

Go Anthony go!

Throwing in

Sadly they did NOT win though they ran hard and played their best. As usual, the other kids ran to the park that was just across the green and played the whole time. That left the 3 adults (Andy was in Vegas driving truck) and Echo to watch the game. It actually ended up hotter than we thought it would be and I am rather sure that some of the kids and myself got a little too much sun! 

Pretzel Baby

After the game we ran to Goodwill to look around and do a little shopping. The kids were not able to find anything to spend their 2.00 on that we would be sure was in full working order, all parts intact so we still need to head to the Dollar Tree to do some looking for that ever elusive perfect item. BUT I found 3 books to add to our collection, one about dinosaurs, a picture book version of a part of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little House in the Big Woods, and a Halloween themed book that is a little beyond the boys’ reading ability but will be fun to read for Halloween as a family. at 99 cents a book definitely a good find! I just wish I could hunt down OUR dinosaur book I am rather sure came with us on our big move. 

Echo and Snoopy

After a nice afternoon of visiting and the kids running wild outside dinner became the next concern. Darcy and I went to Target and shopped for the meal. We got a rather special  treat – CAKE! There wasn’t too many options but we picked out a very cute OWL cake. Boy were the kids excited about that! Of course that meant PHOTO OP! Andrew was gone to scout camp so we were actually down to 8 kids instead of the usual 9! 

Kids and cake

Cake eaten, more video games and a semi cranky baby it was time to head home to bed. So while we did NOT get to our pumpkin pie on Saturday… well no one was complaining! And we have tentative plans (IF the day IS a school holiday that is) to get together for Columbus day. Not so much to celebrate but to spend more time socializing the kids and enjoying adult company! 

I had a few completions Saturday with the crochet projects… BOTH of the Christmas dishcloths are done and ready to be used when season dictates. So my first reading of a crochet pattern was a success.  The next was a pattern suggested by a learned Facebook friend as a great and relatively simple hat! You can find the instructions HERE. I am so happy with the way the variegation turned out and how it fits. I want to buy more of the same soft yarn and make more. I will have to take pictures later to share!

Sunday marked the end of our weekend and the return of Nana and Baba from their camping trip. We spent our morning ending our homeschooling project of making pumpkin pie from scratch. Trinity and Emanuel were our chief supervisors charged with being sure Daddy put the lid on the blender BEFORE it went into the oven. All in all a DELICIOUS experiment as usual! Now Monday we start our pumpkin unit. I got an awesome combo of notebooking and lapbooking in the form of a Currclick file – you can find it HERE. 

Supervisors at work

And into the oven, I would have finished pictures but it was eaten up too quickly!!

They brought geodes with them, so we all got to enjoy the experience of cracking them open!

Uncle Joe at work

Some of the results

Later, while Ken was working on the stump removal we came upon ANOTHER toad! The kids thought it was well worth some excitement. 

Toad NOT in a hole

My big goal for the beginning of the week after school work and the same old same old is the completion of our Halloween costume to do list. The twins are so not cemented on what they want to be.

So proud of our godson!

So, something we are now terming “the curse of Ken” hit the family once again and made this blog entry first started MONDAY become a Tuesday recap. It all started with the electric company and a computer (oh how I cringe to say this as the wife of a programmer) or potentially a USER error. A bill which was delayed was paid IN FULL but someone or someTHING did not properly announce  this fact to the company in charge of the connects and disconnect tickets. (do you see where this is going).

What that means is either the stupidity of employees OR the stupidity of a flawed computer program (does that make it stupid programmers?) caused us to get home from the cupping… er I mean BLOOD WORK (seriously how much blood do they need to find out my type?), settle the family, start talking about making lunch (can you hear the ironic laughter yet?) and then… experience the VERY unwelcome silence of absolutely NO POWER. On a blustery, RAINY, not so nice Monday…

The individual in charge of the disconnect was not willing/not allowed to stick around while Ken hopped onto our blissfully CELLULAR and NON NEEDING of a local power source cell phones to call and sort it all out. Sadly this was managed 3 min. after the individual who turned of the power left. We were told it could take up to 48 hours but we SHOULD get power back Monday night (by 10pm). With small children and nothing to do we turned off what we THOUGHT were all the breakers (2) and headed out and about. An Ikea meal later and we headed back to the house to check the power situation – nothing.

Mmm meatballs!

And here is where the Monday blog entry became today’s… with it looking darker and darker in our pioneer themed domain we packed everyone up AGAIN and headed the hour away to sleep at Grandma and Mike’s. A late dinner, warm bath and bedtime snack and all 4 kids were out to the world. By midnight I had followed suit. And here is where it becomes the ultimate frustration…

Breakfast at Grandma and Mike's (Gavin left)

There was a THIRD breaker! They came by last night and could NOT turn the power on because there was a THIRD breaker… darn our non familiarity (or at least vague familiarity) with our rental! SOOOOO even with getting up at 7am (is that not the middle of the night still?), rushing out the door and hitting SNOW and ICE and WIND (is this May or December???) we were home too late to get those enrolled to the symphony safely… the weather is BAD… AND the power was still out, back onto the cell phones Ken went.

Can you see the tulips under the snow?

With all 3 breakers now OFF and kids and mommy who just wanted to stay home and watch some darn tv, we packed us back up into the trusty van and went to a nearby McDonalds that contained a play area. Lunch (how I just wanted the can of Chunky beef stew I purchased Monday morning…), some play time and a bit of patience and we headed home. We bundled the kids into blankets and books and waited… ok Ken and the kids waited and I curled up under a pile of blankets in the bedroom and took a much needed nap with the full approval of Baby #5. Which had me waking up to ecstatic kids playing in the once dark basement!! And HEAT!

At McDonalds

All this combined with a massive snow storm and the reality of living in Alberta in the spring is quite apparent, as is the reality of the “curse of Ken”… my response to all of this – can the rest of May please be a CALM and in CONTROL month?

The big question – what does this two day “adventure” mean for the Reinsch-Johnson family? Well, after our NECESSARY expenditures over and above what we wanted eating out and usage of gas we are going to be eating a lot of home-cooked meals. Not that I am complaining. The promised Baby #5 diaper bag is not to be be purchased until NEXT week and Ken has work, emails, etc. to catch up on, but we are safe and sound in our home thank goodness all with a ZERO balance??

Now… onto the original blog entry!

For a rainy Monday it was a news filled and BUSY day. Start it off with bloodtests – this time I am hoping they get ALL The information they need. TWO vials to find out blood type???

And on Facebook – my (step)sister Kathleen is officially engaged. While in Germany staying with her boyfriend who is in the army (don’t ask me what part) they made a trip to Paris on the weekend where he proposed on the Eiffel Tower. She is back in South Carolina next week I think ,where plans will be made – either this summer or next May – the jury is out on that one. Either way definitely not something as a family we can plan to make (or myself for that matter if the date becomes this summer – no flying for the pregnant woman). So we will have to send our well wishes I think. (I am not planning any concrete  trips next year until our finances are a bit more assured. Flying with a baby who is not yet one does mean we could get away with me and baby and one plane ticket… but cost… ) So exciting news for that side of the family.

Oh and news I forgot to mention last week – we are excited to announce that Ken and I are once again going to be God-parents! Baby #5 officially has a god-sibling, one that should be around 2 months older than it. This makes our total up to 3 god-children, our godson in Minnesota Anthony, god-daughter here in Alberta Isabella and Baby Perrin the first! What a blessing and a gift for us. Each of my god-babies are special to me (and Ken). Now I need to come up with some sort of special god-baby birth gift. Suggestions?

The big excitement for today that we were ABLE to make – a Free Michaels make-it take-it. This week there are a bunch of crafts for Mother’s day – though sadly MOST are buy a craft item but today’s was free. So each of the boys painted their very own clay pot. And then *I* got to sparkle modge podge them. Lots of fun, it took almost an hour to do all of it and the boys were VERY proud.

Finished hand painted pots.

Tomorrow is a catch up day for the family, two days of being virtually on the road has left the livingroom in a less than stellar situation, coupled with Ken being behind on his work and my need for TONS of sleep. So the boys will get started on their 5 Senses lapbooks, hopefully FINISH Spring/Easter completely and after we get back from our weekly H&W trip work on tasting a nice selection of apples! Thankfully I am almost 100% prepared for these two units and Ken is ready and willing to focus on his work stuff. Now if I just had something to SEW! But I am still feeling the buzz of a sampler well received so it is all good!

Cousin Katie and the now Cousin Bob

Of course the opportunity to FINALLY have a spare moment at home in the quiet coupled with a few ON SALE craft supplies I got right in on another scrapbook page!

Palm Sunday page

So not the most auspicious start to a week but we managed. I think I can happily say we are ALL looking forward to some extended time AT HOME. Especially with the not so nice weather… I would say not so spring-like but here in Alberta it IS rather par for course.